Call it counter-deflationary action. Call it an anti-double-dip dose. Call it a pro-asset-price-prop. Call it a consumer caress. One thing for sure is the Fed is running out of reasons for simply holding policy steady at already historically low rates. |
I've never been here when it hasn't blown. |
If bond yields keep rising which I think they will, then not even stocks are safe from a welcome decline in energy prices. In this case lower energy prices could prove to be a Trojan horse unleashing a problematic rise in market rates. |
So in the background, too, is the notion that if there is any move to sell the dollar, there will be central bank intervention. |
The dollar will trade with a downward bias. The market is pricing in an ECB rate hike Thursday and strong GDP report Friday. |
The U.S. economy is firing on all cylinders, and the moves can't be matched by the European Central Bank. |
There's increasing doubts (about a BOJ rate boost) due to developments in the stock market and the Sogo bankruptcy. |
What is helping the dollar is the moral persuasion of the central banks. There's been contact between the European Central Bank and national central banks that make up the ECB urging calm, urging a block on any kind of speculative trading. The Federal Reserve has also weighted in and asked that dollar trading be limited. I think that will support the currency. |