Aussie retraces as ASX 200 strengthens

RBA concern over the rising Australian Dollar is increasing, but whether this will motivate governor Glenn Stevens to do more than attempt to talk the market lower remains to be seen. The Aussie retraced to test its new support level, but only a fall below $0.92 would suggest a trend change. Recovery above $0.94 would suggest not, while follow-through above $0.95 would confirm a target of $0.97.

AUDUSD

The ASX 200 broke clear of its descending trendline, suggesting that the correction is over. But 21-day Twiggs Money Flow remains weak and follow-through above 5540/5560 unlikely. Further ranging between 5400 and 5550 seems likely. Reversal below 5380 is now unlikely, but would warn of a test of 5300.

ASX 200

* Target calculation: 5550 + ( 5550 – 5400 ) = 5700

ASX 200 VIX again tracked lower, indicating a bull market.

ASX 200

Aussie Dollar threatens breakout, Euro tests support

The Aussie Dollar continues to test resistance at $0.94. Recovery of 13-week Twiggs Momentum above zero suggests continuation of the up-trend, testing resistance at $0.97. Reversal below $0.92 is unlikely at present, but would warn of a decline to the band of support between $0.87 and $0.89.

Aussie Dollar

The Euro respected primary support at $1.35 and the rising long-term trendline. Recovery above $1.37 would suggest a rally to $1.39/$1.40, but descending 13-week Twiggs Momentum crossed below zero, warning of weakness. Breach of $1.35 would signal a decline to $1.31*.

Euro/USD

* Target calculation: 1.35 – ( 1.39 – 1.35 ) = 1.31

ASX 200 weakens but Aussie dollar strengthens

  • Aussie dollar strengthens.
  • Stocks weaken.
  • But ASX 200 VIX continues to indicate a bull market.

The Aussie Dollar is testing resistance at $0.94. Consolidation in a narrow band suggests continuation of the rally towards $0.97/$0.98. Recovery of 13-week Twiggs Momentum above zero suggests a primary up-trend, but we may see the RBA intervene to prevent this. They may need to follow the RBNZ, introducing macro-prudential controls (e.g. setting a maximum 80% LVR percentage), to take the steam out of the housing market while lowering interest rates to weaken the currency.

Aussie Dollar

The ASX 200 respected resistance at 5500 and is headed for a test of medium-term support at 5400. Reversal of 21-day Twiggs Money Flow below zero warns of medium-term selling pressure and a correction. Breach of 5400 is likely and would test support at 5300 and the rising trendline. Respect of 5400 is unlikely, but would suggest another rally to 5550.

ASX 200

* Target calculation: 5550 + ( 5550 – 5400 ) = 5700

ASX 200 VIX below 12, however, continues to indicate low risk typical of a bull market.

ASX 200

Five drivers point to more Australian dollar falls | | MacroBusiness

Greg McKenna (House & Holes) at Macrobusiness explains why the Aussie Dollar is falling:

Recently I posted that MB’s five drivers model for the Australian dollar was pointing lower. The dollar broke lower last night and appears biased for more. The five drivers are:

  • interest rate differentials;
  • global and Australian growth (more recently this has become more nuanced for the Aussie to be more about Chinese growth);
  • investor sentiment and technicals; and
  • the US dollar

Read more at Five drivers point to more Australian dollar falls | | MacroBusiness.

ASX 200 stalls as Aussie Dollar retreats

The Aussie Dollar retreated from resistance at $0.91. Breakout below primary support at $0.885 against the greenback would warn of a primary decline, with a long-term target of $0.81*. Follow-through below $0.865 would confirm. Recent Twiggs Momentum peaks below zero also indicate a primary down-trend. Respect of primary support and recovery above $0.91 is unlikely, but would suggest that a bottom is forming.

Aussie Dollar

* Target calculation: 0.89 – ( 0.97 – 0.89 ) = 0.81

The ASX 200 is consolidating below resistance at 5450, waiting for a lead from US markets. Bearish divergence on 13-week Twiggs Money Flow suggests long-term selling pressure, but completion of a large trough above zero (TMF recovery above 30%) would change this. Breakout above 5450 would signal an advance to 5800*. Reversal below 5400, however, would warn of another correction.

ASX 200

* Target calculation: 5400 + ( 5400 – 5000 ) = 5800

ASX 200 VIX below 15 indicates low risk typical of a bull market.

ASX 200 hits resistance

After a healthy start to the day, the ASX ran into poor Flash Manufacturing PMI out of China. The Aussie Dollar fell through 90 cents, suggesting another test of 87 (US cents).

Aussie Dollar

The ASX 200 faces strong resistance at 5400 to 5450. Rising 21-day Money Flow indicates medium-term buying pressure and breakout above 5450 would confirm a primary advance. But reversal below 5400 would warn of another correction; follow-through below 5350 would confirm.

ASX 200

* Target calculation: 5350 + ( 5350 – 5050 ) = 5650

Australian disease will be one for the text books | Macrobusiness.com.au

From Houses & Holes
at 9:01am on December 10, 2013:

While the nation continues to debate whether we should let this business go or bail out that business, the real issue continues to be ignored. Indeed it is so far off the radar that cheap shot commentators like Michael Pascoe can make wise cracks about it while the economy burns.

But it’s not funny. It’s not even a little bit amusing. Australians are being slaughtered by emerging markets; gutted by the Japanese; truncated by the Americans and butchered by the Europeans.

I am talking about the global currency war that we are comprehensively losing while having our backs turned.

Qantas, Graincorp, Holden, Electrolux. These are all iconic Australian businesses that have absolutely no reason to fail. Two are virtual monopolies that should be making money on a conveyor belt. The third and fourth are high tech industries that should be tailor made for a smart, developed economy.

But instead all four are failing  because they can’t compete with leaner and meaner foreign operations.

Qantas can’t get cheap enough finance and has no access to cheap fuel the way Middle Eastern airlines do. Graincorp is saddled with out-dated infrastructure and can’t seem to raise the capital to renovate itself despite a supposed “dining boom”. Detroit has confessed that Holden is being pulled out owing to a structurally higher dollar and labour costs. Electrolux is the same.

Metals refining, surely an area in which we should have a distinct advantage, is also failing, with last week’s Gove refinery the latest casualty. Processed food exports haven’t grown since 2005 while raw agricultural foodstuffs have jumped. We’ve already lost half of our petrol refining capacity. The Productivity Commission nails all three for dragging down productivity growth owing to high wages, low investment and idle capacity (read the dollar):

dfbsbd

As these various businesses pack up their kits, our manufacturing sector is headed for an unbelievable 5% of GDP, by far the lowest in the OECD (making Luxembourg look like an industrial powerhouse) and approaching or past a point at which the inability to produce material for ourselves is also a strategic risk.

Most disconcerting of all is that this is transpiring as we head into a great reckoning in the wider economy. The mining boom is ending, its fabulous capital wave is subsiding, its huge ramp up in employment is ebbing, and over the next three years it will recede as fast as any business investment correction in the last one hundred years. We’ve plenty more gas but are too expensive to extract it. Perth’s Magnolia LNG is headed to Louisiana to produce gas there instead.

The plan to build more unproductive houses to fill the void is a classic kick of the can, adding to capex briefly but adding nothing to productive capacity.  In the mean time it keeps our wages and interest rate structure temporarily high and makes the underlying problem worse.

The prospects for productive Australian industry are waning daily. Yet the dollar is still sitting at 90 cents, boosted by the same countries’ central banks that are feasting on our production, and pouring Dutch disease into our ears while we sit back and debate which business is worth saving.

The issue is not who do we bail out. It is how do we reverse the trend of uncompetitiveness that is sweeping everything offshore that is not buried in, or cemented into, the ground. The currency must be actively lowered or it will only drop when the economy does, leaving us bereft of a rebound.

Australian disease is entering its terminal phase, and boy, is it going to be one for the text books.

Reproduced with permission from Macrobusiness.com.au

Forex: Aussie breakout

The Euro is consolidating in a narrow band below $1.36. Upward breakout above $1.37 would signal a fresh advance, with a long-term target of $1.47*. The trough above zero on 13-week Twiggs Momentum indicates a healthy up-trend. Failure of support at $1.34 — and penetration of the rising trendline — is unlikely, but would warn of another correction.

Euro/USD

* Target calculation: 1.37 + ( 1.37 – 1.27 ) = 1.47

Sterling broke short-term support at €1.18, warning of another correction to primary support at €1.14. Recovery of 13-week Twiggs Momentum above zero continues to favor a primary up-trend. Breakout above resistance at €1.20 is unlikely, but would signal an advance to €1.24*.

Sterling/Euro

* Target calculation: 1.19 + ( 1.19 – 1.14 ) = 1.24

The greenback respected support against the Japanese Yen at ¥96. Breakout above ¥101 would signal another advance. Declining 13-week Twiggs Momentum, however, continues to warn of a weak up-trend and breach of support at ¥96 would indicate a reversal.

USD/JPY

* Target calculation: 96 – ( 100 – 96 ) = 92

Canada’s Loonie respected support at $0.96, suggesting another attempt at resistance of $0.9750. Breakout would complete a double-bottom reversal with a target of parity*. Bullish divergence on 13-week Twiggs Momentum also favors a primary up-trend. Reversal below $0.96 is unlikely, but would signal another test of the primary level at $0.9450.

Canadian Loonie

* Target calculation: 97.5 + ( 97.5 – 94.5 ) = 100.5

The Aussie Dollar broke through resistance at $0.95, signaling an advance to $0.97*. Retracement to test the new support level at $0.95 is likely. Respect would confirm the primary advance; failure of support — though unlikely — would warn of another test of $0.93.

Aussie Dollar

* Target calculation: 0.95 + ( 0.95 – 0.93 ) = 0.97

Against its Kiwi neighbour, the Aussie Dollar respected resistance at $1.14, suggesting another test of primary support at $1.12. Bullish divergence on 13-week Twiggs Momentum, however, continues to favor a primary up-trend. Recovery above $1.14 — and the descending trendline — would signal a test of primary resistance at $1.16. Breakout above $1.16 would complete a double-bottom reversal with a target of $1.20*. Until then, breach of primary support remains a threat and would warn of a decline to $1.08*.

Kiwi Dollar

* Target calculations: 1.12 – ( 1.16 – 1.12 ) = 1.08

Has Australia hit the floor with interest rates?

Izabella Kaminska made a strong argument on FT Alphaville last year for the RBA to lower interest rates and weaken the Australian Dollar to protect manufacturing and export industries:

Australia’s current account deficit coupled with a deeply negative net external debt position both provide strong fundamental impetus for currency weakening. Should the RBA want to engineer currency depreciation, lower interest rates are likely to be more than enough. Indeed, even if interest rates decline only gradually to reflect a structurally slowing economy there are plenty of fundamental reasons for the Australian dollar to weaken.

The case for lower interest rates still holds true but the RBA is obviously concerned by signs of recovery in housing prices that could exacerbate the existing property bubble. Robert Gottliebsen at Business Spectator reports:

In less than three months the market price of a bottom of the range Meriton inner-Sydney apartment has risen 6 per cent from about $500,000 to around $530,000……According to Meriton’s Harry Triguboff, local buyers have jumped from 15 to 40 per cent of the market.

There is a solution. The RBA can lower interest rates provided it simultaneously introduces macroprudential steps similar to those being considered by the RBNZ: increase the amount of capital banks must set aside to cover potential losses from high loan to valuation ratio (LVR) home loans. That would make high LVR loans more expensive and discourage property speculation, taking some of the heat out of the housing market.

Australia: RBA should emulate the Swiss

Australia is suffering a similar fate to Switzerland, where the Swiss Franc soared against the Euro during the Eurozone sovereign debt crisis. Flight to safety caused the Franc to rocket, threatening local manufacturing industry. Exporters were priced out of international markets while imports were undercutting local suppliers. The Swiss National Bank (SNB) did not sit on its hands but pledged to maintain an effective currency peg against the Euro. Catherine Bosley at Bloomberg writes:

The Swiss central bank pledged to keep up its defense of the franc cap after almost doubling its currency holdings to shield the country from the fallout caused by the euro zone’s crisis.

The Swiss National Bank cut its forecasts for inflation and said it will take all necessary measures to keep the “high” franc within the limit of 1.20 per euro……

The SNB, led by President Thomas Jordan, put the ceiling in place in September 2011 after investors pushed the franc close to parity with the euro and threatened to choke off growth. The central bank’s campaign to defend the cap has led to foreign currency holdings ballooning to more than 400 billion francs, almost three quarters of annual output. It spent 188 billion francs on interventions last year, 10 times the 2011 amount.

Australia’s position is in some ways even worse than Switzerland. Not only do international investors increasingly view the Australian Dollar as a safe haven, with higher bond yields and a stable economy, but booming mining exports have caused a bad case of Dutch Disease — rising exports killing local manufacturing and service industries such as tourism and education.

Bulk Commodity Exports

While not suggesting that the RBA accumulate huge holdings of greenbacks and euros — these are depreciating currencies, with central banks engaged in widespread QE — but the idea of a sovereign wealth fund is appealing. Investing in international equities is a risky business that would cause most central bankers to tremble, but sovereign wealth funds have been successfully run by Norway, China, Abu Dhabi, Saudi Arabia, Singapore and others. Far safer than international equities would be to buy Australian international debt, targeting the roughly $400 billion owed to foreign investors by major Australian banks.

Net Foreign Liabilities

The appeal would be two-fold: eliminate currency risk while generating a stable return on investment.

Printing more dollars, whether you spend them locally or offshore, will normally increase inflation risk. But with high local savings rates and slowing rates of debt growth, deflationary pressures are rising. The only real inflationary pressure is from higher oil prices. So the RBA has room to maneuver.

A weaker Australian dollar would make exporters more competitive and rescue local manufacturers from international competition. Tourism and education, formerly major export earners, would hopefully recover from the belting they have taken in recent years. Miners would also not complain as a weaker dollar would boost profit margins.
Read more at SNB Keeps Up Franc Defense as Euro Crisis Risks Persist – Bloomberg.