The end of last week and the beginning of this week have been a veritable rollercoaster in the financial markets. The volatility experienced by the currencies of developed countries during this time, especially the British pound, could be compared to the period of the Great Financial Crisis, the Brexit referendum or the pandemic hitting the financial markets.
Current overview of financial markets
Today, financial markets seem to be trying to catch their breath after the recent turmoil. The U.S. dollar seems to be slightly losing value in the broad market, which may also be caused by the phenomenon of profit realization from sudden dollar trends. As of 09:300 GMT+3 on the Conotoxia MT5 platform, the EUR/USD was up 0.57 percent to $0.9663 today. The GBP/USD rallied 1.3 percent to $1.0821, while bitcoin returned above the $20000 level, rising just under 6 percent. Stock index contracts also rebounded. The DAX rose less than 1.5 percent to 1,377 points, and the S&P500 rose 1.48 percent to 3704 points. The dollar index, on the other hand, retreated 0.65 percent to 113.57 points. It had earlier set a new peak in a multi-month trend above 114.60 points.
Source: Conotoxia MT5, USDIndex, H4
Financial markets race to peak interest rates
The market at present, seems to be outdoing itself in betting on which level and country would peak in interest rates. The British pound may come out on top due to the fact that the Bank of England might be forced to counter the British government's fiscal easing and may raise interest rates faster and more than previously expected. Currently, the market is assuming that interest rates in the UK could rise as much as 175 bps and only until November, while the market sees the peak of the cycle in the region of 6%. Meanwhile, in the US, the interest rate market is assuming that the Fed funds rate range could reach its peak in February 2023. This could be between 4.5 and 4.75 percent. Thus, the U.S. bond market may also be close to the full discount of hikes, as yields on 2-year bonds reached 4.3 percent yesterday. In the Eurozone, on the other hand, the EUR could be above 3 percent in six months. Thus, lower than the pound and the dollar, while higher than the Japanese yen. For the JPY, interest rates are expected to remain unchanged over the year, according to the market's valuation of interest rate levels.
Source: Conotoxia MT5, GBP/USD, m30
What's next for the British pound?
According to Citigroup, parity on GBP/USD looks "quite likely," as there are no clear valuation thresholds for the pound, but "I still wouldn't go so far as to say it's inevitable," Ebrahim Rahbari, global head of FX analysis at Citigroup, said on Bloomberg TV. "We are looking at parity as the next big level," he added. While conventional valuation suggests that sterling doesn't need to get much weaker, "it's really that risk premium that comes with some of the policy measures that makes it so likely that we'll drift, perhaps beyond parity." Currency troubles are unlikely to escalate into a crisis, he said, because the UK doesn't have much debt denominated in foreign currencies. He added that: "The threat of default is much less significant."
Meanwhile, Morgan Stanley has revised its forecast for the pound and now sees it reaching parity with the dollar by the end of the year, as neither currency interventions nor emergency rate hikes by the Bank of England will stop the sterling's weakening. "Recent price action suggests that the GBP is under pressure," - Morgan Stanley analysts wrote in a Monday note. The bank's previous forecast for GBP/USD was 1.02. It is now 1.00. The analysts also revised their forecast for EUR/GBP to 0.9500 by year-end from 0.9100 previously.
Daniel Kostecki, Director of the Polish branch of Conotoxia Ltd. (Conotoxia investment service)
Materials, analysis and opinions contained, referenced or provided herein are intended solely for informational and educational purposes. Personal opinion of the author does not represent and should not be constructed as a statement or an investment advice made by Conotoxia Ltd. All indiscriminate reliance on illustrative or informational materials may lead to losses. Past performance is not a reliable indicator of future results.
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