Yesterday the Nasdaq hit the 10% corrective level and had a nice bounce to close positive yesterday and up 77 points this morning... S+P also had a nice move overnight bouncing about 25 points off its overnight low to be up 15 points... Both GS and UBS made positive equity comments... Today we have Powell being grilled for his confirmation hearing... Expect to see some push-back from the recent Clarida resignation, two weeks early due to equity trading, but we expect Powell to be easily confirmed and the questions from Senators more towards fighting inflation.
Fed speakers... Bostic started us out overnight with multiple headlines about starting raising rates as soon as March with every meeting being a live one... That caused the curve to flatten, on top of yesterday's flattening move... We still think the Fed will use the balance sheet to keep the curve steeper than it is currently...5 years have taken the brunt of selling, up 28 basis from the start of the year, which is only 7 trading days... 10 years remain in the 1.70-1.80 range for now... But we expect that to give out. As far as Fed speakers today besides Powell, you have two hawks, Mester and George, and one Super Hawk, which is Bullard... Pressure on flattening will remain as the short base in the long end of rates seems to be over their skis for the moment.
Rates...Leveraged accounts , like CTA's, are among the most bearishly positioned in bonds than they have been in years, according to Nomura's Quant Analyst Charlie McElligott. " the aggregate $Notional across the aggregate G10 bond positions is now greater than 2 standard deviation rank (IE very net short) dating all the way back to 2002" . Translated this means that while everyone knows the Fed is ending tapering, raising rates, and going to reduce their balance sheet, the straight line move is now going to be tougher... Too many shorts in the pie means we could get a move back in the long end in 10 years to 1.62, and long bonds to 2%.., we saw two strong moves in 10 years above 1.80 yesterday, which could not be sustained... So while Not a prediction, just a warning about a reversal...but for 5 years we see a 1.49-1.62 range... 10 years 1.625 to 1.92 range... But it will remain volatile... And with the 5/30's curve reversing in the last few days from 71, we can now see it get to 49.
Corporate spreads are better this morning with the uptick in equities... Yesterday 10 borrowers priced 12.2 billion of issuance.. Paying 5 basis in concessions... One borrower stood down and will revisit today... Corporate bond market remains healthy for now... The TLT Etf, which is a 20+ year treasury ETF, saw the second largest outflow since March 2020, the height of the panic.
We expect to see choppiness remain in both the rates space and the equity space... We do not think the worst is over for either...but the Fed is going to be Hawkish for this quarter...