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Japanese policymakers are in the process of shifting away from negative rates and fiscal consolidation, leaving JGB yields exposed to any move to weaken the yen that could raise depressed inflation expectations.
Japan is in a liquidity trap: bad economic news is good for the yen while good economic news is bad for the yen. Chinese reflation could help risk assets in the months ahead, but poor EM fundamentals will reassert themselves later this year. The yen bull market is not over yet. The BoC was more positive on growth than anticipated. The BoE's Super Thursday was a non-event.
A weaker USD resulting from more dovish forward guidance from the Fed, and evidence of continued production declines in non-OPEC and OPEC countries will continue to buoy oil prices.
Treasuries appear overbought in the near-term, especially given evidence of a rebound in global manufacturing, but we would need to see evidence of a sustained re-synchronization of global growth before advocating a shift to below benchmark duration on a 6-12 month horizon.
These general themes - along with our assessment that markets were overestimating downside price risk and underestimating upside risks arising from supply destruction and geopolitical instability - supported the best-performing strategic recommendations we made last quarter.
Some tentative signs of life in the global manufacturing data suggest that Treasury yields have some room to move higher in the near term.
We continue to recommend a cautious investment stance, staying at benchmark duration, as the recovery in risk assets looks more like a counter-trend rally than the start of a new bullish run.
Fed dovishness is weakening the U.S. dollar. As the ECB and BoJ move to the sidelines and the Fed remains reluctant to hike rates, the euro and Japanese yen should continue to recover versus the greenback.