Interest rates on US federal government debt have declined significantly in recent months. With the yield on 10-year Treasuries at 2.1%, the Federal government’s cost of borrowing has fallen to the lowest level since September 2017. President Donald Trump is bound to be pleased. The supremacy of the dollar offers him the privilege of being able to widen the deficit almost endlessly, at a time when the appetite for US Treasuries seems to be inexhaustible. Yet the stronger demand for Treasuries is also a warning signal: it indicates that investors are seeking safe havens as they form more cautious expectations. In the United States, the decline in yields is also a faithful indicator of a deterioration in the business climate.
Import tariffs have a negative impact on the targeted country. Retaliation will in turn have negative consequences for the country which started the tariff hikes. Even in the absence of retaliation, there will be negative consequences. Household spending will suffer from a loss of spending power due to an increase in inflation following higher import prices and/or a switch to domestically produced goods. For the same reason, aggregate corporate profits may suffer. Companies may also cut back their investment because of increased uncertainty. Empirical research confirms these outcomes.
According to Jerome Powell, the fundamentals supporting the US economy remain solid. First quarter growth has been robust but underlying concerns about the quality of growth have emerged. Growth has benefitted from a drop in imports and rising inventory levels while residential investment acted as a drag. In the coming months, imports should rebound and inventories should witness a scale back. The onus will fall on consumer spending and corporate investment to neutralise the effects of these anticipated headwinds on growth.
The first quarter turned out to be strong after all. The just released first estimate for first quarter GDP showed an annualised quarter over quarter increase of 3.2%, ahead of the consensus number of +2.3% and better than the previous quarter (+2.2%). Data released earlier this month had suggested that March looked good though not great.
Although losing steam, the economic activity in the US is seen keeping on a rather dynamic path in 2019. The International Monetary Fund still forecasts a 2.3% increase in GDP this year, while delivering an increasingly cautious message in the meantime. The IMF recently pointed out several risk factors, including the record high corporate debt ratio, the opacity and less stringent standards on the leveraged loan market, and stretched equity market valuations. Moreover, the inversion of the yield curve is virtually complete, which in the past has always been an early-warning sign of recession.
President Trump has argued that the US economy would get a boost if the Federal Reserve were to cut rates. The minutes of the FOMC show the members are confident about the growth outlook. The outlook for inflation, against a background of global uncertainties, allows them to be patient in terms of policy. The IMF in its latest Global Financial Stability Report expresses concern about how high debt levels weigh on the resilience when faced with significantly slower growth or higher borrowing costs. This implies that Fed policy will not only be confidently patient but also patiently vigilant.
At year-end 2018, auto loans outstanding peaked at US 1,274 billion in the United States. This is the third largest debt category for American households, behind mortgage loans (67%) and student loans (11%). At 9% of total loans outstanding, their weight has increased constantly since 2010. The Federal Reserve Bank of New York recently released unpublished data broken down by lending sector. In Q3 2018, non-bank finance companies originated 12% of loans outstanding, half of which were subprime loans*. These auto finance companies, which are generally highly leveraged, remain highly exposed to credit risk (only 17% of loans outstanding are securitized)
Since 20 March, American banks have been making overnight transactions with base money at higher rates than the US Federal Reserve pays on their current accounts. At a time of abundant central bank reserves (compared to pre-crisis standards), this unusual structure for money market rates comes as a surprise. This rate structure reflects the tensions on central bank liquidity over the past year, in terms of both demand (driven up by new liquidity requirements) and supply (squeezed by a more attractive repo market). Without an intensification of transactions in the interbank market, the Fed is unlikely to change its decision to continue reducing its balance sheet through the end of September
The growth projections of the FOMC members have been revised downwards and the unemployment projection has seen an upward revision. The projections for the federal funds rate (the “dots”) have dropped 50 basis points. The Fed chairman considers the outlook to remain favourable, adding that it is a great time to be patient. Markets are less upbeat. They interpret patience as an underlying concern about downside risks and price a rate cut in the course of next year. We expect the policy rate to stay at its current level, this year and next.
On 1 February, Senate Banking Commission Chairman Mike Crapo outlined his proposal for reforming the US mortgage market. The proposal starts from the widely held position that although public guarantees are essential in ensuring a liquid and stable mortgage market, the Federal government should not be the sole party exposed to payment default risk. The Ginnie Mae securitisation model of multiple originators and multiple issuers* would be widely replicated, but only the private sector would participate in credit enhancement. Ginnie Mae would provide its guarantee (the government guarantee) to securitisations backed by loans covered by approved private guarantors. Credit risk transfer programmes would be reinforced for “non-extreme” credit risk
In the United States, positive cyclical surprises have become rare: employment figures and the ISM purchasing managers’ index were the only statistics that surpassed expectations in January. Yet these are solid indicators. Moreover, although industrial output and retail sales were disappointing, they were probably caused by poor weather conditions (extreme cold wave) or temporary factors (government shutdown). For the moment, the US economy still seems to be poised for a smooth landing.
Although US growth remains strong, global headwinds, softer survey data and tighter financial conditions have put the FOMC in risk management mode. Policy remains data dependent, but a patient stance will be adopted before deciding on the next move in monetary policy. Inflation, which remains well under control, facilitates this wait-and-see attitude. Markets are now pricing in a policy easing in the course of 2020. More than anything else, this shows to which extent uncertainty has taken its toll on confidence.
Geared towards the wealthiest households, President Trump’s tax cuts have not exactly matched the America First agenda. A famous foreign car brand, which can be identified by the small statue on the front hood, has just announced record high US sales for the year 2018. And it is not the only winner. By fuelling demand at a time when the economy was already operating at its potential, American policy resulted in a widespread increase in imports and a huge trade deficit. It is now at a record high at almost USD 900 billion. Higher trade barriers did not really help, as the deficit widened primarily with China. *Read also Chart of the Week published on 10 October 2018
The assumption that the US economy is heading for a landing is gaining ground, not just because of the shutdown. The disruption created by the trade war with China, the appreciation of risk on bond and equity markets, the peaking of the energy sector and the deterioration of real estate indices all suggest less buoyant growth. This view is shared by the US Federal Reserve, which has adopted a more cautious tone and suspended the increase in policy rates pending future macroeconomic data.
In 2014, the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) adopted reforms to limit the scope of US constant net asset value money market funds. Money market funds that until then were invested in private debt (prime funds) had to abandon this model while funds that were invested in public debt (government funds) retained the ability to provide a guarantee to investors that they would recover all of their original investment*. Starting in October 2015, the reforms have led to a massive reallocation of cash from prime funds to government funds. Foreign banks, traditional borrowers of prime funds, were deprived access to US dollars while the US Treasury and federal agencies attracted fund inflows. Part of these fund inflows has been lent to US banks
Fed chairman Powell has recently emphasized that the FOMC will be patient given the muted inflation reading and that it is ready to shift the policy stance swiftly if required. He also considers that financial markets are pricing in downside risks well ahead of the data. This means that they are too pessimistic on growth. Professional forecasters' estimates of the probability of entering into recession in the coming quarters do not display the typical pre-recession dynamics either.