Treasury Market Preview by Trade the News Staff
- In focus today are the releases of CPI for Dec., Initial Jobless Claims and Continuing Claims as well as Housing Starts and Building Permits for Dec. and the Philly Fed Index for Jan. CPI is expected to have risen 0.4%, while CPI ex-food and energy is seen up 0.2%. Jobless Claims are expected to be 314K and Continuing Claims are seen rising to 2.438M from 2.428M. Housing Starts are expected to have fallen to 1.565M from 1.588M and Building Permits to have declined to 1.505M from 1.513M. Finally, the Philly Fed Index is seen rising to +3.1 from -2.3. In Fed speak, Bernanke will testify before the Senate Budget Committee at 10:00 a.m. Bies speaks later at 7:15 p.m. on the economic outlook.
- Fed Poole spoke after the close last night on the economic outlook. He said that the Fed is well position on rates, though he does not now which way rates will move next. Additionally, Poole said that he sees GDP growth this year between 2.5% and 3.0%. As for inflation, he commented that it is still on the high side and would like to see it between 1 and 2%. Finally, on housing, Poole said that he is unsure whether the housing market has bottomed out and is wary of further weakness.
- The WSJ wrote today that with crude prices retreating, oil producers will have less wealth to spread around the world. Consequently, this should mean lower energy prices and lower inflation, but not necessarily a drop in interest rates because less petrodollars from oil producing countries will go into foreign financial assets such as U.S. Treasuries.
- In new supply, the Treasury will be announcing today the amount of a 20Y Tips auction scheduled for next week on the 23rd. In corporate supply, Bear Stearns will sell 5Y senior notes as soon as today. The notes will be a mix of floaters and fixed notes.
- In European economic news, the French current account deficit narrowed more than expected in Nov. to EUR2.964B from EUR4.918B. In Germany, the HWWI research institute increased its 2007 GDP forecast for Germany to 1.7% from 1.1%. This follows news yesterday that the German government will increase its growth view to above 1.4%. Elsewhere, the ECB released its montly report for January. It was largely unchanged from the December report with the ECB reiterating that monetary policy remains accommodative and that the risks to the CPI outlook are on the upside, echoing Trichet's remarks from his news conference following the ECB's last rate announcment. In other European economic news, BOE MPC member, Besley, commented that the strength in the U.K. services sector may push wages higher because of a shortage of skilled labor and that services is probably fueling inflation. Besley added that the BOE minutes, which will be released on January 24th, will show concern on upside risks for CPI.
- In Japan, the BOJ decided to leave its overnight rate unchanged at 0.25%. Interestingly, the vote was split 6-3. In its accompanying report, the BOJ left its assessment for the economy unchanged, noting that CPI is weaker than forecasted in October. BOJ Governor, Fukui, reiterated overnight that there is no pre-determined timing for interest rte hikes and that acknowledged that recent economic data has been mixed.
- At 8:10 the 30Y futures is down 3 ticks at 110 15/32, the 10Y future is down 1 ½ ticks at 106 30/32 and the 2Y future is down ½ tick at 101 26/32.