USD will struggle to make much headway - Westpac

According to Imre Speizer, Research Analyst at Westpac, USD will struggle to make much headway as growth and inflation do not warrant a hawkish Fed, and Republican Party struggles over health care reform are a foretaste of likely similar struggles on tax cuts, tax reforms or infrastructure.

Key Quotes

“There is a larger disappointment trade for US assets when the realisation dawns that Trump’s reflation policy will be heavily watered down and delayed, but that is a story for late 2017.”

“This week’s data calendar is busy in a holiday-shortened week – both ISM surveys, payrolls, FOMC minutes. There’s not a lot going for the USD right here as a growing coterie of central banks (the ECB, BoC and the BoE last week) signal a clear intent to join the policy normalisation bandwagon. Against that the Fed’s plans into year’s end are well discounted, and if anything, the risks are building for less policy normalisation if inflation remains benign.”