CitiFX | Strategy Market Commentary | CitiFX Strategy Weekly | September 20, 2012 CitiFX Strategy Weekly Head of G10 Strategy In this week’s issue: Steven Englander 1-212-723-3211 • G10 Focus – Reserve managers: Re-enter the dragons
[email protected] – The diversification trade has been quiet for a year. Slower reserve inflows and a Head of CEEMEA Strategy stronger USD made sitting on reserves an attractive strategy in H2 2011 and H1 2012. Wike Groenenberg But this is now changing. QE3 and other G4 liquidity expansion will accelerate reserve 44-20-7986-3287 growth, and overweight USD positions in reserve portfolios are not attractive when
[email protected] USD is under pressure. If reserves growth picks up, we expect reserve managers to reluctantly buy some EUR to offset rising USD reserves concentration Head of Latam Strategy Dirk Willer • G10 Focus – Japan’s political inclination towards a weaker JPY 1-212-723-1016 – We believe the LDP will win the upcoming general election, ousting the DPJ from
[email protected] power. An LDP administration will be more interested than the DPJ in additional monetary easing to depreciate the JPY. This is likely regardless who wins the LDP’s Head of Technical Strategy presidential race. Tom Fitzpatrick 1-212-723-1344 • G10 – Wind down to the 4th quarter
[email protected] – Markets remain modestly buoyant in the wake of OMT and QE3 but it is unclear how behind-benchmark investors will react in to quarter end and beyond. Key themes for the immediate week include upcoming Asian data, the Spanish election and looking Bloomberg ahead to the October ECB.