Martin Enlund Eye-Opener: Eurogroup discusses bridge financing while Tsipras faces a revolt Nordea Research, 14 July 2015

US retail data and inflation prints from UK and Sweden Holland’s Dijsselbloem won vote to continue as Eurogroup president Greek bridge financing to be decided before Wednesday morning Recap

Markets are calm overnight, with the S&P500 future some 0.2% higher since yesterday evening. Asian markets are mostly in the green. US yields are mostly unchanged across the board – the US 30y yield is up 1bp, but that is about it. Oil prices are somewhat lower (-1.2%). In the FX space, EUR/USD is somewhat (-0.1%) weaker around 1.10. AUD/USD is the biggest mover, gaining 0.5% since yesterday on surprisingly strong business confidence.

The Eurogroup yesterday asked experts to prepare options of bridge financing for Greece to stave off a Grexit while ESM negotiations take place. Greece needs about EUR 7bn by next Monday to meet the payments to the ECB and the IMF. The ESM negotiations are likely to take at least four weeks. The Eurogroup are to decide on bridge financing method late tonight or early Wednesday morning. Options include issuing debt certificates, reactivating the EFSM, using Eurosystem profits or provide Greece money via bilateral loans from e.g. France.

Holland’s Dijsselbloem also won the vote to continue as Eurogroup president, ahead of Spain’s DeGuindos. In short, Germany’s Chancellor Merkel has now not only betrayed her promise to UK’s PM Cameron to prevent Juncker from becoming head of the European Commission, now she has also let down Spain’s PM Rajoy. nexus.nordea.com/research Elsewhere there is plenty of media coverage on how Greece’s Prime Minister Tsipras faces a revolt within Syriza. A government reshuffle is in the cards to get the Troika-required legalisation in place.

Yesterday

Just to remind everyone: there is no bailout in place yet, there is hope of a bailout as an “agreekment” has been reached, but things can still go wrong. That is why the ECB didn’t increase the Emergency Liquidity Assistance yet. They will probably do it on Wednesday or Thursday. Until then, the Greek parliament will have extremely busy days to pass reform legislation. One wonders how laws on complicated issues can be drafted so fast, but maybe troika officials lend a helping hand again.

By reducing uncertainty, the deal with Greece increases the probability of a Fed rate hike in September (our call). Day ahead

The data focus will today be on June retail sales in the US, which we expect will continue to show a pick-up of US growth momentum in Q2, after the strong May print. For June the consensus forecast is a solid 0.4% increase in control sales (which filter into GDP and exclude autos, gasoline and building materials) and 0.3% in overall retail sales.

From the Euro area, we will get industrial production (probably a small plus in May) and from Germany ZEW expectations that we expect to be slightly down.

Our forecast for UK CPI inflation in June is 0.2% m/m and 0.1% y/y, as in May. For Sweden, by contrast, we expect the y/y CPI rate to go down, with a slight fall in the index m/ m, while it rose 0.2% m/m in June last year. The differences in the month-on-month change are, among other things, attributable to our forecast of lower clothing and footwear prices as well as lower energy prices. Looking ahead, we see CPIF inflation rising in the second half of the year and around year-end, but it will only hit 2% for a month or two. So the challenges for the Riksbank remain.

nexus.nordea.com/research Click here for full calendar

Rates

Risk on after the Greek agreement early Monday morning had German bond yields rising and yields in the peripheral markets the Euro-zone falling. But the pattern changed during the day as uncertainty returned whether or not Greece will be able to pass all the required reforms no later than Wednesday.

The German 10-year bond yield closed the day not up but down by 4bp at 0.85% while the Italian 10-year yield ended the day down by 3bp at 2.11%. Hence, the Italian-German 10-year spread ended the day at 124bp, marginally wider on the day.

The US 10-year Treasury yield closed up by 2bp at 2.435% and the yield is approaching the highs of June near the 2.50% mark – a level the US 10-year yield has not been decisively above since last October. Today focus turns to US retail sales but it will be tomorrow’s important speech from Fed Chairman Yellen that could be decisive for bond yields the next couple of weeks if not months. Still a strong retail sales report would add to the upward momentum but probably not be strong enough to lift the 10-year yield above 2.50%.

FX

The initial reaction in the FX market after the Greek agreement was a stronger euro. EUR/USD moved from 1.11 nexus.nordea.com/research to 1.12 but the rise was brief. The rest of the day saw EUR/ USD move all the way down to around 1.1000. It seems as some investors are quick to shift focus from Greece to the likelihood of US rate hike later this year. And the latter will grab market attention today with release of US retail sales. A strong report should see EUR/USD test last week’s low around 1.0950.

The Swedish krona could be in for some movement this morning as Swedish inflation is on the agenda. But volume is thin due to the summer holiday season and we did see last week with the Norwegian krone what at surprising release can do to a small currency. And like NOK the risk for the SEK this morning seems to be on the upside as expectations are low – we expect the inflation rate to drop to -0.1%. Hence, an outcome in a positive territory would trigger a sharp rise of the SEK.

A weaker euro has dragged EUR/NOK lower but a lower oil price can slow or stop a further fall of EUR/NOK. The NOK has received quite a boost from the much higher than expected CPI last week but a rather light Norwegian calendar this will leave the oil price as a strong driver for the NOK in the short term. After hitting 9.10 last week the EUR/NOK is back below 8.90 but a move below 8.80 will be difficult without a rise of the oil price.

Read more about our financial forecasts here.

nexus.nordea.com/research Chart of the day: We expect a solid increase in US retail sales

nexus.nordea.com/research

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