The MUFG Global Markets Podcast

Lee Hardman, Senior Currency Analyst, and Abdul-Ahad Lockhart, Currency Analyst, discuss how President Trump’s decisions on trade policy have been impacting the FX market this week. Did the BoE’s latest policy update change their outlook for the pound?
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George Goncalves, Head of Macro Strategy in the Americas, summarizes and recaps our monthly titled Risk-Off Flashpoint (Now in Focus), where in our special topic cover labor market dynamics and demographics. Furthermore, George discusses what to expect from this all-important NFP number on Friday. We conclude with what to look out for before the March Fed meeting and what will be influential for US fixed income.

This week draws to a close with a 25% trade tariff set to be implemented on Canada and Mexico. Derek Halpenny, Head of Research Global Markets EMEA & International Securities talks to Jack Greenslade, UK, Ireland, Swiss & ME FX Sales, about the FX implications of Trump going ahead with these tariffs over the weekend. Derek also covers the FX implications of the Fed and ECB meeting this week, looks ahead to the BoE policy meeting next week and discusses the strong performance of the yen and what lies ahead.
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George Goncalves, Head of Macro Strategy in the Americas, discusses our outlook for the Fed’s first meeting of 2025, in which we believe the Committee should be “defiantly data dependent” and keep rates on hold. We focus on our base case that Powell will deliver a neutral message, but also discuss risks around that view. We conclude with our expectations for how markets will trade in the coming weeks.

Lee Hardman, Senior Currency Analyst, and James Roulston, FX Institutional Sales, discuss the outlook for the USD at the start of Trump’s second term. Will the Fed’s policy update trigger another leg lower for the USD in the week ahead?
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At the end of the week Chris Jakubowski, Head of Hedge Fund FX Sales sits down with Derek Halpenny, Head of Research Global Markets EMEA & International Securities to discuss the key events in the week ahead and how the FX markets may respond. There are high expectations of Trump announcing trade tariffs under Executive Order along with many other policy announcements that could prompt further US dollar gains. How much further can the dollar advance from here? Are the Gilt market concerns overblown? And will the BoJ deliver another hike as it has suggested this week is likely?
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Lee Hardman, Senior Currency Analyst, and Simon Mayes, Head of UK, Ireland and Switzerland, Corporate Sales, discuss what has been behind in the sharp sell-off in global bond markets over the past week. How has the FX market been impacted by rising government borrowing costs?
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George Goncalves, Head of Macro Strategy in the Americas, summarizes our key themes that will impact the US macro and market landscape in 2025. We focus on what are the potential US economic scenarios ahead, how to think about “Trump 2.0” and what will be the role of the Fed in 2025.  We conclude by reviewing our base-case versus bull/bear scenarios for US fixed income.

In this final MUFG Global Markets Week Ahead podcast of 2024, Derek Halpenny, Head of Research Global Markets EMEA & International Securities talks to Jack Greenslade UK, Ireland & Swiss Corporate Sales about the US dollar following the final FOMC meeting of the year on Wednesday and about the outlook for the dollar as we approach the beginning of 2025. Derek and Jack cover Trump policies, his ability to trigger US dollar depreciation, the BoJ and the outlook for the yen.
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Lloyd Chan, Senior Currency Analyst at MUFG Global Markets Research Asia, speaks this week about the growth and FX implications on ASEAN economies in 2025 under a second Trump presidency.
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Michael Wan, Senior Currency Analyst with MUFG Global Markets Research Asia discusses two key themes, the possible outperformers, PHP and INR, and also how Trump 2.0 will likely focus on the Chinese-linked supply chain this time around and thereby impact Vietnam. 
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Lin Li, Head of MUFG Global Markets Research Asia, discusses the status of the Chinese economy, the levers to stimulate China's growth in 2025, and implication of Trump’s tariffs on Chinese economy, USD/CNY pair and its ripple effects on Asian peers.
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Lin Li, Head of MUFG Global Markets Research Asia, discusses main themes governing Asia FX movements and the Asia FX outlook for 2025. Lin highlights the possible impact of Trump's trade policies and tariffs on Chinese and Asian economies and Asia FX, as well as implications of Fed's easing cycle and semiconductor cycle.
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Lee Hardman, Senior Currency Analyst, and Simon Mayes, Head of UK, Ireland and Switzerland, Corporate Sales, discuss what has been driving a stronger USD over the past week.Will the policy pledge from China to provide more support for growth help dampen USD strength?   
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After the release of the US jobs report for November Derek Halpenny, Head of Research Global Markets EMEA & International Securities talks to Chris Jakubowski, Head of Hedge Fund FX Institutional Sales about the impact of the jobs report on Fed rate cut expectations and the US dollar. Derek and Chris also discuss the upcoming ECB meeting next week and the impact of BoJ Governor Ueda’s comments this week in a Nikkei interview. Was this interview the BoJ prepping the market for a December rate hike and what would that mean for the yen?
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Lee Hardman, Senior Currency Analyst, and Seiko Kataoka-Fisher, Director from Japanese Customer Sales for EMEA in London, discuss what has been driving USD/JPY lower over the past week. Will the BoJ hike rates before the end of this year?
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This week George Goncalves, MUFG Head of U.S. Macro Strategy, walks us through some of the key topics and our views from the November monthly report, US Macro2Markets Outlook: Markets feel adrift post-election, now what?
George reiterates the house call that the Fed will likely deliver another 25bp cut for 2024, bringing the total to 100bps of cuts for this past year. We think since this is the last 25bp remaining cut, that was part of the September SEP forecast, why skip it. Furthermore, the FOMC minutes were dovish and flagged that market functioning is now in focus (with the Fed thinking about reducing the RRP rate by 5bps) why skip at year-end and create unnecessary volatile during an illiquid period for broader markets. Not to mention skipping now could come off as political since its in their forecasts from before the election outcome. The only way the Fed does not deliver a cut is if the NFP data meaningfully beats expectations and the prior weak reports get revised higher. We are skeptical that the latest NFP report will be strong given that the data collection period was during the election week when the focus was elsewhere for most in the US. And let’s not forget recent labor market trends have been decelerating.  
Further afield we believe the Fed will cut another 75bps in 2025, where we expect them to skip in January after the inauguration, and then cut once per quarter in March, June, and September bringing rates into the upper 3% levels. We note that there are many different possible Fed rate paths once we get past mid-2025, as there are a variety of Trump policies that could alter the economic landscape. If the economy were to weaken and not respond as quickly to Trump’s pro-growth policies, or worse, the tariffs and immigration policies lead to reduced growth, our bias is for the Fed to cut more. We expect the full interest rates curve to steepen, starting in Q1-2025 (with the 2yr reacting to the Fed still in cutting mode) and continue through the end of the year, as the focus shifts to how the US will allocate and fund US Treasury debt. How the US handles the deficit and debt ahead will also be a main focus of the incoming new Treasury Secretary.

The US dollar has had another move stronger this week and Derek Halpenny, Head of Research Global Markets EMEA & International Securities talks to Jack Greenslade UK, Ireland, Swiss & ME FX Corporate Sales, about the implications for the FX markets from the increased geopolitical risks this week related to Ukraine. Derek and Jack also discuss the implications of Trump’s cabinet picks and a possible escalation of political risks in France ahead of an S&P ratings announcement on 29th November.
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This week George Goncalves, MUFG Head of U.S. Macro Strategy, discusses the market implications heading into and out of the recent US presidential election. In George’s view there are a couple schools of thoughts forming on how markets participants are looking to further position for a 2nd Trump administration, one that also has Republicans in power in the Congress as well. In one camp, and the one that has worked thus far, has been the playbook from the 2016 Trump 1.0 election, where financials and the dollar rallied but rates sold off. George suggests that there is more than one path potentially ahead and that it will pay to remain open minded on what may happen to the economy, markets and overall policy.  In George’s views starting points matter and a lot of the Trump 1.0 trade playbook could be priced-in already. Overall, the fear of higher fiscal deficits and a resurgence in inflation could be misplaced if there is an honest effort to seek government efficiency and reduce spending. Lastly, George reminds us that “macro still matters” and that the economy remains very bifurcated and sensitive to financial conditions. The next administration is inheriting a stock market with stretched valuations and an economy that has benefited from government spending. Meanwhile, labor markets have been weakening in the private sector for quarters and that may not change until we get further clarity on how companies react to the changes in government and fiscal policies ahead.

Lee Hardman, Senior Currency Analyst in London talks to Lloyd Chan, Senior Currency Analyst in Singapore, about the implications for Asian currencies from a second Trump Presidency.
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Donald Trump achieved a decisive victory in the US election. Lee Hardman, Senior Currency Analyst talks to Michael Owen, Head of Global Client Desk EMEA, about the implications for the USD from a second Trump presidency.  
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Lloyd Chan, Senior Currency Analyst at MUFG Global Markets Research Asia, speaks this week about the potential growth, monetary policy, and FX implications on ASEAN from a Harris election victory and a Trump election victory. Lloyd also highlights which ASEAN economies and currencies would underperform in an adverse Trump scenario, where 60% US tariff is imposed on all Chinese imports while a 10% blanket tariff is imposed on US imports from all other countries. 
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Following the release of the US jobs report Derek Halpenny, Head of Research, Global Markets EMEA & International Securities, discusses with Simon Mayes, Head of UK, Ireland & Swiss Corporate FX Sales about the potential implications ahead of the FOMC next week. Derek also outlines the FX implications on a Harris election victory and a Trump election victory and highlights some polling analysis from NBC News. The discussion also covers the GBP impact following the UK budget this week.
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Lee Hardman, Senior Currency Analyst, and Abdul-Ahad Lockhart, Currency Analyst, discuss why the JPY has weakened sharply this month. How are the political risks impacting JPY performance? 
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