Gold Price Shines As A Safe Haven In January

January 31, 2018

New York (Jan 31)  It has been a very eventful start to the year. On January 4, the first trading day of 2016, the Chinese equity market fell drastically, with the Shanghai Composite Stock Index1 down 6.9% during the session. The equity slide continued, repeatedly triggering the recently instituted circuit breakers, which have subsequently been suspended. The Shanghai Composite Stock Index ended the month of January down 22.6%. The Chinese sell-off spread to global equity markets with the S&P 500 Index2 having one of its worst starts to any year, falling almost 9% three weeks into January. By month end, however, the Index had recouped some losses to end January down 5%. The MSCI All-Country World Index,3 which includes both emerging and developed world equity markets, fell 8% during the month. Commodities also took a hit, with oil and copper down 9% and 3%, respectively. Even the Japanese yen ended the month weaker, down 0.8% relative to the U.S. dollar, after the Bank of Japan (BOJ) surprisingly announced on January 29 its adoption of negative interest rates, which drove the yen down 2% that day.

Disappointing U.S. Economic Data

Except for a stronger-than-expected employment report, most major U.S. economic data released during the month was disappointing, including the Empire State Manufacturing Index4, retail sales ex-autos, industrial output growth, capacity utilization, durable goods orders, pending December home sales, and Q4 2015 real GDP growth. It was no surprise that the Federal Reserve (Fed) left rates unchanged on January 27, but revised messaging in the Fed's statement raised many questions in the market. The Fed softened its assessment of its growth and inflation outlooks, and indicated that it is "closely monitoring" global economic and financial developments, signaling that it is uncertain about their potential impact on the U.S. economy. Consequently market expectations for the Fed's next rate hike have been pushed to November, with less than one full 25 bps hike priced in for 2016. In my opinion, there is a good possibility that the Fed will not be as aggressive as previous guidance suggests, and that the U.S. economy is vulnerable, making rising rates a significant impediment in 2016. It appears that the market and even the Fed are increasingly adopting a similar view for 2016.

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