Chinese Monetary Policy vs. Inflation FIGHT!

*FX data updated on March 27th 2008

Policy makers in China have not only continued their anti-inflationary rhetoric, but have started acting on it. We have seen the RMB reach several new highs verse the USD in recent days (7.01). Additionally, Chinese authorities have increased reserve requirements for the second time this year by 50bp to 15.50%. It does not appear this news has settled too well with Chinese equities markets, which have experienced a significant sell-off from the combined fears of tighter monetary policy, a stronger RMB, and possible global slowdown. As a result, local investors seeking more attractive yields have started moving away from EQ and into the domestic fixed income market; yields have rallied accordingly. We expect this trend to continue.

Fears of a global economic slowdown and tighter monetary conditions have begun to show up in the SSE Composite...

Source: Bloomberg

This was not unexpected, as we outlined in an early posting, this how we expect Chinese policy makers to combat high inflation levels:

1) The Central Bank will increase interest rates, which it hasn’t done since December 07;

2) They will allow the RMB to appreciate at a faster rate;

3) They will implement new or stronger policies to reduce monetary growth. (i.e. Higher reserve requirements).

Additionally, we believe the government will continue to enforce its recent price control measures. With that said it is highly likely the Chinese government will continue increasing reserve requirements and continue appreciating the RMB at a faster rate. Given the recent weakness of the USD, the RMB has weakened substantially against the Euro, which probably implies European officials will begin placing pressure on the Chinese officials for quicker appreciation. We also expect to see increases in the Chinese reference rate, the last increase occurred at the end of December.

The Chinese Reserve Requirement Ratio has been increased steadily with inflation, and will continue to rise...

Chinese officials will continue to speed up appreciation of the RMB to combat inflation...

Investment Idea: We see potential upside in the domestic Chinese Steel industry. We have seen an increase in domestic demand as the country continue to develop and we believe the industry is ripe for consolidation. We may actually see the amount of Chinese steel exports decrease this year due to increased local demand, higher export tariffs, and an appreciating RMB. A reduction in Chinese steel exports could put upward pricing pressures on the global market. We also expect domestic steel makers to increase domestic prices as international prices rise. In fact, Baosteel has already announced price increases and may adjust prices on a monthly basis vs. quarterly previously. This of course will put further pressure on Chinese inflation. Which means it will be important to monitor to what degree government officials allow steel producers to pass costs to consumers. However, for steel, we see plenty of demand and a sticky supply. The bottom line is in 2008 look for higher steel prices, industry consolidation, and fewer exports from China (reducing the global supply). We believe this should directly benefit Brazil (ETF:EWZ), especially domestic iron ore producers. Brazil’s largest exports to China are soybeans and iron ore. However, there is a risk that a global economic slowdown could adversely affect steel demand.

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The Week Ahead: Fed Cuts and Bank Failures

Despite the news from Bear Stearns and a weak retail sales report, the Dow actually ended the week up 0.48%. Nonetheless, there isn’t much else to boast about; the NASDAQ ended unchanged while the S&P500 lost 0.40%. However, the CPI release surprised the market by coming in well below expectations and showing no increase for either the core or headline indices. This development was mostly sidelined by the problems at Bear.

But looking forward; this week it’s all about the Fed. Despite the encouraging CPI report the Fed will not view one month’s data as the beginning of a trend; they will remain very vigilant over inflation. However, the news from Bear Stearns and growing trouble in the financial sector will cause the Fed to cut rates by 75bps. We do not believe the Fed will move a total of 100bps given their current concerns over inflation. If the Fed was to move a total of 50bps verses 75bps and the market reacted adversely it would potentially open the window for an additional inter-meeting rate cut, which the Fed would like to avoid. As we have said before we feel one of the best indicators for the Fed’s move is what the market is currently pricing in. The Fed typically does not disappoint the market. (For a more detailed analysis on Fed cuts and inflation please look at our posts from March 11^th titled “Inflation, Inflation, Inflation” & February 27^th titled “Fed Cuts & Inflation”)

Effective Fed Funds rate pre-March 2008, implied Fed Funds rate post, as of March 14th.

Monday March 17th:
8:30AM: Empire State Manufacturing Survey (Risk: Neutral) The Bloomberg consensus survey indicates the market is currently expecting a reading of -6.3, this would be an improvement from last’s month unexpected drop to -11.7, but still in negative territory. This survey is one of the first indicators monthly indicators released covering the manufacturing sector and thus it is used as a tool to help forecast the overall ISM number. A negative reading of this survey combined with negative readings from the Philly Fed and the Chicago-NAPM can indicate a slowdown in the ISM.

9:15AM: Industrial Production (Risk: Downside) The Bloomberg consensus survey indicates the market is currently expecting a reading of -0.1% on production and a 81.3% capacity utilization rate, compared to 0.1% and 81.5% on production and capacity utilization, respectively. The recent slowdown observed in manufacturing could adversely impact production.

Tuesday March 18th: Fed Day!
8:30AM: Housing Starts (Risk: Downside)- According to Bloomberg.com the market is currently expecting housing starts to total 0.99mn. Permits continue to decline, inventories continue rising, we just don’t see much upside potential for this indicator. (For more information please read our post on the Housing Crisis from March 5^th titled ‘How will it end?’)

8:30AM: Producer Price Index (Risk: Neutral/Slight Upside)- According to Bloomberg.com the market is currently expecting PPI and Core PPI to increase 0.4% and 0.2%, respectively.

2:15PM: Fed Announcement (Risk: Neutral/Slight Upside)- We expect the Fed will cut rates by 75bps and continue to hold a negative bias. We expect the Fed will indicate that they will continue monitoring inflation, and that downside risks to growth still exist and will continue to affect employment. They may also mention in more detail their concerns about the financial sector after the Bear Stearns bailout and surprise rate cut on Sunday.

Wednesday March 19th:
None

Thursday March 20th:
8:30AM: Jobless Claims (Risk: Neutral)- According to the consensus survey Jobless Claims are expected to come in at 360K, still above our 350K threshold.

10:00AM: Leading Indicators (Risk: Neutral)- Bloomberg.com currently states a market consensus of +0.3% M/M change for the leading indicators.

10:00AM: Philly Fed Survey (Risk: Neutral)- Bloomberg.com indicates the market is expecting a reading -20.0 verse -24.0 last month. As with the Empire Survey being released earlier in the week, the Philly Fed will be the second release to address the health of the US manufacturing sector.

Friday March 21st:
Market Closed (Good Friday)

Investment Idea:

Please look at the posting from March 9^th. Also, we have begun looking at long dated Citigroup calls as a possible investment idea. At the same time, we are very concerned about Lehman Brothers and expect to see its shares catch a strong bid.

Food or Fuel for Thought?

Energy prices are showing absolutely no signs of abating; those peak oil theorists may be on to something (at least in the short-run). We just don’t see oil prices coming down significantly without a considerable reduction in demand; through improved fuel efficiency or a considerable economic slowdown. Now that we have settled that, we want to tackle a potentially larger problem verse high energy prices alone. That problem is higher energy prices combined with higher food prices. As people search for alternative energy sources, they have begun to tap heavily into the worlds’ food supply (i.e. corn). Ethanol, though 9,000 years old, has had a proliferation recently thanks to lofty oil prices. According to the Renewable Fuels Association just the US is producing around 375,000 barrels per day. This equates to almost 2 billion bushels of corn a year (around 25% of the domestic use), and it’s growing. Essentially, that means 2 billion fewer bushels of corn are going into the food supply for both humans and animals. Of course productivity improvements and new farm land could reduce the overall effect, but not nearly enough to compensate for the sectors rapid expansion.

US Ethanol Production has been increasing drastically

So what does this mean for food?

We are all aware that global food prices are rising sharply for a variety of reasons including weather and demand and supply shocks, but have energy prices had any affect?. Below we outline our view that the increasing in oil prices, have led to a substantial rise in ethanol production, and will have significant effect on food prices and eventually overall CPI. In order to have a consistent time series of agricultural prices we used the USDA prices received by farmers’ data. First off, let’s look at the relationship between WTI prices and ethanol production (chart below). As you can see below the two variables are highly correlated, this makes sense since the price of producing ethanol relative gas drops as oil prices move higher. However, the important question is what effect (if any) does the increased production of ethanol have on the food supply and prices?

High energy prices have been the driver behind the increased production

To answer this question we first analyzed corn price verse ethanol production (chart below). Again we see a strong correlation between the two, with the only anomaly being in 2005. This was caused by a good harvest and the effects of Hurricane Katrina. As we stated early the price of corn is influenced by a number of variables. Given the minimal use of ethanol prior to the beginning of this decade we do not believe ethanol production has had much, if any, affect on corn prices before now. In 1999 only 1.5bn gallons of ethanol were produced a year verse over 5bn today. That’s a lot more corn! Now that we now the production of ethanol can influence corn prices, what is the relationship of corn prices to the food and beverage CPI component and overall CPI?

Corn Prices have been influenced by ethanol production

Before we start this analysis lets mention some important direct uses of corn; food, corn syrup, animal feed, ethanol, etc… Meaning corn prices can influence everything from candy to milk. Now with this in mind, we would expect a significant rise in corn prices to eventually pass-through the food chain into every product that utilizes corn. In the chart below we compared corn prices to the food and beverage component of the US CPI on a y/y basis. Again the result was not surprising; the food and beverage component of the CPI has been increasing with corn prices. Given the wide spectrum of uses for corn it is hard to judge the total effective corn would have in the index (at least for this brief analysis), but we imagine it is significant.

Corn prices have helped to drive up the overall food and beverage CPI component

Conclusion:

The massive increase in ethanol production brought on by elevated energy prices has had a significant effect on corn prices. This means that as long as energy prices remain elevated, and corn is used as the primary crop to produce ethanol, we can expect to see the prices continue on this path. Given corns multiple uses within the food industry, we can also expect to see the food and beverage component of the CPI increase as a result. Also as lower value crops are switched over to corn we may also see a rise in the price of other crops as supply comes down. One alternative on the horizon is using switchgrass instead of corn to produce ethanol. It is believed that switchgrass will be a more efficient producer of ethanol and also will not directly impact the food supple, since you can't eat it. However, this is still in an experimental stage and will take time. The bottom line is, so long as energy prices continue to rise and ethanol production along with it, we can expect to continue seeing the food and beverage component of the CPI trending up.

Investment Idea:

If you believe that the price and value of agricultural goods will continue to rise from cross-over to energy products and higher world demand, we recommend purchasing agriculture based ETFs such as ‘MOO’ or ‘DBA’ as a good play on the sector. However, it is important to keep in mind that speculators may have artificially driven up prices in agro indexes, so it is possible that we could see the indices catch a bid in the short-term.

Price of DBA vs wheat, corn, & soybean (rebased to 100)

Chinese Inflation: A Mounting Problem

I was asked my views on the Chinese inflation situation today and came up with this short piece:

The Chinese growth story is now sharing the spotlight with the country’s mounting inflation concerns. In January consumer prices rose 7.1%y/y; to a level not seen since 1996, a point when China was in the midst of recovering from levels around 20%y/y. Moreover, based on the current outlook February’s reading is not expected to show any signs of improvement. Starting late January and ending in February China faced a barrage of disastrous winter weather, affecting nearly every aspect of the economy, including crops. This is particularly relevant given that food prices have been the main cause of Chinese inflation, increasing an astonishing 18.2%y/y in January. Important to keep in mind is that January’s reading includes only a small portion of the storm’s total effect, which will be fully reflected in February’s release.

Drilling a bit deeper into China’s inflation problem we look at some of the reasons for the increase in food prices. In part this trend can be attributed to China’s economic success; Chinese economic growth has led to an increase in wealth among its population. With more money to spend Chinese citizens tastes began to shift, in the food sector this meant instead of having vegetables for dinner they preferred meat, especially pork. Since demand for these ‘new’ products are rising faster than they can be supplied, prices are going up. Despite the simplicity of this explanation it could have a significant effect on the Chinese economy. Take this scenario into account; if you expect dinner is going to cost more next month than it did today you are going to ask for better wages to make up the difference. With this in mind inflation expectations have a direct correlation with future inflation based on this principle. Currently, we believe this scenario may already be occurring. Price increases are now showing up in sectors other than food, including services, producer prices, and other non-food products. The increase in service prices could very well imply we are already seeing an increase in the cost of labor due to rising inflation expectations. This scenario will have to be watched closely by Chinese policy makers.

Curtailing the inflation problem will be a tough challenge for Chinese leaders, especially given an increase to inflation expectations. In a more traditional scenario, the solution would simply be a combination of tight monetary policy and conservative fiscal policies. However, a number of problems including reconstruction plans from the winter storms, ‘quasi’ pegged exchange rate, and liquidity factors add up to a unique challenge. Reducing government spending at a time when a large portion of the country’s infrastructure needs to be repaired is not feasible. Additionally, further appreciation of the RMB could reduce exporters’ price advantages to overseas competitors and may reduce Chinese market share lowering economic growth. Finally, increasing rates could make it harder for businesses to borrow within China during a time of industry consolidation; potentially adversely affecting growth. A likely outcome will come by finding a balance between tighter monetary policy and further appreciation in the RMB.

Fed Cuts & Inflation

*Sorry for the delay in posting we were experiencing serious computer issues

One of the questions on everybodys’ minds is how high would inflation need to go before the Fed would reconsider any further rate cuts. During the recent months’ we have seen increasing down side risks to the US growth forecast, while at the same time growing inflation expectations. This is a dangerous mix in terms of continuing to use Fed policy as a stimulus to the economy. Historically, looking back at the data (since 1995), we can see that the Fed has never lowered rates when the Core CPI has gone above 2.9%, this means we could have at some room left, before the Fed rates cuts could potentially come off the table. To further test this we applied an ordered probit model with a grouping of economic indicators (ISM, core PCE – 2.0% inflation target, & a 1 month lag in the change in initial claims - 350) to see how the current situation compares to those in the past and to see which way the Fed is likely to move and in what magnitude based on inflation rates. What we discovered after running the model for both Core CPI and Core PCE (which we see as the Fed’s indicator of choice) was in-line with our original estimation that for the Fed to reconsider the cuts we would need to see the Core rates move to between 2.7% & 3.0%. Currently, the Core PCE and Core CPI are at 2.2% and 2.5%, respectively, with expectations rising.

To quantify the rate change we created five categories ranging from –2 to 2, with 0 implying no change. We created these categories after individually analyzing all FOMC rate changes from 1995 until 2007. To quantify the change we categorized the magnitude of the Fed rate hikes or cuts at each individual meeting into three groups: 0, 0.25%, and =>0.50%. So for example, a rate hike of 0.50% points would lead to a score of 2, while a rate cut of 0.25% would equal a score of -2.

With the left-hand side variable defined this way we ran them using an ordered Probit model against the ISM, inflation gap, and initial claims. We found that all of the variables were statistically significant.

The results show that the implied Fed rate change currently stands at -0.03 on our scale of -2 to 2, and has decreased in intensity over the last two months from its interim low of 0.09 in June (Chart 1). This movement corresponds to the decreasing growth and wavering employment levels. The current reading shows that there is a downward Fed bias, which implies the Fed is more likely to lower rates rather than raise them…

Conclusion:

So long as the Fed considers downside risk to growth exists we can expect that rate cuts will remain on the table as long as Core PCE remains below the 2.7% to 3.0% range, or growth conditions do not deteriorate more significantly.