NFP

Good Friday’s Non-Farm Payrolls report showed that more jobs (162,000) were created in March than for any month in the past three years. Private payrolls (excluding 39,000 governments jobs) increased by 123,000, the third consecutive increase. All told, the January and February job counts were increased by a combined 62,000, putting the March gain at 224,000 when added together, including  temporary workers hired for the 2010 census.

Employment of private temporary workers, considered to be a leading indicator of permanent hiring, climbed in March for a sixth consecutive month but their share in the payroll count is diminishing, showing companies are becoming more optimistic.

The report will have important implications for a variety of asset classes, so let’s look at what could happen.

S&P

Stocks are likely to remain on the upswing that began in March 2009 as the S&P 500 moves inevitably to the pre-Lehman collapse level of around 1250. In the beginning of the year, I said that the S&P would hit this level by the end of the first quarter and while that didn’t happen, this important benchmark is bound to be reached soon. Simply put, stocks have followed the improving trend in jobs for months and there’s no reason to believe that will change now.

The Dollar

In my opinion, because the recovery appears to be gaining strength, the Fed will drop the “extended period” language by the end of this quarter, possibly at the June meeting, and make its first move before the year ends. The reason is that the Central Bank moved to a 0%-0.25% interest rate policy under “emergency” conditions which no longer exist, and a symbolic move away from this extraordinary stance will serve as a signal to the market that officials are gaining confidence in the recovery.

As the market moves to this perception, the dollar will gain against the pound, aussie and yen. The big move figures to come against the euro because, due to the fiscal problems affecting Greece, Ireland, Spain, Portugal and Italy, the ECB will be among the last Central Banks to make a move on rates. The yen seems destined to head towards 100 to the dollar as Japanese investors seek better returns abroad and because Japan’s currency should assume its role as the major funding vehicle for carry trades.

Treasuries

Rates on government debt will continue to move up as the recovery gains momentum. We’ve already see the 10 year note surpass 3.9%, and a move above 4% by the summer will no doubt be seen. That’s going to affect mortgage rates, which could finish the year around 5.5% for 30 year loans.

A cautious optimism is the best way to describe my feelings on where the S&P is headed while the dollar is most likely to see some measure of decline, at least in the early going this week.

S&P

The market suffered a late-day sell off on Friday after rumors of a South Korean naval vessel being sunk as a result of a conflict with North Korea spread. The won also dropped against the dollar. However, “given the investigations by government ministries so far, it is the government’s judgment that the incident was not caused by North Korea, although the reason for the accident has not been determined yet,” a senior government official was quoted as saying by Yonhap news agency in South Korea.

Presidential Blue House spokeswoman Kim Eun-hye earlier said there had been no unusual movements by North Korea.

Purchases are expected to have increased by 0.3% and incomes likely rose 0.1% in Monday’s report from the Commerce Department. Sales have been increasing for the last 4 months while incomes are looking for a second monthly gain.

The Conference Board’s confidence index, scheduled for release on Tuesday, probably increased to 50 from 46 in February.

On Friday, economists are expecting to see a gain of 190,000 jobs in March, the biggest increase for 3 years.  Some of the boost is expected to come from the hiring of temporary government workers to conduct the 2010 Census and from better weather. The unemployment rate is expected to hold at 9.7% for a third straight time. Unemployment peaked at 10.1% last October.

From a technical viewpoint, price has appeared to have found support near the former resistance at around 1150 and the longer it holds above this level, the more confidant investors will feel.

The Dollar

We’ve been down this road before, but it appears as if traders are satisfied with the latest developments regarding the Greek debt situation. A plan announced at the conclusion of meetings in Brussels on Friday which will involve the use of a joint IMF-EU backstop, should one become necessary, led the euro to a 124 pip gain on the day.

What has become evident is that the Federal Reserve now seems far more likely to make a move on interest rates ahead the ECB, although when exactly that might happen still appears to be a ways off. Bernanke reiterated that the employment situation is still “very weak” during congressional testimony last week and reports showed that inflation continued to remain tame.

In fact, dis-inflation seems to be the rule of the day. Core CPI rose just 1.3% in the year to February and the trend appears to be slowing as well; the core measure rose just 0.8% annualized in the 6 months to February, less than half the 1.9% increase seen in the prior 6 month period. In the last 3 months, core has risen at an annual rate of just 0.1%.

However, current monetary policy was implemented under emergency conditions and the facts are that the situation has changed. Credit spreads are low and corporations have easy access to capital markets. Profits are expected to increase by 30% this year and the economy could see 3% growth. Quantitative easing (aka the printing of dollars), will officially end this month although the Fed has left the door open to additional measures, should they become needed.

Bottom line-the dollar is most likely to continue its strengthening trend as the year progresses, especially against the euro. In my opinion, $1.20 to the euro, and even below, is well within the realm of possibility under the current economic outlook.

Range Bound Markets

In case you haven’t noticed, things have been kind of range bound over the past month or so for the major currency pairs as well as the S&P 500. Understanding why that’s happening  will lead you into the next trend when conditions change, setting up a good trade.

For many traders, this kind of back and forth movement is much harder to trade than when prices are moving in a trend. I posted a long trade on GBP/JPY and AUD/JPY May 26 on twitter that returned about 1000 pips by June 1 but on June 8 I said “it isn’t a good time to trade currencies due to the lack of a strong fundamental driver.”

This is exactly where trend-following trading systems fail, because there’s no indicator to tell you that markets will go range bound. You have to rely on fundamentals (and your instinct) in order to make a judgment call like that.

While there are a number of arguments that can be made regarding why this is occurring now, for my money it’s the fundamental state of the economy which is dictating the action here at the end of the second quarter. Simply put, it appears that a depression has been avoided and that the recession is slowly coming to an end.  But what also appears to be the case is that the economy will remain sluggish for a period far beyond the end of the recession as the unemployment rate edges inexorably towards 10% (or higher).

This is the view of none other than Nouriel Roubini, who believes that 2010 will “fell like a recession” even if the economy is technically out of one. Meanwhile, San Francisco Federal Reserve Bank President Janet Yellen believes that although the recession is likely to end later in 2009, a “frustratingly slow” recovery marked by continued high unemployment is likely to follow.

“I am not optimistic that the economy will spring back to normal anytime soon,” she said on Tuesday during a scheduled speech. “I’m more concerned that we will be tempted to tighten policy too soon, thereby aborting recovery.”

Unemployment will “remain painfully high for several more years,” she said, which obviously points to more troubled loans for the banks in both residential and commercial mortgages.

She also implied that policy makers will leave the Fed Funds Rate near zero for the next several years, saying that such a policy is “not outside the realm of possibility,” in the press conference which followed her remarks.

Here’s something interesting I found on Bloomberg regarding a Goldman Sachs currency trade:

“Goldman Sachs exited a bet that the Canadian dollar would strengthen versus the Mexican peso,” the article said. “Goldman entered the trade on June 8 and stands to lose about 5% including the cost of carry after being “stopped out” when the peso traded beyond 11.40 per Canadian dollar yesterday.”

This just goes to show that even the best of the best can lose when the fundamentals are too unclear or when they fail to provide a strong impetus.

On To The NFP

The much smaller loss of jobs last month (-345K vs. -504K previous) was accompanied by an increase to 9.4% (from 8.9%) in the unemployment rate. Stocks fell a bit on the news and the dollar gained that day.  Stocks gained for a few days afterwards on the realization that the increase was due in part to greater labor force participation (people who had given up looking for jobs started to look again, a good sign). The rest of the month was basically flat.

Now, if we put the NFP together with what we believe to be the prevailing view of the economy, what we (as traders) want to see is some data that indicates the prevailing view is wrong. So what I would suggest is to come back to this article after the NFP is released; not for an immediate short-term reaction but to see if a reason exists for a trend to be established which will be where the best potential for a good trade will exist.

For example, if by some miracle the unemployment rate were to fall, there would be a good chance to see stocks get a boost over the next few weeks. That would put some pressure on the dollar vs. the euro, pound and A$, and it probably would be positive for those currencies against the yen as well.

A Great Trader

In any discussion of great traders, Marc Faber (the original Dr. Doom) surely comes to mind as being right at the top of the list. He correctly called the commodity rally and dollar bear market early in the decade and more recently said back in March that stocks had probably bottomed.

I always look for his interviews on Bloomberg and CNBC because they’re both entertaining and informative. And I just love the way he concluded his monthly bulletin back in June 2008:

“The federal government is sending each of us a $600 rebate. If we spend that money at Wal-Mart, the money goes to China. If we spend it on gasoline it goes to the Arabs. If we buy a computer/software it will go to India. If we purchase fruit and vegetables it will go to Mexico, Honduras and Guatemala. If we purchase a good car it will go to Germany. If we purchase useless crap it will go to Taiwan and none of it will help the American economy. The only way to keep that money here at home is to spend it on prostitutes and beer, since these are the only products still produced in US. I’ve been doing my part.”

Faber was on Bloomberg the other day saying that the dollar was likely to gain over the next 4 to 6 weeks. If we get a big jump in the unemployment rate he could turn out to be right, especially if riskier assets like stocks and commodities are sold (we did get a jump of 0.5 last month and we didn’t see a strong sell off). But if the data goes the other way (meaning the unemployment rate falls), he’ll likely wind up with egg on his face.

Thursday’s Jan 4th midday analysis -13.00 GMT

Euro traded just above the 1.4700 level for most of today’s session waiting for the NFP release, the par fas traded calmly getting closer and closer to the support level but not managing to break below as the upcoming are important and could change the mid term perspective.

GbpUsd failed to perform as expected, although it briefly got below 1.9700 the 9.30 GMT UK news helped pushed the pair for a new retest of the 1.9800 resistance and now we are trading roughly at the 50. Fib line of today’s 125 pont move; also the upcoming NFP release will have an impact on the pair and will determine the direction for the remainder of the session.