U.S. markets: hawkish Fed official speech on focus

Correction after the recent strong growth on Wall Street continues. On Thursday on the side of “bears” was the head of the St. Louis Fed and concurrently the main hawk J. Bullard. In his opinion, the Fed will tend towards higher rates, and the minimum level of monetary policy tightening should be at around 5-5.25% per annum. Stocks reduced losses late in the session, but the major indexes still ended in red. The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 7.51 points, or 0.02%, to 33,546.32, the S&P 500 lost 12.23 points, or 0.31%, to 3,946.56 and the Nasdaq Composite dropped 38.70 points, or 0.35%, to 11,144.96. Fed’s next meeting in December makes market nervous, while most investors are still waiting for a 50 basis point raise, there are already about 20% of traders placing a 75 basis point hike bets.

After setbacks on the battlefield, including last week’s retreat from Kherson, Russia hit Ukraine with a barrage of missile attacks on its power grid overnight. Following the withdrawal from the west of the Dnipro River, Russian forces continued to prioritize reorganization and the preparation of defences across most sectors in Ukraine getting ready for more Ukrainian “breakthroughs”. New trench systems have been dug near the border of Crimea and key locations between Donetsk and Luhansk Oblast, up to 60 km behind the current front line. Russian stocks edged lower on Friday as investors weighed cheap valuations against economic risks of sanctions and the war in Ukraine. IMOEX lost 0.65% to 2,199 and RTSI was lower by 0.37% to 1,147. Lukoil, Sberbank and Norilsk Nickel were among the biggest losers, while retailer Detsky Mir and Aluminum producer Rusal gained the most. Russian rouble was little changed again this morning with USDRUB lower by 0.16% to 60.37 and EURRUB up by 0.21% to 62.54. Russia’s central bank said a foreign currency deficit emerged last month as a partial mobilization has been announced, which provoked withdrawals from deposits in dollars and euros. Russian bond yields held with 10-year benchmark rouble bonds up 3 bps to 9.96%. In Corporate news, Gaz Capital S.A. made an interest payment on outstanding EUR 560.3m of 2023 Bonds on November 17. Gazprom earlier cancelled EUR 439.7m worth of notes placing “substitute” domestic bonds.

European markets opened higher on Friday with strong consumer confidence in U.K. Retail sales rose more than expected in October, gained 0.6% y/y. Germany retail sector. The DAX futures contract in Germany traded 0.9% higher at 14,400 level, the FTSE 100 futures contract in the U.K. added 0.6% to 7,396 points, while CAC 40 futures in France traded 0.93% higher at 6,633. Meanwhile, ECB President Christine Lagarde speech at the European Banking Congress in Frankfurt will be on focus today while investors are waiting more details as  how high interest rates will rise in the eurozone from current 2%.

SSA opens largely flat to cap off the week. The space closed weaker with duration bearing the brunt as rates sold following hawkish comments from Fed officials. NGERIA (-2.50) the underperformer yet again while KENINT (-1.25) finally gave in to the wider pressures to close lower after days of bucking the wider selling/muted trend in the space.

The bonds secondary market saw little activity as average yields closed on flat. Average yields on the short, medium and long tier of the curve remained unchanged. The Apr 2037s bond was the best performer. The worst performer was the Jul 2034s bond. The NTB secondary market closed on a flat note. Average yields remained unchanged across the short, medium and long end of the curve. There was no activity recorded. In the OMO secondary market, yields closed flat across the curve. Nigeria to offer 10yr Sukuk Bond, to raise up to N100 billion.