Who is the joker who wrote ‘long international equities’?
Bank of America highlighted how crowded the USD trade was in its latest fund manager survey and Europe is universally hated so today’s PMIs from S&P Global have surprised the market.
The European numbers beat estimates while the US services survey surprisingly slumped to the lowest since April. The reading of business sentiment fell to 52.8 from 56.5 while the reading of consumer sentiment from the University of Michigan was revised to 71.1 from 73.2.
The euro neared a session high after the release but wasn’t quite able to crack the top. It remains up 81 pips to 1.0499.
The pound, however, was able to make a new high and is up 100 pips to 1.2451.
GBPUSD daily
I think most of these moves are about Trump’s toned-down rhetoric on tariffs but they also highlight a dangerously-crowded USD trade.