Monster Stock Market Predictions: Super Edition For The Week

 | Jun 14, 2021 12:03AM ET

Interest rates fell sharply at the end of the week, and while the immediate knee-jerk reaction would be that this was because of the CPI report. There was actually much more going on here.

Rates have been falling all over the world, from Japan to Germany, even China. This tells us that falling rates are not unique to the US and that, in reality, rates are falling in the US because foreign buyers are picking up US bonds as they offer much higher and more attractive yields.

It could even help explain why the US dollar has suddenly spiked in recent days, as foreign bond buyers sell their local currency, buy dollars, and then buy US debt. It is probably why the dollar continues to rally back to 91 on the dollar index.

h2 US/German Spread/h2

The US/German 10-year spread has remained fairly constant, around 1.75% since the middle of May, despite the US rate falling by 20 bps to 1.45%. That is due to the German 10-year falling to -27 bps, from -7bps.

Of course, it probably doesn’t help that the ECB announced that it would continue to buy bonds at an accelerated pace on Thursday.

h2 US 10 Vs. The Nikkei /h2

The 10-Year may even be telling us what happens next to equity markets around the globe. The US 10-year and the Japanese Nikkei have a breathtaking correlation. If the US 10-year falls from here as it chases global rates lower than it seems, the Japanese Nikkei is to head lower too.

h2 Nikkei To S&P 500 /h2

For the first time, the Nikkei and the S&P 500 are diverging by quite a bit.