Focus Moves To Italian Referendum This Weekend

 | Nov 28, 2016 11:54PM ET

The Renzi Risk

Overnight, traders sidestepped the OPEC meeting and US employment report risks while opting to focus on the Italian Senate reform referendum instead, which will take place on Sunday. Trump reflation trade has taken a temporary respite after massive waves of risk on trade engulfed the markets over the past couple of weeks. Focus now pivots to political risks in Europe with the upcoming Italian referendum for PM Renzi this weekend. Not surprisingly, the US and European equities have retreated from recent highs, and the US Treasury curve has flattened on unity with the global equity market reversal.

Traders are sitting tight awaiting new US fiscal stimulus signals while positioning for the anticipated month-end selling pressure on the USD. However, until those US stimulus measures are salient, traders will continue to tread cautiously as political risk comes to the forefront.

Japanese Yen

The week started with a massive correction, as a combination of positioning and speculative overextension on the current narrative caused a wicked backlash to USD/JPY long specs. The lack of liquidity likely amplified corrective moves, amid swirling OPEC headlines and confusion over election recounts. Traders are respecting yesterday’s reversal and are not rushing back to reinstate long USD just yet, awaiting noteworthy US fiscal stimulus clues, while hedging potential fallout risk from this weekend’s constitutional referendum in Italy. In the meantime, USD/JPY will track the US Treasury yields.