view di una banca giapponese
The perhaps most important theme this quarter is asset allocation in Japan. This has both a direct portfolio rebalancing element and a more indirect effect from increased risk appetite. Both effects have important global implications. Out take is this:
The direct portfolio rebalancing will impact the big holders of JGBs (banks, pension funds, and lifers) the most. The most obvious impact will be increased foreign bond buying by these entities. Some of this will be FX hedged (banks), while some will only be partially hedged (lifers and pension funds). Regardless, there is likely to be flow into the long end of the UST curve, into semi-core bonds in the Eurozone and into MBS in the US. In addition, selected high grade EM bond markets (such as Mexico) will benefit too. Importantly, from an FX perspective, institutional flow into AUD and EM is likely to be less hedged (or not hedged at all) relative to flow into USD and EUR. On the other hand, some other markets (such as European periphery and Brazil) may not see much direct institutional flow.
The indirect effect through increased risk appetite will impact asset allocation more broadly. For example, we have seen much improved appetite for domestic equity investment by Japanese retail. This could also see a broad-based pickup in demand for foreign currency toshin products, and we are seeing tentative signs of this starting to happen. This would impact EM currencies (including the BRL) more broadly than the direct portfolio rebalancing of institutions, but it would not impact yields curves substantially.
We remain long AUDJPY (initiated at 100 last week) and we are revising our trading target for $/MXN lower to 12.00 from 12.20 previously (initiated at 12.79 in early March). These trades are directly impacted by the asset allocation view.