Amadeus Weekly 2022 W11

Fabian Scheler

March 18, 2022

Once a week we summarize the most important market developments and macroeconomic events in a brief chartbook.

2 Minute Read

Mankind invented a system to cope with the fact that we are so intrinsically lousy at manipulating numbers. It's called the graph.

As expected, the FED hiked rates by 25bp this week, alongside significantly raising its near-term rates forecast. But, interestingly, the bank’s median longer-term rate projections decreased. After a brief rise in Treasury yields, markets quickly realized that the FED’s long-expected move had already been priced-in.
Volatility remained elevated this week, but eventually, equity markets edged higher. Towards the end of the week, European stocks erased all losses suffered since the start of the Ukraine war.
The most impressive move this week was the spectacular rebound in Chinese stocks. After losing 25% since the beginning of March, the MSCI China jumped by 15% within one day after top officials promised to ease the regulatory crackdown. It seems that Xi Jinping has either consolidated his power to a sufficient degree or is getting uncomfortable with the massive wealth destruction caused by his policies.