Carry Trade Unwinding Continues, More Losses in Store

High yielding carry trades continued to perform horribly today with AUD/JPY and NZD/JPY falling another 300 points. The Chicago Board of Trade?s Volatility Index continued to rise and is less than a point shy of its 52 week high. Carry trades only perform well in low volatility environments. The fact that volatility shot up so much so rapidly makes carry trades or basically the desire for yield far less attractive for the risk. Even though USD/JPY and CAD/JPY are stronger, they have hardly put a dent into Thursday?s losses.

Japanese data released overnight was mixed with consumer prices falling, but retail spending increasing on an annualized basis. The Nikkei was also down 418 points or 2.3 percent overnight. This seems to matter little for yen traders because they are solely focused on the market?s aversion for risk. If stocks continue to collapse, carry trades will continue to fall. Meanwhile in the week ahead, there is a lot of data on the Japanese calendar including industrial production, the trade balance, household spending, labor cash earnings, and the jobless rate. The market has gone from pricing in a 64 percent chance of an August rate hike to a 45 percent chance.