Macro, FX and Rates Strategist

Ishaan Dev Kapoor

FX & Rates

Legacy Government (Sovereign) Generic Index-key ticker

<ul>
<li>The September 2027 contract prices three further hikes and a one-in-three chance of a fourth, 55bp above the committee's own projected path. We buy ZQU7 at 95.325 (4.675%), $7.5k DV01.</li>
<li>Diesel is 67% above a year ago, yet core PCE is running at 2% annualised. Firms are absorbing the shock, wages show no pass-through and inflation breadth is narrowing.</li>
<li>Policy is near neutral and financial conditions have tightened since September. Two further hikes would make policy restrictive in a supply shock; a less hawkish 2027 committee makes them unlikely.</li>
</ul>


The September 2027 contract prices three further hikes and a one-in-three chance of a fourth, 55bp above the committee's own projected path. We buy ZQU7 at 95.325 (4.675%), $7.5k DV01.
Diesel is 67% above a year ago, yet core PCE is running at 2% annualised. Firms are absorbing the shock, wages show no pass-through and inflation breadth is narrowing.
Policy is near neutral and financial conditions have tightened since September. Two further hikes would make policy restrictive in a supply shock; a less hawkish 2027 committee makes them unlikely.


A Terminal Rate the Data Do Not Support: Buying September 2027 Fed Funds Futures

<ul>
<li>The EUR/USD seagull was salvaged at 3 pips against 19.5 paid after the 16 September hike, having been marked +181% on 21 August. The USD/INR short expired flat at 95.98.</li>
<li>The euro trade paid on fiscal dominance, not the US front end we entered on. We overrode the Iran exit rule because we read misread a three-week regime</li>
<li>FCNR carried the INR through a 20% rise in oil, but faltered as prices soared 37%. We still see US disinflation in the data, and think 3 hikes are rich.</li>
</ul>


The EUR/USD seagull was salvaged at 3 pips against 19.5 paid after the 16 September hike, having been marked +181% on 21 August. The USD/INR short expired flat at 95.98.
The euro trade paid on fiscal dominance, not the US front end we entered on. We overrode the Iran exit rule because we read misread a three-week regime
FCNR carried the INR through a 20% rise in oil, but faltered as prices soared 37%. We still see US disinflation in the data, and think 3 hikes are rich.


Learnings from Two Short-Dollar Positions in an Oil Crisis

The US dollar is the official currency of the United States of America.

<ul>
<li>The dollar reacted to one macro factor all year, with a sensitivity statistically indistinguishable across five regimes; what changed was which driver moved the factor and whether others followed it.</li>
<li>Gold led before the Iran war, VIX during it and again in the fiscal-dominance weeks; since Jackson Hole the dollar has traded the factor itself, led by the front end.</li>
<li>A dollar factor and the same macro drivers explain 72%-85% of every G10 currency except the yen; beyond the dollar, NOK traded oil, CAD the BoC, NZD the RBNZ.</li>
</ul>


The dollar reacted to one macro factor all year, with a sensitivity statistically indistinguishable across five regimes; what changed was which driver moved the factor and whether others followed it.
Gold led before the Iran war, VIX during it and again in the fiscal-dominance weeks; since Jackson Hole the dollar has traded the factor itself, led by the front end.
A dollar factor and the same macro drivers explain 72%-85% of every G10 currency except the yen; beyond the dollar, NOK traded oil, CAD the BoC, NZD the RBNZ.


Five Regimes, One Reaction Function-  What the Dollar and G10 Have Traded on in 2026

<ul>
<li>Japan's 30-year yields 4.16%, 236 basis points over the Bank of Japan's neutral midpoint. Part is fiscal premium; the rest is the price of a domestic bid returning at 4%</li>
<li>Post-Covid inflation was supply-driven, imported through the yen, oil and food. Inflation excluding food and energy never exceeded 2.7%. Real wages are rising, consumption grows 1%: neutral, not above it.</li>
<li>The buyers' strike is ending. Life insurers sold ¥2.1 trillion of super-longs in FY2025 and are buying again; Meiji Yasuda doubled its plan; GPIF is pressed to add domestic assets.</li>
</ul>


Japan's 30-year yields 4.16%, 236 basis points over the Bank of Japan's neutral midpoint. Part is fiscal premium; the rest is the price of a domestic bid returning at 4%
Post-Covid inflation was supply-driven, imported through the yen, oil and food. Inflation excluding food and energy never exceeded 2.7%. Real wages are rising, consumption grows 1%: neutral, not above it.
The buyers' strike is ending. Life insurers sold ¥2.1 trillion of super-longs in FY2025 and are buying again; Meiji Yasuda doubled its plan; GPIF is pressed to add domestic assets.


Priced for a Japan That Has Not Existed Since 1991, Long the 30-Year JGB at 4.16%

Thematic (Sector/Industry)

<ul>
<li>Long Solar Industries from 13 March at Rs14,251 has returned +57% in rupees, +52% in dollars, at the 8 September close. We take profit on half and hold the balance.</li>
<li>The policy thesis delivered and accelerated, with tactical missile production opened to private firms and transfer of DRDO's conventional missile technologies to industry approved. The France-Pinaka order did not arrive. </li>
<li>Key risks: the defence book is flat at Rs18,000 crore while coverage compressed from 13x to 5.7x, free cash flow turned negative and the stock trades at 102x trailing earnings.</li>
</ul>


Long Solar Industries from 13 March at Rs14,251 has returned +57% in rupees, +52% in dollars, at the 8 September close. We take profit on half and hold the balance.
The policy thesis delivered and accelerated, with tactical missile production opened to private firms and transfer of DRDO's conventional missile technologies to industry approved. The France-Pinaka order did not arrive. 
Key risks: the defence book is flat at Rs18,000 crore while coverage compressed from 13x to 5.7x, free cash flow turned negative and the stock trades at 102x trailing earnings.


The Re-Rating Delivered. The Order Book Hasn’t - Solar Industries, Six Months On

Four years' front-office markets sales: FX and rates sales at HSBC covering EM, then FX sales with rates strategy at CBA as Senior Associate. Combines deep understanding of markets , macro and geopolitics.