Core cpi is 1. 7 or 1. 6. It allows the fed to go slow and not disrupt market conditions. Gradual pushup in inflation back to normal, but we dont see anything that will push inflation to levels where it becomes a market issue or forces Central Banks to accelerate any rate hike plans they may have. Larry summers is right. You should probably start to tighten when you see the whites of the eyes of inflation. 1. 4 core pce aint anywhere near the whites of anybodys eyes. The biggest risk is clients getting in and buying duration right now. We want some duration on portfolio, but too much duration is risk. We do not believe this inflationary strand trend is going to be structural. It is transitory in nature. We think investors should be rewarded for going on the other side of that. The bond markets continue to be more distorted. It is extraordinary to see. We just talked about u. K. Inflation heading up, putting upward pressure on inflation rates all over the world. And the bond markets are still not responding, therefore they appear very stretched. Jonathan joining me around the table is George Rusnak of wells fargo investment institute, kathy jones, chief fixedincome strategist at Schwab Center for financial research, and coming to us from atlanta is matt brill of invesco. Great to have you with us. Kathy, lets begin with you. The prints for inflation for the week, which one was the most important . Chinese ppi or u. S. Cpi . Kathy i would say u. S. Cpi. It is hard to translate chinese wholesale prices through to the finished goods in the United States and the developed world. So i would say the u. S. Cpi creeping up a little bit was significant. Jonathan george, just globally, the reflation team making a bit of a comeback. 10 year yields last year just north of 2 . 2. 20 several times through the week. George i think a lot of that was the result of the whole risk off trade we had with the risk off trade coming back. You are seeing that now, risk off coming back and yields are creeping up more than inflation, we think. Jonathan just in terms of the chinese number at the start of the year, it was critical for the reflation trade. A lot of people make noise about it. Will it be important in the coming months, and can we maintain that trend . Kathy is anything but a , commodity rebound fueled by a weaker dollar . And thats just what we are seeing in the data. Kathy i think that is what we are seeing in the data. We had a pullback in the dollar , particularly against the yuan, and that has given us a rebound in Commodity Prices and hurricanes thrown in there. That gives commodities a little boost, as well. I dont think there is much more to it than that. Jonathan matt, in terms of inflation data globally, the u. K. , china, the u. S. , it has started to grind higher. What interests me is the bank of canada has made the move, and the bank of england is talking about making a move. We can discuss that later, but no one has really calibrated or recalibrated or readdressed what they think is going to happen with the Federal Reserve. Why do you think that is . Matt we think the fed is going to hike in december. We think they will take until then to hike. But you saw five consecutive cpi prints that disappointed the market. Yesterday, we got one that met expectations. So i think it is a little ahead of ourselves to get too excited about it, but we do expect the fed to come around by the end of the year. Jonathan in terms of communication, kathy, it has been remarkable. The fed spent so much time trying to talk to the market, the bank of indi england spent years talking up the possibility of a rate hike. The bank of canada just does it. What isnt anybody else follow suit . Kathy good question. We have not had a surprise rate hike since the voelker years. This is part of their strategy to try to not shake things up. The problem now is we have dudley saying one thing, i think rate hikes are still on the agenda and reynard saying , something else. It is hard to interpret when they are all saying different things. Jonathan george we go into a , fed meeting next week. We will get the summer of Economic Projections in the Federal Reserve. I wonder what is it worth . ,what is the summary of Economic Projections worth for the next year when hardly any of us have a clue who is going to be at the fed . George thats right, there are some changes coming on board with chair yellens position coming up. In february coming up in february. It remains to be seen if she continues on board. The reality is expectations have not been as good of a predictor of what is going to happen. They have not been coming down dramatically. We expect you could see them forecasting three Interest Rate hikes next year, that could come down possibly 22 Interest RateInterest Rate hikes next week when they release those numbers. Jonathan matt, meantime we have the bank of england talking up a rate hike. What is interesting to me is unemployment in the u. K. Is at 4. 3 . A lot of people are questioning the phillips curve and asking when wage growth is really going to take off. Why should the u. K. And the bank of england have so much conviction, so much faith, in those old economic models that in the last several years dont seem to have been working so well . Matt they have not really worked for anybody, so im not sure why they would have so much conviction in it now. In the u. K. Theres a lot of , confusion as to what the actual inflation is there because of the devaluation of the pound post brexit, so i think we have to see a few more numbers to figure out what the actual trend is. We are expecting the u. K. To hike in october, but from there, what you will see is a little pullback in quantitative easing. We have actually seen it already where they have stopped buying , Corporate Credit. Yet, Corporate Credit spreads are tighter than they wear when then they were when they were buying Corporate Credit. Jonathan in a couple of months, kathy, we will get the Inflation Report from the bank of england. I have seen this movie several times since 2014 when Governor Carney first went to the Mansion House and talked up the prospect of a rate hike. He was called in the u. K. The unreliable boyfriend because he does not deliver. Why is this time different . Kathy other than the valuation of the currency, i dont know why this one is different. Certainly financial conditions are loose, but it again is driven primarily by the currency. So, we will see if the economic prospects postbrexit dont look so good. I would be surprised if they follow through. Jonathan gilts are certainly adjusted to the prospect of rate hike. I sit here grappling with it, because you mention politics, nevermind the summary projection of the fed, the forecast from the bank of england, i dont know what they are worth either when no one knows what the relationship with the European Union is going to be. How can these guys hike on the npc when they dont have any real clarity on what the future holds . George it has been a dramatic shift, right . Because if you think about where they were, they were in a waiting phase until march of 2019, when brexit actually gets executed. We were holding off on rates, and now it is switched to may of 2018. Now most recently as the inflation data has ticked up they have actually moved it now , to this year, october or november of this year. I think what you are looking at is the inflation take up from 2. 6 in july to 2. 9 and above 3 . It is moving up directionally and pretty significantly. Jonathan matt, this is what doesnt really make sense to me. Why can we have a similar Unemployment Rate to the u. S. , here in the United States compared to the united kingdom, yet the market is seriously thinking about rate hike for the bank of england, but not so much at the Federal Reserve . Why is the Market Pricing in more rate hikes for the bank of england seemingly then maybe the Federal Reserve . Matt i think it comes down to the inflation data, and you just havent seen inflation in the u. S. Until you see inflation pick up in the u. S. , people arent going to buy it. As i mentioned before, in the u. K. , inflation is mainly caused by fx. But there are actually some wage pressures in the u. K. That are real. So from that standpoint, you are not seeing that in the u. S. And you are seeing a little bit there. I think the u. S. Has been such a tough problem in the past, they will be more accommodative in the future. Jonathan guys, you are going to be sticking with us. George rusnak, kathy jones, and matt brill. Coming up, the Auction Block, and what a week it was. Austria offering europes first benchmark sized century bond. That is not really the headline the headline is the yield. That is next. This is bloomberg real yield. Jonathan i am jonathan ferro. This is bloomberg real yield. I want to head to the Auction Block now where we had , eyeopening debt sales this week. What a week it was. The yield for the 10 and 30 year treasury auctions both nearing levels we havent seen in almost a year. Sales total is 32 billion. A 10 year yield at 2. 18 , the lowest since november. The 30 year yield the lowest since october. This week, that country saw demand for the 500 million of its 10 year notes that were so high. It knocked about 90 basis points off the initial price guidance. Istan, allowing them to sell at 7. 125 , allowing them to sell at the country sold 3. 5 billion euros of debt, the biggest ever sell of bonds out of europe. In austria, this was the big one. The sale that are lots of attention through the week. This is the first euro member to issue a century bond, 3. 5 billion euros of debt maturing in 2117, biggest ever sale of 100 year bonds out of europe. A yield of 2. 1 . Still with us is George Rusnak from the wells fargo investment institute, kathy jones, and matt brill from invesco. Kathy, best century bond out of austria. Your reaction . Kathy i am stunned. It seems as if people believe in almost a deflationary trend persisting for decades in europe, otherwise institutions that need to own very Long Duration i dont know why anyone , would buy it. Jonathan why would anyone buy it . Not just that, 11 billion, that was the size of the order book. So clearly, a lot of people wanted to buy it. Kathy i think it was desperation for any sort of positive yield. When your choices between negative yield versus positive, they will take positive all day long. You can see the pension funds, insurance companies, banks desperate for positive yield. Jonathan george, just in terms of the Duration Risk, we can do a quick calculation on the bloomberg for the austrian debt. You can see on the 100 year, what it would take to get a 5 or a 10 move. We just need to back out 20 basis points, and you will get a 10 move on price. I just percent move on price a 10 move on price with backing up 20 basis points. The Duration Risk people are taking is really quite significant. George it is. I dont think they are looking at it totally from a return respective. But may an asset liability management, from a pension fund perspective and insurance companies. I think there is just a tremendous demand for duration assets, and this is feeding that demand. I dont think it logically makes sense to be buying 100 year debt at two years. You can go through the analysis, clearly it doesnt. But if you need the duration if , you have to have it, this is and avenues for doing that. Jonathan matt brill it , certainly makes sense for the issuer, does it make sense for the investor . Matt im not really too concerned about austria doing a 100year debt deal. I think argentina doing a 100 year debt deal and having bonds be up seven points, that is really the story here. It is a reach for yield. Insurance Companies Need duration. That doesnt concern me. Tajikistan is pretty interesting. At invesco, we have a simple rule if you cannot find something on the map, you dont buy it. I have no idea where tajikistan is, so we did not buy the bond. At 7 , 8 , we have a lot of better opportunity like gm or mexico city airport, mexcat came this week about 4. 5 . That is a lot better bond to buy for the term. Jonathan you touched on the point. It was in the prospectus. This is the funny thing about be touchy stan offering, the offering, because they actually put the map of where it is in the prospectus. Yet, people still sucked it up and bought it. You mentioned some names. Some credit there, matt. Why do you think people are still gravitating towards Duration Risks in austria for yield or the kind of risk you would take buying from tajikistan . Instead of just buying u. S. Credit . Matt we think they should be buying u. S. Credit. That is the area we are overweight. We are not looking to reach, we are not doing what these other companies are doing. You either have to sacrifice credit or liquidity. When you buy 100year bond, you are sacrificing liquidity. We do not want to do that. So we are willing to sacrifice a little bit in terms of yield and we think we will be better off in the future because of that. Jonathan a little bit earlier i , caught up with hugh hendry, after 15 years, he shut down that fund. I did get a final trade from him. This is what he thinks is the most distorted market on the planet. Take a listen to this. Hugh inevitably there will be an air pocket. Where is your protection . So, in protection terms, i think the most distorted asset class in the world is the twoyear german bond. I would be short that. People are willing to lose 75 basis points a year for security. You know what . You dont need that security. It is the wrong price. Jonathan kathy jones, the two year, that is a stubborn trade. Kathy the problem is we have been saying that for how long now . Jonathan quite a while. Kathy yeah, and so people get tired of fighting the trend. They are starting to stand back, but it doesnt make sense. I am not willing to pay the government of germany for the privilege of buying their debt. Jonathan certainly not 70 basis points. George, i would ask the depot rate of the ecb is 40. We have an ecb talking about pulling back, pulling back on qe, as well. Yet bund yields have not really moved. Why . George they are pulling back on qe, but not necessarily on their rates. I think that is the reason, is that you are looking at a relative value. You are absolutely right. 7 basis points points doesnt make sense, but it does when 40 basis points is your alternative. From a relative perspective, it makes sense. But an absolute perspective it does not. I do think that at some point you get through quantitative easing, then you address rates, and at that point, that is where you see a significant move. Jonathan is that something that will necessarily happen in the next several months when the ecb finally communicates what is coming next . Or is this a 2018 or 2019 story . George i think it is more a 2019 story. I think the 2018 will be more than moving from qe. They are already setting the path forward for that. They will be picking up the pace in 2018, and 2019 they will start addressing rates. They will go into that very slowly. Jonathan matt, when you look at credit, how much risk is in Investment Grade credit . Not a question i would usually ask, but given the fact that ecb has been has not just been buying sovereign debt, they have been buying corporates, you see how europe is priced. Surely some of that has bled across into the u. S. Market, too. Matt we have definitely seen a domino effect where the ecb has bought up a large percentage of assets in europe. They actually own about 15 of eligible assets in europe, and have been buying 10 of all new deals. They have been tapering already within the corporate market. They were buying 10 billion euros a month earlier in the year. Now they are buying five. Yet credit spreads in europe continued to go lower. There is a structural demand for credit. There is a structural demand for yield. So even when Central Banks are starting to pull back, we dont think you will see a complete unwinding of the situation. Jonathan stick with me. George rusnak, kathy jones, and matt brill. We want to get a market check on where treasuries have been through the week. Twos, tens, and 30s. Yields higher much higher, up 11 on the 11 on the twoyear 15 basis points on , the 10year. Getting back to 2. 20 after kissing yeartodate lows just last week. Still ahead, the final spread, the week ahead featuring janet yellen and details on shrinking the fence Balance Sheet. At least that is what you might get. This is bloomberg real yield. Jonathan i am jonathan ferro. This is bloomberg real yield. It is time now for the final spread. Coming up over the next week, a week full of politics and monetary policy. President donald trump will make his first u. N. Appearance. The general debate of the general assembly. Data comes out on u. S. Housing, we get rate decisions and a News Conference from the fed and boj. Plus, we will have interviews from the World Business forum in new york. Look out for that on bloomberg tv over the next week. Still with us to discuss what is coming up, George Rusnak from the wells fargo investment institute. Kathy jones from the Schwab Center of financial research, and matt brill from invesco. I want to begin with you, kathy and look forward to next week. , what is your sense of the treasury Market Positioning going into the Federal Reserve meeting . A meeting where we could get the plan for how to unwind that monster Balance Sheet . Kathy i think we are still longduratio