Westpac looked at Friday’s eurozone balance of payment data for April and noted the substantial reversal in investment flows. The euro was persistently strong early in the year and a big reason was investment inflows into the region but that has sharply reversed.
Each flow category saw large net outflows in April – direct investment, bonds and notes, money markets and equities. Eurozone resident outflows across almost all the categories contributed as much to net outflows in April as foreign investor sales.
The ECB’s latest moves will likely draw more foreign money into equities but Westpac says that will not be enough to offset negatives elsewhere. They also show this tidy correlation between investment flows an EUR/USD.
A few weeks ago, PIMCO’s Bill Gross said the periphery bond rally had run its course and they were scaling out.