• Treasury options traders are protecting against everything from multiple interest-rate cuts this year to a hike ahead of the US Federal Reserve meeting this week.
• Recent inflation data has remained stronger than had been expected, dimming expectations that the central bank will cut rates any time soon. While short positions in Treasury futures extended last week as yields pushed through fresh yearly highs, options flow has suggested growing uncertainty around the path of the Fed’s monetary policy for this year, with a number of deep out-the-money tail-risk hedges appearing across a number of tenors.
• The positioning covers most extreme dovish and hawkish scenarios being priced into this year, including hedges targeting a policy rate as low as 3% by the December FOMC versus around 5% currently priced into the swaps market.