What does it take to shock markets these days? Quite a bit.
Last week, the European Central Bank dropped some heavy hints that it is preparing to fire up its bond-buying stimulus programme (again) and investors broadly shrugged it off.
There has since been a bit of a rally inthe shakier parts of the eurozone's government bond markets, but that is about it.
Meanwhile, the race to become the next prime minister of the UK is dominated by candidates intent on crashing out of the EU without a deal in October and/or suspending parliament. What a time to be alive. Moves in sterling suggest that investors are unimpressed, but hardly clutching their pearls with horror.
Topping it off, enter stage right one Donald J Trump, who on Monday called CNBC to declare that the US central bank is "very, very disruptive to us", bemoaning that he is unable to tell the Federal Reserve what to do.
"They haven't listened to me," he said. "We have people, it's more than Jerome Powell, we have people on the Fed that really weren't . . . you know . . . they're not my people." By contrast, China's president Xi Jinping "can do whatever he wants", Trump noted, including loosening monetary policy and devaluing the currency.
In any normal environment, any of these shocks to three of the world's most important markets would have investors in a spin. Instead, the ECB's ability to shock is blunted by the understanding that eternal monetary easing is now the default mode of major central banks, rather than an anomaly.
For the UK, the prevailing view is that this is bluster from politicians, again — not a great sign of faith in the system, but a reasonable point of view nonetheless.
On Trump and his stance on the Fed, it may be wise to be nervous. Yes, the president and those around him have used similar language before.
Boris Johnson has launched his bid to become the next UK Prime Minister. Photo / Getty Images
But with the G20 meeting in Osaka coming up this month and trade tussles at the top of the agenda, it is easy to imagine a scenario where Trump demands that his administration should do something to weaken the dollar, or to force China to push up the renminbi, or both.
"Currency is slowly entering the trade wars," noted Kit Juckes, a strategist at Société Générale. Slowly for now, perhaps.
The lack of a clear response in the markets to all this is "remarkable", said Simon Derrick, an analyst at BNY Mellon. In part, it can be explained by the already weighty expectations that the US will cut interest rates.
"But do I think the currency could become a bigger issue post-G20, especially if it does not go particularly well? Yes I do."
China's central bank has already indicated it is comfortable with further weakness in the renminbi — an outcome that is unlikely to please Trump. Investors' apparent preference for a quiet life could soon be tested.
