Tag Archive: Federal Reserve
Johnson Resigns, but Still not Clear if He Controls the Timing
Overview: The resignation of a UK prime minister makes for high political drama, but the markets hardly moved on it. Sterling, like most of the major currencies, are recovering against the dollar today.
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No Turn Around Tuesday
Overview: The global capital markets are calm today. Most of the large bourses in the Asia Pacific extended yesterday’s gain. Europe’s Stoxx 600 is advancing for the third consecutive session and is near two-and-a-half week highs.
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Johnson’s Ability to Lead Tories into Victory at Risk with Today’s By-Elections
Overview: Asia Pacific equities were mixed. Gains were recorded in China, Hong Kong, Australia, and India, among the large markets, while Japan was mostly flat and South Korea and Taiwan shares fell.
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FX Daily, March 17: Investors are Skeptical that the Fed can Achieve a Soft-Landing. Can the BOE do Better?
Overview: The markets continue to digest the implications of yesterday's Fed move and Beijing's signals of more economic supportive efforts as the Bank of England's move awaited. The US 5–10-year curve is straddling inversion and the 2-10 curve has flattened as the Fed moves from one horn of the dilemma (behind the inflation curve) to the other horn (recession fears). Asia Pacific equities extended yesterday's surge. The Hang Seng led the...
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FOMC Sets New Course
The Fed delivered what it was expected to do: double the pace of tapering and project a more aggressive interest rate response with its individual forecasts. The dollar initially rallied on the headlines, and new sessions highs were recorded, but the price action was a bit of a head-fake, as it were. The greenback's gains were quickly pared, though it remained above JPY114 ahead of Chair Powell's press conference. The market had already...
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Central Bank Fest
Next week is the last big week of the year, and what a week it will be: Five major central banks meet and at least nine from emerging market countries. Norway's Norges Bank is the most likely major central bank to hike its key (deposit) rate (December 16). It would be the second hike of the year. The economy is enjoying a solid recovery, and headline inflation rose to 4.6% in November, its fastest pace since 2008. The underlying rate, which...
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Covid Wave Knocks Euro Down and to new 6-year Lows Against the Swiss Franc
Overview: Concerns about the virus surge in Europe cut short the euro's bounce and sent it back below $1.1300 and are also weighing on central European currencies, including the Hungarian forint, despite yesterday's aggressive hike of the one-week deposit rate. Austria has reintroduced a hard 20-day lockdown. Germany's health minister warned that the situation deteriorated and vaccines were not enough to break the wave. He was explicit that a...
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US Retail Sales and Industrial Output to Accelerate; China not so Much
At the halfway point of Q4, the markets' focus is on three things: inflation, growth, and central banks' response. With US and Chinese October inflation readings behind us, the focus shifts to the real economy's performance, the world's two largest economies reporting retail sales and industrial production figures. Helped by stronger auto sales, the first increase in six months, US retail sales likely turned in another solid showing of around...
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FX Daily, November 9: Falling Yields Give the Yen a Boost
Overview: Reports that the Fed's Brainard was interviewed for the Chair helped soften yields a bit, not that they needed extra pressure, on ideas she is more dovish than Powell. In turn, the lower yields saw the yen rise to its best level in nearly a month and led the major currencies higher against the dollar.
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US Employment Data is Important but for the Millionth Time, Don’t Exaggerate It
Overview: Record high closes yesterday for the S&P 500 and NASDAQ have done little to help global equities today. Most of the Asia Pacific region markets, but Japan and Australia slipped ahead of the weekend while still holding on to gains for the week.
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Quantitative Easing: A Boon or Curse?
Central banks’ massive Quantitative Easing (QE) programs have come under scrutiny many times since the central banks fired up the printing press and began quantitative easing programs en masse after the 2008-09 Great Financial Crisis.
However, the increase in central bank assets due to quantitative easing programs during the crisis pale in comparison to the QE programs during the Covid pandemic.
As economies recovered after the...
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Printing Money in Times of Corona
The coronavirus has dominated all of our lives in recent months. Radical paths were taken by politicians in the form of lockdowns to contain the pandemic. But we should recognize that even if the coronavirus is a (major) challenge for us, we always have to keep a holistic view of world events.
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FX Daily, February 24: Equities Try to Stabilize and Low Short-Term Rates Help Keep the Dollar on the Defensive
Overview: The sharp recovery in US shares yesterday that saw the S&P 500 snap a five-day slide failed to carry into Asia Pacific trading earlier today. All the markets fell save India and Singapore. Losses were led by a 3% drop in Hong Kong as the first increase in the stamp duty (financial transaction tax) since 1993 was announced (0.13% from 0.10%).
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FX Daily, August 28: Optimism about Italy Creeps Back in but Sterling Heads the Opposite Way on Brexit Realities
The capital markets have turned quiet. There have been no more headline bombs about trade, and China set the dollar's reference rate much lower than projected. Asia Pacific equities were mixed. Hong Kong, China, India, and Singapore were on the downside, while Taiwan, Korea, and Australia rose.
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THE FED’S CAPITULATION: WHAT IT MEANS FOR GOLD INVESTORS
After the Federal Reserve’s monetary policy U-turn earlier this year and the central bank’s decision to cut interest rates for the first time in a decade, mainstream investors and analysts believe that holding rates lower and for longer will help keep stock markets afloat and the economic expansion alive.
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FX Weekly Preview: The Week Ahead is not about the Week Ahead
It's the last week of August. Several economic reports will be released in the coming days. They include the US deflator of consumer expenditures that the Federal Reserve targets, China's PMI, and the eurozone's preliminary August CPI. It is not that the data do not matter, but investors realize the die is cast.
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A muddled message from The Fed
2022-07-29
by Stephen Flood
2022-07-29
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