March 12, 2010
The dollar has lost 0.8% against the Swiss franc, 0.7% relative to the euro, 0.6% against the pound, 0.4% versus the Australian and New Zealand dollars, 0.2% against the Canadian dollar and even 0.1% against the yen. Speculation that the Bank of Japan is poised to increase special liquidity support introduced three months ago sent the [...] Read Article
March 12, 2010
Central banks will be in the main spotlight next week as policy meetings are scheduled in the United States, Japan, Turkey, Mexico, Chile, and Brazil. The BOJ will probably ease quantitatively, and Brazil’s key Selic rate is likely to get raised. In addition, Bank of England minutes should reveal another unanimous decision. The BOJ meeting [...] Read Article
March 12, 2010
Peru’s central bank reference interest rate was left by officials at 1.25% after this week’s policy meeting. It has been at that level since a 75-basis point reduction last August. That had been the seventh consecutive monthly easing from a peak of 6.5% in the beginning of last year. Other reduction amounts were 25 bps [...] Read Article
March 12, 2010
It’s not just Europe and Asia which have experienced milder labor market recessions than the United States. So has America’s neighbor to the north. Between February 2009 and February 2010, the unemployment rate climbed 0.5 percentage points net in Canada to 8.2%, while U.S. joblessness increased 1.5 percentage points to 9.7%. 38% of Canada’s 417K loss of [...] Read Article
March 12, 2010
Upward pressure on the dollar has lost steam. As of 16:00 GMT today, the U.S. currency was showing losses for the week of 1.3% against the Canadian dollar and Swiss franc, 0.9% against the euro and Australian dollar, 0.6% relative to the kiwi but only 0.2% versus sterling. Previous dollar strength had been mostly at [...] More
March 11, 2010
Bangko Sentral Ng Pilipines will reduce the peso rediscounting budget from P60 billion to P40 billion but has left its key borrowing and lending rates steady at 4.0% and 6.0%, their respective levels after cuts totaling 200 basis points and administered between December 2008 and July 2009. After the final cut last July, officials announced [...] More
March 11, 2010
South Korea’s Monetary Policy Committee kept its key interest rate at 2.0% as expected. Cuts totaling 100 basis points in August 2008, 175 bps in December 2008 and 50 bps in February 2009 slashed the rate from 5.25% to 2.0%, where it has been ever since. A statement on the Bank of Korea website retains the [...] More
March 11, 2010
The $37.3 billion U.S. trade deficit in January interrupted a rising trend seen in recent months. The January gap was near to the average shortfall of $36.3 billion last quarter, worse than the mean monthly deficit last year of $31.6 billion but much narrower than the average 2008 gap of $58.0 billion per month. Merchandise [...] More
March 11, 2010
With revised Japanese figures out today, a reasonably representative comparison of growth in the four main advanced economies last quarter can be made and are summarized below, where C is personal consumption, I is business investment, G is government expenditures, and X represents exports. The percentage changes conform to the U.S. custom of annualization, that [...] More
March 11, 2010
The Swiss National Bank retained a 0.25% target on three-month Libor within a 0.0-0.75% corridor. Last September, officials served notice that the present expansionary stance cannot be maintained for the entire forecast horizon without compromising medium- and long-term price stability, and quantitative easing was ended last December. Today’s new quarterly SNB Monetary Policy Assessment does [...] More
March 11, 2010
The dollar shows no overnight change against the yen, euro and Swiss franc. It’s up 0.1% against the Canadian and New Zealand dollars but off 0.4% against sterling and 0.1% relative to the Australian dollar. Aside from a 1.0% rise of the Japanese Nikkei, there’s been scant movement in stocks as well, limited to +0.7% in [...] More
March 10, 2010
The Official Cash Rate of New Zealand was left at 2.5%, where it has been since April 2009. After New Zealand entered a five-quarter recession in the first quarter of 2008, 575 basis points of rate cuts were implemented between July 2008 and April 2009. As they did after the prior two meetings and as [...] More
March 10, 2010
The Bank of Thailand left its benchmark interest rate at 1.25%, the level since a 25-basis point cut last April 8. Prior cuts of 100 bps, 75 bps, and 50 bps had been implemented in December 2008, January 2009 and February 2009. A considerably more hawkish statement from monetary authorities today sets the stage for [...] More
March 10, 2010
The dollar is mixed, with very little change against the euro, Swissy and Canadian dollar, rises of 0.5% against the yen and 0.4% relative to sterling and declines of 0.6% and 0.3% against the New Zealand and Australian dollars. Stocks closed unchanged in Japan, Hong Kong and Australia. Equity gains were recorded of 0.8% in Malaysia [...] More
Currency Thoughts has evolved from a blog to a full-functioning website. This new design provides easier access to your favorite features and new capabilities to accept ads. In the future, it will be possible to register to accept emailed updates.
Posts