And What About Britain?
May 6, 2008
The British PMI scores in April reflect an intensifying slowdown of that economy. The service-sector index had a 50.4 reading, essentially connoting stagnation. That was down 1.7 points from 52.1 in March and down 7.4 points from 57.8 in August when the global credit crunch began. The manufacturing PMI score in April was 51.0, down […] More
Currency Markets in the News
Convergence Around the Atlantic in PMI Scores
May 6, 2008
The view that the U.S. economy may not be as weak as thought and that Euroland may be in worse shape than heretofore assumed has supported the dollar lately. April PMI scores corroborate the new thinking. The U.S. manufacturing PMI was unchanged at 48.6, while its Ezone counterpart fell by 1.3 from 52.0 to 50.7. […] More
Australian Monetary Policy Tight But on Hold
May 6, 2008
The last four Australian interest rate hikes in Aug 2007, Nov, Feb and March 2008 coincided with a global financial market crunch from which Australia was not exempt. As a result, authorities at the Reserve Bank of Australia shifted their policy bias to neutral in April, observing then that monetary conditions since mid-2007 had tightened […] More
New Overnight Developments Abroad - Daily Update
New Developments Abroad
May 6, 2008
The dollar is down 0.4% against the kiwi and Swiss franc but otherwise little changed. Oil spiked overnight to a new record high of $120.93/bbl but settled back to a net dip of 0.1% to $119.88/barrel. A Goldman Sachs research study predicts oil will climb above $150/bbl amid supply constraints within two years. Gold is […] More
