Central Bank Watch
No Changes Foreseen From July's ECB Policy Meeting
July 1, 2009
The ECB Governing Council, the 16 presidents of EMU member central banks plus the six directors, holds an off-site policy meeting in Luxembourg tomorrow where “wait and see” will be the order of the day. It would likely take an unexpected deepening of the regional and global recessions to elicit either a further central bank [...] More
Currency Markets in the News
U.S. Advantage in Manufacturing Over Euro Area Held Generally Steady in June
July 1, 2009
Mf’g PMI’s United States Euroland Spread EUR/USD Feb 2008 48.8 52.3 -3.5 1.475 March 49.0 52.0 -3.0 1.553 April 48.6 50.7 -2.1 1.574 May 49.3 50.6 -1.3 1.555 June 49.5 49.2 +0.3 1.557 July 49.5 47.4 +2.1 1.577 August 49.3 47.6 +1.7 1.497 September 43.4 45.0 -1.6 1.437 October 38.7 41.1 -2.4 1.331 November 36.6 35.6 +1.0 1.268 December 32.9 33.9 -1.0 1.351 Jan 2009 35.6 34.4 +1.2 1.326 Feb 2009 35.8 33.5 +2.3 1.303 Mar 2009 36.3 33.9 +2.4 1.306 Apr 2009 40.1 36.8 +3.3 1.318 May 2009 42.8 40.7 +2.1 1.365 Jun 2009 44.8 42.6 +2.2 1.401 The rates of factory sector contraction slowed in tandem last month in the United States and Euroland. Readings below 50 connote contracting activity. The closer the result is to 50, the more gentle is the rate of contraction. Except in April, the spread between the U.S. [...] More
Bonds and Stocks
June in Figures
July 1, 2009
The dollar’s 6.7% advance against the Canadian loonie reversed a big loss in May. The dollar advanced by 1.8% against the Swiss franc, another currency where officials seek a softer tone. Smaller dollar gains were posted against the euro and yen, while losses were made against the pound, Aussie dollar and kiwi. U.S. bond spreads [...] More
New Overnight Developments Abroad - Daily Update
New Overnight Developments Abroad: Many PMI Readings and Japanese Tankan Survey Released
July 1, 2009
Currencies reflect less risk aversion. Dollar rose 0.6% against the yen but is otherwise down 0.6% against the C-dollar, 0.4% against the euro, 0.3% against the Swissy, and 0.1% against the Aussie dollar. The dollar also rose 0.4% against the kiwi but is unchanged against sterling. Stocks are mixed. There have been gains of 2.3% in [...] More
Currency Markets in the News
Tankan Survey Shows Less Improvement in Japan's Economy Than Expected
July 1, 2009
Bm Bnm Sm Snm All Dec 1998 -49 -39 -56 -43 Dec 1999 -17 -19 -32 -28 Dec 2000 10 -10 -16 -23 Dec 2001 -38 -22 -49 -39 -40 Dec 2002 -9 -16 -33 -36 -28 Dec 2003 11 -9 -13 -28 -15 Dec 2004 22 11 5 -14 1 Dec 2005 21 17 7 -17 5 Dec 2006 25 22 12 -4 10 Dec 2007 19 16 2 -12 2 Mar 2008 11 12 -6 -15 -4 Jun 2008 5 10 -10 -20 -7 Sep 2008 -3 1 -17 -24 -14 Dec 2008f -4 -1 -25 -31 -19 Dec 2008a -24 -9 -29 -29 -24 Mar 2009f -36 -14 -48 -42 -38 Mar 2009a -58 -31 -57 -42 -46 Jun 2009f -51 -30 -63 -52 -52 Jun 2009a -48 -29 -57 -44 -45 Sep 2009f -30 -21 -53 -45 -41 Diffusion indices in the above table were derived by subtracting the percent of respondents calling business conditions “unfavorable” from the percent characterizing such as “favorable.” The abbreviations for big manufacturers and big non-manufacturers are Bm [...] More
