New Overnight Developments Abroad - Daily Update
Economic Data and Central Bank Plans Occupy Most Attention
August 21, 2014
The Jackson Hole Symposium for central banking begins today. July 30 FOMC minutes released yesterday expressed surprise over the speed of improvement in the U.S. labor market and noted that Fed exit strategy will be anchored around the fed funds target. Chair Janet Yellen speaks Friday at the Symposium. ECB President Draghi also addresses the […] More
New Overnight Developments Abroad - Daily Update
Wedesday Roundup
August 20, 2014
There’s a firmer tone to the dollar, which advanced as high as $1.3275 per euro and JPY 103.42, which was a 4-month high against the Japanese currency. Ten-year Treasury, British gilt, and Japanese JGB yields are a basis point higher. The situation in Ferguson overnight was more orderly. European equities have fallen. Japan’s Nikkei closed […] More
New Overnight Developments Abroad - Daily Update
Tuesday Highlights
August 19, 2014
The dollar, equities, and sovereign debt yields rose. Perceived geopolitical risks lessened. New Zealand producer prices recorded their greatest quarter-on-quarter drop since 3Q12, and government officials revised growth and inflation forecasts slightly downward for New Zealand. British CPI and PPI inflation decelerated more than expected in July. Euroland recorded current account surpluses in July of […] More
New Overnight Developments Abroad - Daily Update
A Geopolitically Predisposed Market
August 18, 2014
Not much is happening this Monday from a data release standpoint, so market direction has come from geopolitical developments. Russian/Ukraine talks began in Berlin Sunday towards a ceasefire in their border clash. Officials at the German Bundesbank said geopolitical risks have been weighing on Euroland’s largest economy. Russia’s Central Bank widened the Ruble’s allowed trading […] More
Foreign Exchange Insights and Next Week
Next Week
August 15, 2014
For central bank junkies, next Friday is the first day of the Jackson Hole central banker symposium, which is sponsored each year by the Kansas City Fed in late August. Market-moving news has often emerged from this gathering of the who’s who in central banking. Minutes from previous meetings of the Bank of England, Reserve […] More
New Overnight Developments Abroad - Daily Update
Market Focus Shifts to North America
August 15, 2014
Attention earlier in the week had been mostly on the weak GDP data reported in Japan and Continental Europe, but today it’s on a slew of released North American statistic, racial unrest in Ferguson, Missouri and President Obama’s response to such. The dollar fell overnight by 0.4% against the Canadian dollar, 0.2% versus the euro […] More
Central Bank Watch
Central Bank of Chile
August 14, 2014
Chile’s monetary policy interest rate was sliced by 25 basis points for the seventh time since last October and in the second consecutive month. The rate is now 3.5%. A released statement from central bank officials notes that growth in output and demand have slowed faster than anticipated and projects a decline in inflation: […] More
Foreign Exchange Insights and Next Week
A Modest Proposal
August 14, 2014
Tomorrow will mark the 43rd anniversary of the most famous event in modern currency market history. I refer to former President Nixon’s decision to sever the dollar’s link to gold. The dollar devalued four months later in a vain attempt to reestablish fixed parities. A second dollar devaluation followed 14 months afterward in February 1973, […] More
Central Bank Watch
No Change in the BI Central Bank Interest Rate
August 14, 2014
Indonesia’s key central bank interest rate will stay at 7.5%, its level since a 25-basis point hike last October that culminated 175 basis points of tightening compressed into a four-month period, which was orchestrated to reduce inflation, support the rupiah and diminish Indonesia’s large current account deficit that’s running at between 3.0 and 3.5% of […] More
Central Bank Watch
Bank of Korea Cuts Base Rate to 2.25% from 2.5%
August 14, 2014
Although the South Korean base rate hadn’t changed since cuts of 25 basis points each in November 2012 and May 2013, today’s action was anticipated by market players because of the dovish statement in July that revealed one dissent in favor of a rate cut at that month’s meeting. Today’s statement warns of the possibility […] More
