Central Bank Watch
Magyar Nemzeti Bank Retains Loose Policy
March 28, 2017
Hungary’s monetary policy interest rate has been at 0.90% since a 15-basis point reduction in May 2016 and continues to be augmented by unconventional stimulus. A policy statement released today by the Monetary Council indicates a continuing intention to use these multiple means to secure the inflation target of 3% in a sustainable way by […] More
New Overnight Developments Abroad - Daily Update
A Better Trading Session for Stocks
March 28, 2017
Only a few insignificant data reports have been released in Asia and Europe. Markets are viewing the implications of the U.S. healthcare bill fiasco on other Trump Administration legislative plans with less alarm and took advantage of the softer dollar and lower long-term interest rates to rebuild equity positions. Renewed confidence in the buoyancy of […] More
Uncategorized
Dollar, Stocks, and Bond Yields Drop
March 27, 2017
Markets reacted poorly to the scrapped U.S. health care bill. Disappointment transcends Trump’s inability to secure this promised deal. The repeal and replacement of Obamacare was intended to generate cost savings to the government needed to finance planned tax cuts. Tax reform will now be associated with larger fiscal deficits than had been planned, so […] More
Central Bank Watch
Central Bank of Colombia
March 24, 2017
A statement has been released after the third 25-basis point reduction of Colombia’s benchmark interest rate in four months. The rate becomes 7.0%, lowest since last May. From April 2014 until July 2016, 15 25-basis point interest rate hikes were engineered by monetary authorities. While inflation of 5.2% in February was higher than the 3% […] More
Foreign Exchange Insights and Next Week
Next Week
March 24, 2017
Central Banks: Interest rate meetings in South Africa, the Czech Republic, Romania, Czech Republic, Mexico and Thailand. BOJ releases summary of mid-March Board meeting. Fed officials scheduled to speak publicly include Kaplan, Evans, Williams, George, and Rosengren. Other monetary policymakers speaking in public are Governor Zhou of the People’s Republic of China, Governor Poloz of […] More
Central Bank Watch
Bank of Russia Cuts Key Interest Rate to 9.75%
March 24, 2017
Having previously cut its interest rate by six percentage points during the first seven months of 2015 and by an additional 50 basis points each in June and September of last year, most analysts were not anticipating further easing at this time. A released statement concedes that inflation risks “remain elevated.” Nonetheless, the ruble has […] More
Central Bank Watch
Central Bank of Sri Lanka Raises Deposit and Lending Rates by 25 Basis Points
March 24, 2017
This third round of tightening was smaller in size (25 basis points) than the incremental increases of 50 basis points each in February and July of 2016. The Standing Deposit and Standing Lending Rates now become 7.25% and 8.75%, the cumulative 125 basis point hike since last July reverses more than half of the previous […] More
New Overnight Developments Abroad - Daily Update
House Vote, Some PMI Results, and Divergent Interest Rate Moves
March 24, 2017
It’s deja vu this Friday. The repeal and replace vote in the U.S. House of Representatives to replace the ACA with the Republican Insurance Policy, which was scheduled for Thursday, is to happen instead today. President Trump wants no more negotiations on this. The result looms as a huge test of the new president’s ability […] More
Central Bank Watch
Filipino Central Bank Interest Rates Unchanged
March 23, 2017
At the second meeting of the monetary board of Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas, all policy settings including the 3.0% reverse repo rate were kept unchanged. A released statement calls inflation manageable while conceding that price risks are skewed somewhat to the upside. Inflation has picked up in the first couple of months of 2017 due […] More
New Overnight Developments Abroad - Daily Update
Wait and See Market Mood
March 23, 2017
After stocks sold off earlier this week, there’s been a pause this Thursday, as investors await the U.S. House of Representatives vote on the Republican Insurance Policy and the scheduled public comments of Fed Chair Yellen and Minneapolis Fed District President Kashkari, who dissented from this month’s federal funds rate hike. Wednesday’s terrorist act in London […] More
