Central Bank Watch
FOMC Statement, Projections and Press Conference
March 20, 2024
Today’s FOMC statement matches the last one with the exception of the deletion of “have moderated since early last year but” from the sentence that now reads “Job gains [deleted phrase] have remained strong, and…” in the first paragraph. Decisions to leave the the federal funds rate at 5.25-5.50% and to continue reducing asset holdings […] More
Central Bank Watch
Preview of March 2024 FOMC Meeting
March 20, 2024
The thrust of Chairman Powell’s press conference after the last FOMC meeting was that monetary officials are happy with the U.S. economic performance — a combination of solid growth, very low unemployment, and a faster-than-imagined drop of inflation — but that they are waiting for more evidence of such satisfactory trends before beginning to reduce […] More
New Overnight Developments Abroad - Daily Update
A Focus on Central Banks, Particularly the Fed
March 20, 2024
At 14:00 EDT (18:00 GMT), the Federal Open Market Committee will telegraph the decisions from its second scheduled policy meeting of 2024. The federal funds rate target will be left at 5.25-5.50% where such has been since last July. An updated set of forecasts also at 14:00 EDT will provide the first indication of any […] More
Central Bank Watch
Bank of Japan Exits Negative Short-Term Interest Rate Territory
March 19, 2024
The Bank of Japan‘s ended “yield curve control”, a negative short-term interest rate target, and asset purchases other than government bonds and restored the primacy of its overnight rate — now 0-0.1% — as its primary policy tool. These changes were justified by the greater-than-expected 5% wage increases that came out of this year’s spring […] More
New Overnight Developments Abroad - Daily Update
Yen Slides 0.9% in Spite of First Bank of Japan Interest Rate Hike Since February 2007
March 19, 2024
The Bank of Japan‘s ended “yield curve control”, a negative short-term interest rate target, and asset purchases other than government bonds and restored the primacy of its overnight rate — now 0-0.1% — as its primary policy tool. These changes were justified by the greater-than-expected 5% wage increases that came out of this year’s spring […] More
New Overnight Developments Abroad - Daily Update
Global Equities Rise as Week With Many Central Bank Meetings Kicks Off
March 18, 2024
Among the many central bank policy meetings lined up for the coming week, two questions loom in particular. Will the Fed reduce the number of likely rate cuts this year from three as indicated earlier? Possibly. And will the Bank of Japan Board end its negative 0.1% overnight interest rate target, which is deemed likely […] More
Foreign Exchange Insights and Next Week
Next Week’s Menu: March 16-22, 2024
March 15, 2024
Central Banks: Interest rate-setting meetings in the United States, U.K., Japan, Switzerland, Mexico, Brazil, Indonesia, China, Taiwan, Russia, Norway, Iceland, Morocco, and Czech Republic. Post-meeting press conferences will be presented by Powell, Bailey, Ueda, Bullock, and Jordan among others. Updated Fed forecasts will be revealed. Special Events and Holidays: Russia’s presidential election runs Saturday through […] More
New Overnight Developments Abroad - Daily Update
Equity Resilience Despite an Elusive Start Date for Fed Rate Cuts
March 15, 2024
A round of sticky U.S. price data has put the onset of an easing cycle in Fed policy on ice temporarily. February consumer and producer prices rose considerably more sharply than anticipated. So was today’s news of an 0.8% monthly jump in export prices. The 0.3% advance in import prices merely matched expectations, and resulted […] More
New Overnight Developments Abroad - Daily Update
Continuing Focus Upon Inflation Data
March 14, 2024
Several price data were released this Thursday even before the highly awaited U.S. PPI report. The monthly increase of Spanish consumer prices in February got revised higher to 0.4% from 0.3% reported initially, by year-on-year CPI inflation remained unchanged at a 6-month low of 2.8%. Spanish inflation peaked in July 2022 at 10.8%. Irish CPI […] More
Central Bank Watch
National Bank of Georgia Interest Rate Reduced to 8.25% from 9.0%
March 13, 2024
Officials at the National Bank of Georgia implemented a bigger interest rate cut of 75 basis points this month than those of 50 bps at the prior two policy reviews. They cited the very low CPI inflation rate of 0.3% versus a target of 3.0% and a high-water mark of 13.9% recorded in December 2021 […] More
