Bank of England
Bank of England’s Scheduled Policy Review Today Didn’t Augment Steps Taken Earlier in the Month
March 26, 2020
The Bank of England’s Monetary Policy Committee had lowered the bank rate from 0.75% to 0.25% on March 11 and by a further 15 basis points to 0.10%, a record low, on March 19. Officials also had lifted the ceiling on the purchases of gilt securities and corporate bonds to GBP 645 billion and had […] More
Shocking Leap in U.S. Jobless Insurance Claims Steals the Spotlight
March 26, 2020
From the outset of this week, the most feared data release was today’s report on new jobless insurance claims for the week ending March 21, which was going to capture the impact of broad business lockdowns to combat the spreading Covid-19 pandemic. New claims had averaged 251k during the four weeks through March 14, and […] More
Dollar Down After Fed Expands Currency Swap Network.. Equities Up in Asia and Europe
March 20, 2020
The dollar fell overnight by 2.9% against the Australian dollar, 2.5% relative to the kiwi, 2.2% versus sterling, 2.0% vis-a-vis the loonie, 0.8% against the peso, 0.6% versus the yen and 0.4% relative to the euro and Swiss franc. The swap line arrangement that enables central banks to exchange on a temporary basis their own […] More
Bank of England Returns Key Interest Rate to 0.25% after Unscheduled Emergency Session of the MPC
March 11, 2020
At an unscheduled meeting of the Bank of England’s Monetary Policy Committee, members voted unanimously to cut the base rate by 50 basis points, thus reversing the two 25-bp hikes engineered in November 2017 and August 2018 and restoring the rate to the post-Brexit level of 0.25% reached in the second half of 2016. According […] More
Continuing Market Volatility, an Unscheduled Bank of England Rate Cut, and Big Night for Biden
March 11, 2020
Share prices in Asia fell 2.3% in Japan, 2.8% in South Korea, 3.6% in Australia, 1.7% in Singapore and 0.9% in China. U.S. futures are down, but in Europe, stocks have so far risen 1.3% in France, 1.0% in Germany, 0.7% in Spain, and 0.6% in both the U.K. and Switzerland. The ten-year U.S. Treasury […] More
Bank of England Makes No Policy Change
January 30, 2020
The Bank of England’s policy rate has been 0.75% since a pair of 25-basis point hikes in November 2017 and August 2018. There were no changes made in 2019 or at this week’s first meeting of the Monetary Policy Committee this week. There were dissenting votes, however, but Saunders and Haskel, who have favored a […] More
Coronavirus Outbreak Tops Busy List of Developments for Markets to Process
January 30, 2020
Several central banks held their first policy reviews of 2020. Those in Chile and Great Britain left their interest rate structures unchanged at 1.75% and 0.75%, respectively. The National Bank of Ukraine implemented its sixth rate cut in nine months, a 150-basis point reduction to 11.0%. The Central Bank of Sri Lanka engineered its third […] More
Thursday Rundown of Overnight News, Data Reports, and Central Bank Decisions
December 19, 2019
President Trump has been impeached by a House of Representatives partisan vote of 229-197. He will get a trial in the senate. Market movements today are mostly unremarkable. Sovereign debt yields are up. Equities are down a bit in Europe but started on an up note in the United States. New Zealand’s stock market rallied […] More
Bank of England Policy Left As Is But Reveals a Dovish Sign
November 7, 2019
Sterling’s slide reflects one of the days biggest surprises. While the Bank of England Monetary Policy Committee left unchanged existing stocks of corporate bond purchases, U.K. gilt purchases, and the 0.75% bank rate, the vote by the 9-person committee on the interest rate level drew dissents favoring a cut by Michael Saunders and Jonathan Haskel. […] More
Risk Back On
November 7, 2019
A claim was made by a Chinese Commerce Ministry spokesman that the U.S. and China have agreed to a phased and mutual reduction of trade deficits but only contingent on a trade deal being done. Stock markets are up 0.7% in Germany, 1.0% in Australia, 0.7% in Singapore, 0.6% in Hong Kong, 0.5% in India, […] More
