Bank of Japan Tankan survey
Averted U.S. Government Shutdown Hasn’t Changed Financial Market Dynamics
October 2, 2023
The approved continuing resolution to keep the U.S. government running is only a temporary 48-day remedy. Moreover, it removes a downside short-term risk to U.S. growth and therefore a potential deterrent to Fed officials raising interest rates additionally this quarter. Ten-year sovereign debt yields rose overnight by six basis points in the United States, four […] More
June PMI Reports Put Spotlight on Deteriorating Factory Conditions Around the World
July 3, 2023
The observance of Canada Day and tomorrow’s Independence Day holiday in the United States will deprive market activity in the early part of this week. U.S. stock futures are little changed from Friday’s elevated closing levels. Share prices in Europe are similarly quite steady, whereas Asian markets took their lead from Friday’s rally, with gains […] More
Awaiting FOMC and Digesting Japanese Tankan and Released Price Data
December 14, 2022
The last scheduled FOMC meeting of 2022 will release a statement at 19:00 GMT. It will be accompanied by updated forecasts and followed by Chairman Powell’s press conference that starts at 19:30 GMT (14:30 EST). Street estimates center on a half percentage point interest rate hike today. In overnight trading the dollar has dropped 0.6% […] More
A Sign Emerges that Supply Constraints May Be Easing, but Investors Remain Bearish
July 1, 2022
Today’s been another fine day for the dollar. Thus far, the greenback shows gains of 1.6% against the Australian dollar, 1.5% versus the Swiss franc, 1.3% relative to the kiwi, 0.8% vis-a-vis sterling, 0.4% against the Canadian dollar but just 0.2% against the euro and zero percent against the Japanese yen and Chinese yuan. Equity […] More
Quiet Start to an Important Week
December 13, 2021
The dollar firmed o.2% overnight against the euro, Swiss franc and on a weighted basis as measured by the DXY index. The U.S. currency advanced more sharply versus the Canadian, Australian and New Zealand dollars — respectively 0.5%, 0.6% and 0.4% — but has not moved on net relative to Japan’s yen. Equity markets rose […] More
Evidence of Two-Speed Post-Pandemic Recovery and Some Encouraging News on the Inflation Front
July 1, 2021
The first day of July brought a slew of manufacturing purchasing manager surveys. Recovery from the Covid recession is developing faster than than the upswing from the Great Recession, but countries that have been forced to reimpose restrictions on social gathering are seeing their recoveries lag others. Currencies are also becoming more aligned with Covid-management […] More
Risk On Despite Gigantic Hacking Incident
December 14, 2020
Russia again is being accused of an enormous cyber crime centered on Google. Many, many passwords have been compromised. Global Covid cases over the past 3 days (72 hours) totaled just slightly less than 2 million, and the worldwide death count was nearly 30k. There were almost 700k cases and over 6.5k deaths in the […] More
Stocks and Sovereign Debt Yields Up on Better-than-Expected Chinese and British Manufacturing Data
April 1, 2019
This is not an April Fool’s joke. China’s NBS manufacturing purchasing managers index climbed 1.3 points to a 6-month high of 50.5 in March from February’s 3-year low, while the Caixin-compiled Chinese manufacturing PMI reading of 50.8 constituted an 8-month high. Also, the NBS nonmanufacturing PMI rose 0.5 points to a 6-month high as well […] More
Weak Data Intensify Investor Flight from Risky Assets
December 14, 2018
Equities fell 2.0% in Japan, 1.9% in Hong Kong, 1.5% in China, 1.3% in New Zealand and South Korea, 1.1% in Australia and Singapore, and 0.9% in Taiwan. Share prices are also down 1.0% in the U.S. and Switzerland, 0.8% in France, 0.7% in Italy, and 0.6% in Canada and Germany. The flight to safety […] More
Third Quarter Begins with Dramatic Dollar Appreciation and Stock Market Losses
July 2, 2018
The dollar strengthened 1.1% versus the peso and kiwi, 0.8% relative to the yuan and Australian dollar, 0.7% against the euro and sterling, 0.6% vis-a-vis the Swiss franc, 0.4% against the loonie but just 0.1% versus the yen. Share prices slumped 2.5% in China, 2.4% in South Korea, and 2.2% in Japan as well as […] More
