Dollar
Emergency Bank of Japan Meeting Has Louder Bark Than Bite
August 30, 2010
The dollar fell overnight by 0.9% against the Canadian dollar, 0.6% versus sterling, 0.4% against the yen, and 0.1% relative to the Swiss franc. The dollar firmed 0.4% against the kiwi, 0.2% against the euro and 0.1% relative to the Australian dollar and Chinese yuan. Japan’s Nikkei-225 equity index closed 1.8% higher but had climbed [...] More
Risk Aversion Wanes Somewhat
August 17, 2010
Currencies that benefit from greater risk aversion have eased. The Swiss franc and yen lost 0.4% and 0.2% against the dollar, which otherwise fell by 0.6% against the Canadian and Australian currencies, 0.5% against the euro, 0.3% against the kiwi, 0.2% against the yuan and 0.1% relative to sterling. Stocks recovered 2.2% in Sri Lanka, [...] More
Dollar Slips Against Yen, Euro, and Swiss Franc
August 16, 2010
The dollar lost 1.3% against the Swissy, 0.7% relative to the yen and 0.5% versus the euro. The greenback is steady against the Canadian dollar and sterling but up by 0.5% against the kiwi, 0.2% against the Australian dollar and 0.1% versus the Chinese yuan, which has retreated past 6.8000 per dollar. Market chatter about [...] More
Few Feeling Confident or Lucky on This Friday the Thirteenth
August 13, 2010
A mid-August Friday afternoon and Friday the thirteenth no less would be a precarious place for currency traders to sit in the best of circumstances, and these are certainly not that. Trouble lurks wherever one peers, and the market reaction is risk aversion. Start with the U.S. economy because that is where perceptions have been [...] More
Third Anniversary
August 6, 2010
The world financial crisis began on August 8, 2007. The third anniversary finds a very heterogeneous world business cycle. Growth in global real GDP is again above 4.0%, something almost nobody foresaw a year ago. Many emerging economies in Latin America and Asia, a far wider spectrum than just India and China, are experiencing very [...] More
U.S. Factory PMI Reading Below Euro Area Score for First Time in 19 Months
August 2, 2010
Manufacturing activity expanded at a slower rate, while the growth in Euroland manufacturing accelerated last month. The dichotomy in those trends makes sense in light of the the dollar’s 27.5% advance from 1.5149 per euro in late November to 1.1878 in early June. Both regions had solid above-50 readings between 55 and 57, but Europe’s [...] More
July in Figures
July 31, 2010
July was a month of lessening risk aversion in spite of mounting concern about U.S. and Japanese growth prospects and continuing unease over the fiscal austerity that is coming to Europe. The dollar fell across the board, and significant stock market losses in the second quarter were trimmed unevenly. Ten-year sovereign debt yield changes for [...] More
Beware of August
July 30, 2010
The upcoming third anniversary of the financial crisis finds advanced economies deeper in debt, struggling to maintain traction, and without a consensus over policy priorities. Confusion also exists over the next direction of major currencies. The dollar lost value against most currencies during July in a pattern that persisted into the final days of the [...] More
Weak Euro Helping Europe and Hurting the United States
July 23, 2010
In disinflationary or deflationary times, it pays to have a depreciating currency. This lesson was underscored in the Great Depression when Britain went off the gold standard before the United States. The pound fell, and Britain’s economy faired better than America’s. The lines of causation between exchange rate changes and economic fundamentals do not only [...] More
Japanese Officials Concerned About Yen’s Strength
July 19, 2010
The dollar recovered 0.4% against the yen amid rumors BOJ might ease if yen stays near 85 per dollar level. The dollar also gained 0.7% against the kiwi, 0.2% versus the loonie, and 0.1% relative to the Swiss franc, Aussie dollar, Chinese yuan and sterling. The greenback slipped 0.3% against the euro. The Hungarian forint [...] More
