Euroland industrial production
Equity Markets Rise and Dollar Narrowly Mixed
February 12, 2020
Fed Chairman Powell will reprise yesterday’s upbeat Humphrey Hawkins testimony today before the Senate Banking Committee. He characterized the U.S. economy as “in a very good place” and said policy would react to the coronavirus impact only if such proves “persistent and material.” Recent remarks by other Fed officials such as Harker, Daly, and Bullard […] More
Share Prices Slip
January 15, 2020
If all goes as planned, the Phase One trade deal between China and the United States will be signed today, but significant tariffs remain. The quarterly meeting of branch managers at the Bank of Japan downgraded economic conditions in three of the nine main regions but found none to be experiencing contracting growth and remained […] More
Central Banks, Economic Data Surprises, and British Voters in the News This Thursday
December 12, 2019
Polls in Britain’s parliamentary election today will close at 22:00 GMT 17:00 EST. The fate of Brexit is at stake. U.S. producer prices stayed unchanged in November, defying expectations of an increase and leaving the 12-month increase at 1.1%. An even bigger surprise was a leap in new jobless insurance claims last week to 252k, […] More
A Little Bit of Everything This Wednesday
November 13, 2019
Investors have much to watch today including two separate congressional events of great interest. Public hearings on a possible impeachment of President Trump begin at 10:00 EST in the House Intelligence Committee, and one hour later Fed Chairman Powell testifies on the economic outlook before the Joint Economic Committee. There’s already been one central bank […] More
Sterling and European Share Prices Falter
October 14, 2019
In this important week for the fate of Brexit, sterling dropped 0.9% against the dollar overnight. On a day with holiday closures in the United States (Columbus Day), Canada (Thanksgiving), and Japan (Health Sports Day), the dollar otherwise advanced 0.7% against the kiwi, 0.2% versus the euro, and 0.5% relative to the Australian dollar but […] More
Markets React to ECB Stimulus, U.S. CPI Data, and Continuing Hopes on Trade Talks
September 12, 2019
Policymakers at the European Central Bank as expected cut the deposit rate by 10 basis points to minus 0.50%, announced an open-ended asset purchase program to start in November at EUR 20 billion per month, said targeted LTRO operations will carry the average deposit rate, and introduced a a 2-tiered system of reserve remuneration in […] More
Softer Dollar as Second Week of July Draws to a Close
July 12, 2019
The dollar fell overnight by 0.5% against the Swiss franc, 0.4% versus the yen, 0.3% relative to the Australian dollar, and 0.2% vis-a-vis the loonie, peso, and sterling. EUR/USD is unchanged, however. The S&P 500, Hang Seng, Nikkei, and German Dax are barely changed, but Chinese equities rose 0.5% after release of Chinese data showing […] More
Dead Cat Bounce
May 14, 2019
The escalation of trade war hostilities between the U.S. and China rattled global financial markets significantly yesterday, but today’s mood has been more encouraging. Share prices in Europe are up so far by 1.2% in France, 1.0% in the U.K. and Italy, and 0.9% in Germany. In Asia, equities fell 1.8% in Hong Kong, which […] More
Stocks and Oil Firmer but Dollar and Fixed Income Asset Prices Lower
April 12, 2019
The dollar has weakened 0.7% against the Aussie dollar, 0.6% relative to the kiwi, 0.5% versus the euro, 0.4% vis-a-vis the loonie, 0.3% against the yen, peso and sterling and 0.2% versus the Swiss franc and Chinese yuan. The price of WTI oil strengthened nearly 1% overnight and is again above $64.00 per barrel. The […] More
Awaiting Another Key Vote on Brexit
March 13, 2019
Yesterday’s British parliamentary vote on Prime Minister May’s revamped Brexit deal saw around 40 MPs flip from having voted no in January to now accepting the arrangement. The deal was nonetheless easily rejected by 391 nays to 242 yes votes. Today’s key vote asks MPs for approval for the U.K. to leave the EU after […] More
