Euroland PPI
Fourth Quarter Starts with Lower Dollar, Firmer Equity Prices, and a Slew of Manufacturing PMI Surveys
October 1, 2020
The dollar fell overnight by 0.5% against the Swiss franc, Australian dollar, kiwi and sterling, by 0.4% versus the euro and by 0.2% relative to the Canadian dollar. A particularly sharp 1.5% drop came at the expense of the Mexican peso. The dollar is steady against the yen. U.S. Covid-19 cases increased 42.5k over the […] More
Equities Still Well Bid for the Most Part
September 2, 2020
Fed Governor Brainard’s call for more fiscal and monetary stimulus encouraged the risk appetite of investors overnight especially in European trading. Ten-year German bund and British gilt yields fell by 3 basis points each, and stock markets have risen by 2.3% in France and Germany, 2.2% in Italy, 1.7% in Switzerland, and 1.6% in Great […] More
More Weak Data, More Holiday Closures, and a Few Monetary Policy Reviews
May 5, 2020
Markets didn’t trade today in China (Labor Day), Japan (Children’s Day), or South Korea (also Children’s Day). Share prices elsewhere in the Pacific Rim went up 1.6% in Australian, 1.1% in Hong Kong, 0.9% in Malaysia (aided by an interest rate cut), and 0.5% in Indonesia and Taiwan. India’s Sensex index fell 0.8%, but European […] More
Awaiting Weekly U.S. Jobless Insurance Claims Data
April 2, 2020
The stage for this week’s renewed financial market pessimism had been set a week ago when the Labor Department reported a record 3.283K upsurge in new jobless insurance claims for the week of March 21st, and now investors are bracing for an even greater increase of close to 4 million or more. The U.S. advance […] More
China’s Central Bank to the Rescue
February 4, 2020
Stock markets around the world rebounded sharply after the People’s Bank of China ease its monetary stance to counter the growth impact of the coronavirus epidemic, where cases now exceed 20k and include over 425 deaths. The PBOC on Monday reverse repo rates by 10 basis points and injected CNY 1.2 trillion of liquidity. That […] More
Financial Markets Dominated by U.S.-Iran Concerns
January 6, 2020
Commodity price rises were extended Monday. WTI oil climbed 1.1%, while Comex gold is only $25 south of the $1,600 per ounce level. Share prices fell 1.9% in Japan and India, 1.3% in Taiwan, 1.0% in South Korea, and 0.8% in Hong Kong. In European trading, stocks are down 1.4% in Germany, 1.0% in Italy […] More
Fading Hopes of a U.S.-Sino Trade Deal Hammers Share Prices
December 3, 2019
Evidence keeps mounting that a near-term trade deal is slipping away. President Trump denied any deadline and hinted that a phase I agreement will not happen before next year. Angry about the U.S. congress’s resolution of support for Hong Kong protesters and perceived U.S. interference in Chinese domestic affairs on the mainland, Beijing officials reportedly […] More
Higher Bond Yields
November 5, 2019
Ten-year sovereign debt yields advanced by another five basis points overnight in Japan and the United States, by 3 bps in Germany and 1 basis point in Great Britain. The dollar fell 0.4% against the Chinese currency, edging back marginally under 7.0 yuan per dollar. Elsewhere, the dollar advanced 0.4% against the Swiss franc and […] More
Difficult Session for Indian Stocks and the Rupee… Key Vote on Brexit… Florida Watching Dorian Warily
September 3, 2019
The Sensex index of Indian share prices fell 2.1%, its worst daily session of 2019, and the rupee has fallen over 0.5% against the dollar. Investors reacted to a 6-year low in Indian on-year GDP growth and a 15-month low in the economy’s manufacturing purchasing managers index. British MPs in the House of Commons across […] More
More Evidence of a Global Slowdown
July 2, 2019
The dollar fell 0.4% against the Australian currency and 0.3% vis-a-vis the Japanese yen but is little changed otherwise. Equity markets in the pacific Rim slid 0.4% in South Korea and 0.3% in Taiwan but advanced 1.1% in China. In Europe, the British Ftse is up 0.5%, but the German Dax is unchanged. The U.S. […] More
