French business sentiment
Awaiting Speeches from Central Bankers
August 27, 2020
The third night of the Republican National Convention was mostly about law and order. The event concludes today with President Trump’s key speech to the party faithful. The message of “law and order” surfaced during the President Nixon’s 1968 successful run for president and has been a basic tenet of Republican campaigns ever since. Law […] More
Investors Spooked by Faster Proliferation of New Covid-19 Cases in the United States
June 24, 2020
The year-to-date number of reported U.S. infections, 2.424 million, has climbed somewhat more than 36k in the past 24 hours and 216 thousand from a week ago. This has created doubt that economic reopening can proceed as planned, and even supporters of President Trump are starting to lose patience that he has the right stuff […] More
COVID-19 Continues to Dominate World and Market News
February 25, 2020
Confirmed worldwide coronavirus infections and deaths now total 80,348 and 2707. 77,600 and 2663 of these are in China, but the disease continues to spread with Croatia and Austria reporting their initial instances, South Korea and Italy having 977 and 229 infections, and Iran’s deputy health minister becoming one of the casualties. The WHO warned […] More
Stronger Pound and a Central Bank Rate Cut in Malaysia
January 22, 2020
The dollar declined 0.7% against sterling but is narrowly mixed against other major currencies today. Stronger-than-expected British labor statistics released yesterday seemingly reduce the likelihood of further monetary stimulus by the Bank of England. Today’s batch of U.K. economic data releases produced a 5-month high in the orders component of the monthly CBI industrial trends […] More
Investors Concerned about Trade Strains Augmenting Slow Global Growth
November 21, 2019
Share prices overnight in the Pacific Rim fell 1.6% in Hong Kong, 1.4% in South Korea, 1.2% in Singapore, 0.7% in Australia, 0.6% in Taiwan and Indonesia, 0.5% in Japan and 0.3% in China. European stock markets are down but not as sharply as Asia’s. The dollar today is little changed since Wednesday’s close. Ten-year […] More
Fear of a U.S.-Sino Trade War and Fear of a U.S.-Iran Real War Send Shivers to Investors
May 13, 2019
U.S. President Trump was particularly provocative over the weekend even by his own standards. Trade talks stalled with China, and he’s threatening a further escalation if China retaliates against the higher U.S. tariffs imposed last Friday. Tighter U.S. economic sanctions against Iran and a reinforced show of military force in the middle east threaten to […] More
Australian Dollar Sinks 1% against U.S. Counterpart
April 24, 2019
Australian dollar weakness, evidence of gloomier business conditions in Germany, and a review of Canadian monetary policy highlight today’s market and economic developments. Softer-than-expected consumer price inflation depressed Australia’s currency by spurring speculation that the Reserve Bank of Australia might cut its 1.5% Official Cash Rate further. Consumer prices were flat on quarter in 1Q, […] More
Time Running Out on Several Matters
February 11, 2019
The temporary suspension of the U.S. Federal Government shutdown ends on Friday. A deal between the White House and Congressional Democrats that meets President Trump’s insistence on border wall funding is not in sight. Perhaps he should bankroll the project out of his personal wealth or establish a Go-Fund-Me campaign to raise the money. Chinese […] More
Difficult Session in Asia but European Markets Are Higher
September 10, 2018
Share prices fell 1.4% in Hong Kong, 1.2% in China and India, 1.1% in Taiwan, 0.7% in New Zealand, and 0.4% in Indonesia and Singapore. The Japanese Nikkei rose only 0.3% despite a significant upward revision of second-quarter GDP growth in that economy. Equities in Europe, by contrast, have advanced in today’s session so far […] More
Equity Market Volatility Picks Up
February 8, 2018
It’s been another difficult day for equities. Today’s session started fine enough, with gains of 1.0% in India, 0.5% in South Korea where the Winter Olympics are getting under way, and 0.4% in Hong Kong. These up-moves balanced declines of 0.4% in Japan and 1.4% in China where a considerably smaller trade surplus for January […] More
