Japan
Japanese Fourth Quarter GDP Contracted 1.1% annualized
February 13, 2011
The 1.1% drop in GDP last quarter was about half as steep as feared. Real GDP still advanced 3.9% in 2010, the most since 1990. The main sources of growth in 2010 came from net exports (1.8 percentage points), personal consumption (1.1 ppts) and inventories (0.6 ppts). Government spending, residential investment and non-residential investment made […] More
Investors Watching North African Developments
January 31, 2011
Trading today has been calmer than on Friday. News highlights from Egypt include About 150 feared dead in Egyptian unrest. Foreigners are scrambling to leave the country. A Suez Canal officials said traffic through the seaway has not been affected. Moody’s cut its rating on Egyptian debt to Ba2 from Ba1. Egypt’s stock market and […] More
Bank of Japan Corporate Survey Results Better Than Imagined Three Months Ago
December 14, 2010
11,183 companies participated in the latest quarterly survey by Japan’s central bank. In the table below which documents the evolution of results, abbreviations used in the first four columns of data stand for big manufacturers (Bm), big non-manufacturer (Bnm), small manufacturers (Sm) and small non-manufacturers (Smn). Where no “a” or “f” suffix is shown after […] More
Another Tightening of Chinese Reserve Requirements
December 10, 2010
The dollar is unchanged against the euro, Canadian dollar, and Chinese yuan but has dropped 0.5% against the kiwi, 0.4% relative to the Australian dollar and sterling, 0.2% versus the yen and 0.1% against the Swiss franc. Equities in Asia fell by 1.0% in Indonesia, 0.9% in Malaysia, 0.8% in Singapore, 0.7% in Japan, and […] More
One-Day Dollar Correction Out of Steam
November 9, 2010
The dollar had opened firmer this week on Monday and strengthened further overnight to 1.3824 per euro, but it relapsed subsequently to 1.3951 currently, a net slide of 0.2% since yesterday’s New York closing. The dollar also shows net overnight losses of 0.6% against the Swissy, 0.7% versus the yen, and 0.3% against sterling and […] More
Awaiting U.S. GDP Today, Next Tuesday’s Election, and QE2 Announcement on Wednesday
October 29, 2010
On this last trading day of October, new concerns about Greece and other Ezone peripherals have depressed the euro by 0.7% against the dollar. The greenback also gained 0.7% against the Australian dollar, 0.5% versus the Swiss franc and 0.2% against the Canadian dollar and sterling. The dollar lost 0.2% against the yen and yuan, […] More
Geithner Remark Lends Dollar Slight Support
October 19, 2010
The dollar rose 0.6% against sterling, 0.4% versus the kiwi, 0.3% relative to the Canadian dollar, 0.2% against the yen, euro and Australian dollar, and 0.1% against the Swissy. The yuan is steady against the dollar. Today marks the 23rd anniversary of the Dow’s 22.6% crash of 1987. Conditions are calm. Stocks advanced 2.1% in […] More
Shifting Geographical Sources of Global Growth
October 7, 2010
The IMF’s October 2010 World Economic Outlook released in conjunction with this week’s IMF/World Bank meetings in Washington contains useful information for sorting world growth trends over the past two decades. Growth rates in the table below are expressed in annualized terms, that is percent per annum. Figures in the right-most column embody IMF growth […] More
Third-Quarter Wind-Down
September 30, 2010
Many data releases arrived on this final day of the third calendar quarter. Sentiment is better toward Europe and more guarded about Japan and the United States. ECB 12-month and 6-month loans totaling EUR 93 billion are expiring. EUR 28 billion of 3-month ECB liquidity is not getting rolled over, as a EUR 104 billion […] More
More Japanese Intervention Threatened But Not Done
September 16, 2010
Yesterday’s intervention by Japan of almost $22 billion equivalent was a single-day record, but nothing further has been reported so far today. Prime Minister Kan nonetheless said the operations will continue. The Bank of Japan is reportedly resisting political pressures to call an emergency Policy Board meeting and enact further quantitative easing. Governor Shirakawa simply […] More
