purchasing manager surveys
Equities, Sovereign Debt Yields, and Commodity Prices Higher, while Dollar Softens at Start of New Week
August 23, 2021
Ahead of the Jackson Hole annual central banking symposium at the end of this week, investors have become more hopeful than last week. Whether bond buying starts to taper this year or in early 2022, it will be quite a while longer before the federal funds target is raised. Second-quarter earnings were good, Equities closed […] More
Dollar Is a Touch Softer
June 23, 2021
The dollar is 0.1% softer against its DXY weighted index. The greenback slid 0.3% overnight against the Canadian, Australian and New Zealand dollars, 0.2% versus sterling and 0.1% relative to the yuan but firmed 0.1% against the yen and is unchanged against the euro, Swiss franc and Turkish lira. Equity markets are mixed. Share prices […] More
April PMI Results, Bold U.S. Policy Proposals, and a 50-Basis Point Central Bank Hike in Russia
April 23, 2021
The weighted dollar fell 0.3% overnight and double that for the week. Against specific other currencies, the dollar lost 0.7% against the Japanese yen, 0.3% relative to the euro, Australian dollar and sterling, and 0.2% versus the Swiss franc, Mexican peso, and New Zealand and Canadian dollars. The dollar held steady against the Chinese yuan […] More
Equities, Sovereign Debt Yields, and Gold Down
May 21, 2020
The see-sawing pattern of stock markets from day to day continued on Thursday. After Wednesday’s advances, share prices are presently down today by 1.3% in Germany, 0.9% in France, 0.6% in the U.K., and 0.5% in Italy. Markets closed down 0.6% in China and New Zealand, 0.5% in Hong Kong and 0.2% in Japan, and […] More
Market Hopes Hinging on a Big U.S. Fiscal Stimulus
March 24, 2020
Republicans and Democrats in the U.S. congress have still not reached agreement on fiscal policy, but markets are apparently more hopeful that it will get done soon. As a result, stock markets, commodity prices, and sovereign debt prices are up, while the dollar gave up some recent gains overnight. The global count of confirmed coronavirus […] More
Dollar Continuing to Flourish Amid Coronavirus Concerns
February 21, 2020
The dollar climbed overnight by 0.8% against the peso, 0.3% relative to the Australian and New Zealand dollars and 0.1% versus the Chinese Renminbi. There have been dips of 0.3% against sterling, 0.2% versus the Swiss franc and 0.1% relative to the yen and euro. Dollar strength can be seen against a broad spectrum of […] More
Meaningful Data from Abroad and a Paralyzed U.S. Federal Government
November 22, 2019
Today’s main dollar move has been a 0.4% rise against sterling. Provisional U.K. purchasing manager survey results from November revealed surprisingly weaker-than-expected developments. The composite PMI fell 1.5 points to a sub-50 reading of 48.5, lowest since July 2016 or, that is, right after the infamously ill-advised Brexit referendum. Both manufacturing (48.3) and services (48.6) […] More
Central Bankers Less Confident about What To Do
February 21, 2019
FOMC minutes from the late January policy review clarified that the Committee’s new buzz word “patience” reflects uncertainty as to what outlook the latest economic data and other factors may be implying. “In light of the range of uncertainties associated with global economic and financial developments, the Committee decided that it was not useful at […] More
Turkish Lira Slumps while Global Equities Perform Better
July 24, 2018
Turkey’s sharp monetary tightening in May and June was unexpectedly not extended further this month, and the lira fell as much as 4% today. Turkish bond prices also fell sharply. Turkey’s 14-year CPI inflation high of 15.4% is still cresting. In yet another state under authoritarian rule, Hungary’s central bank also left monetary policy unchanged […] More
A Newsworthy Start to the Week
May 23, 2016
At the weekend meeting in Japan of Group of Seven finance ministers and central bankers, participants disagreed over the yen, expressed concern about Brexit and, more generally, the outlook for global growth, and pledged coordinated effort to prevent the financing of terrorism. U.S. Treasury Secretary Lew towed the precedent pledge not to engage in competitive […] More
