Swiss retail sales
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
Some Setbacks, Many Data Reports, and Powell to Testify
June 30, 2020
After a big gain on Monday, U.S. equity futures point to a lower Tuesday open. In Europe so far, share prices have settled back 0.7% in the U.K. and Spain, 0.4% in Italy, 0.3% in Switzerland and 0.1% in France. In the Pacific Rim, markets closed up 1.4% in Australia, 1.9% in New Zealand, 1.3% […] More
Dollar Down, Equities Up, as American Street Protests Intensify
June 2, 2020
President Trump ramped up the confrontational rhetoric against store looting, promising to dominate urban streets with military force if need be. This threat of an American Tiananmen only riled up protesters further overnight, with cops injured in Las Vegas and St. Louis and the Macy’s NYC flagship store vandalized. If nothing else, the standoff has […] More
Geopolitical Strains, Weak Data, and a Poor Bond Auction as New Quarter Kicks Off
October 1, 2019
As China observes National Day, increasingly violent protests in Hong Kong evoked a Kent State moment as one protester has been shot there. Half a world away, President Trump’s team stepped up its manhunt for the impeachment whistle blower. Britain, too, is convulsed by its own constitutional crisis, ans the Conservative Party prepares for its […] More
Holidays, Manufacturing PMSs, and A Hurricane for the Ages
September 2, 2019
It’s Labor Day in the United States and Canada. When Hurricane Dorian hit the northern Bahama Islands, it became the strongest Atlantic Hurricane to make landfall. Dorian is currently 120 miles east of West Palm Beach and crawling very slowly, with the hope that it will veer north rather than move over Florida. The dollar […] More
Yuan Sinks to 11-Year Low and Depresses Global Stocks & Sovereign Debt Yields
August 5, 2019
It’s been a chaotic day in financial markets, with America seemingly at war on several fronts and non-manufacturing PMIs down in the U.S., Europe, Japan and China. The dollar rose 1.6% against the yuan and 1.3% relative to the peso but fell 1.7% against the euro, 1.0% relative to the Swiss franc, and 0.5% vis-a-vis […] More
Market Jitters as January 20th Nears
January 9, 2017
European share prices have so far today lost 1.6% in Italy, 0.8% in Greece, 0.6% in Spain, 0.5% in Germany, and 0.3% in Switzerland. Japanese markets were shut for Coming of Age Day. Stocks elsewhere in the Pacific Rim rose 0.9% in Australia and 0.5% in China and New Zealand but fell 0.6% in Indonesia. […] More
A New Dynamic Emerges: Sterling Weakness is Good for the Ftse and British Economy
October 3, 2016
The view that Brexit is an unqualified bad thing is dead. The June referendum has depressed sterling, but the economy has performed better. An initial drop in consumer sentiment has reversed. Second-quarter GDP growth of 0.7% turned out better than anticipated and stronger than the first-quarter result. Among a slew of manufacturing PMI survey results […] More