October 23, 2026
Friday saw no let-up in West Asia’s twin wars. Even as the U.S. and Russia agreed to restart peace talks, mutual attacks by Russia and Ukraine on each other continued at a fierce pace. Houthi attacks on Saudi Arabian energy infrastructures also persist, lending more support to speculation that Israel and the United States are […] Read Article
October 23, 2026
Central Banks: The Federal Reserve, European Central Bank and Bank of Japan head the list of monetary authorities with scheduled interest rate reviews in the coming week. None of these banks are expected to lift their rates then, although a case for tightening can be made in each instance. Two banks where a rate hike […] Read Article
October 23, 2026
The National Bank of Kazakhstan came word of a larger-than-anticipated half percentage point drop of the base rate to 15.75%, bringing the combined reduction since June to 225 basis points from a ceiling of 18.0% that had been maintained since October 2025. Consumer price inflation in Kazakhstan has fallen in each of the past twelve […] Read Article
October 15, 2026
The Federal Reserve did a pretty good job promoting price stability over the first two decades of this century. Between January 2001 and January 2021 coinciding with the eight-year presidential terms of Republican George W. Bush and Democrat Barack Obama and the first four-year term of Republican Donald Trump, U.S. consumer prices rose 2.0% per […] Read Article
October 22, 2026
As was anticipated, officials at the Central Bank of Turkey lowered their one-week repo rate by a full percentage point to 36.0%. That was the rates first change since a similarly-sized cut last January, which in turn came after cuts totaling 900 basis points during the second half of 2025. The resumed rate-cutting cycle was […] More
October 22, 2026
It’s been another day of scary news from West Asia. After U.S. negotiator Witkoff sucked up to Russian President Putin and elicited an agreement to restart three-way peace talks among Ukraine, the U.S. and Russia, the latter struck its southern neighbor very hard militarily overnight. Even more worrisome, Washington has requested its diplomats to leave […] More
October 21, 2026
The U.S. currency has declined so far today by 0.5% against the Australian dollar, 0.4% relative to sterling 0.3% versus the yen and Swiss franc and 0.1% against the Canadian dollar and kiwi. Exceptions to this trend include dollar advances overnight of 0.5% relative to the peso and 0.3% versus the rupiah. Factors weighing on […] More
October 20, 2026
WTI and Brent oil prices are 1.5% and 1.0% higher at $105.15 and $110.15 per barrel. That’s up from $70 and $73 at mid-2026. With U.S. mid-term elections in two weeks and early voting now starting, high U.S. officials are declaring the war against Iran essentially over. In shades of the retreat from Afghanistan in […] More
October 19, 2026
(117) The weighted DXY dollar index is steady. Changes versus individual currencies range from a 0.5% decline against the Australian dollar to gains of 0.2% and 0.1% against the yen and euro. The WTI and Brent prices of crude oil have risen 0.6% and 1.4% above their pre-weekend closing levels to $100.84 and $108.29 per […] More
October 16, 2026
Central Banks: Interest rate reviews in Indonesia, Hungary, South Korea, China, Turkey, Russia and the Philippines. A number of officials from the European Central Bank, Bank of England and Reserve Bank of Australia have public speaking engagements. U.S. Economic Data Releases: Preliminary October purchasing manager survey findings, housing starts, building permits, pending home sales, National […] More
October 16, 2026
Like the consumer and producer price reports on Wednesday and Thursday, U.S. import and export prices just released surpassed market expectations. Overall import prices jumped 1.1% in September, raising their 12-month increase to a 50-month high of 8.1%. Import price inflation had been at 7.0% in August, zero percent last December and as low as […] More
October 15, 2026
Ahead of the second of three U.S. price data events (CPI on Wednesday, PPI today and import prices tomorrow), investors are wondering if yesterday’s bond-market debacle was an over-reaction. Ten-year sovereign debt yields shortly before the PPI release were down from Wednesday closing levels by twelve basis points in France, eleven basis points in Italy, […] More
October 14, 2026
The dollar and ten-year sovereign debt yields prior to the U.S. CPI data announcement were generally steady today with just a couple of exceptions such a a 0.4% decline of the the U.S. currency against the South Korean won, a 4-basis point drop in the 10-year British gilt yield and a 3-bp rise in its […] More
October 13, 2026
The WTI and Brent oil prices are 1.5% and 1.7% softer than yesterday but still highly elevated. President Trump sprung a pre-midterm surprise, striking a deal with Russian President Putin that suddenly eases sanctions against Russian diesel exports. Trump’s intent is to reduce energy prices for U.S. consumers and businesses, but the size of the […] More
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