Central Bank Watch
Australian Central Bank Signals No Rate Changes Just Ahead
July 1, 2008
In the vernacular of central bank watching, officials send hawkish, neutral, or dovish signals, wherein “hawkish” connotes a predisposition to raise interest rates and “dovish” a bias to cut them. Officials at the Reserve Bank of Australia had been hawkish for several years, lifting rates in 13 steps between May 2002 and March 2008 by […] More
Currency Markets in the News
Ezone PMI-Mf'g Below U.S. Counterpart for First Time in Over a Year
July 1, 2008
Euroland posted a PMI score in June of 49.2, down 1.4 from the reading in May and a full point less than the equivalent U.S. measure of 50.2. In May, the U.S. reading had been 1.0 points below the Euroland reading, and the spread (U.S. minus Ezone) ended 2007 at -4.2 points. A score above […] More
New Overnight Developments Abroad - Daily Update
New Developments Abroad: Considerable Financial Market Turbulence
July 1, 2008
Equities In Europe, the Ftse (-2.5%), Cac40 (-2.6%) and Dax (-2.0%) are sharply lower. In Asia, the CSI 300 slumped 3.4% but the Nikkei edged only 0.1% lower. The ten-year JGB yield is 8.5 basis points above Monday’s low. The dollar shows losses of 0.8% against the yen and Aussie dollar, 0.6% against the kiwi, […] More
Currency Markets in the News
Japanese Business Survey Soft But Better Than Expected
July 1, 2008
Business conditions weakened during 2Q08, as they had done in 1Q08 and are expected to do in the third quarter. This was true for varying-sized firms and for the manufacturing sector and the rest of the economy. One drag is the stronger trajectory of the yen, which is expected to average 102.74 per dollar this […] More
