Central Bank Watch
Peru Gets a 50-Basis Point Central Bank Rate Hike
August 5, 2010
Analysts had not expect a rate hike of as much as 50 basis points delivered by the Central Reserve Bank of Peru. This move was twice as much as the ones in May, June and July and brought the cumulative withdrawal of stimulus to 125 basis points, just 25 bps less than Brazil’s central bank […] More
Larry's Blog
U.S. Economic Performance under Obama and Bush43
August 5, 2010
The most visited blog entry posted on Currency Thoughts was written August 19, 2008 and entitled How the U.S. Economy Performed Under Democrat and Republican Presidencies. That article considered five criteria: 1) the dollar against the D-mark and/or euro, 2) change in the Dow Jones Industrial Average, 3) real GDP growth, 4) employment growth, and […] More
Central Bank Watch
Czech Two-Week Repo Rate Left Steady at Record Low 0.75%
August 5, 2010
The Czech National Bank became the third European central bank today to announce no change in its key interest rate. The decision was expected. A report from policymakers implies that no rate increase will occur this year and suggests that the status quo may be maintained in the first half of 2011 as well. From August […] More
Central Bank Watch
A Boring ECB Statement and Press Conference
August 5, 2010
The ECB Governing Council retained its interest rate structure: a 1.0% refinancing rate flanked by a 0.25% deposit rate and a 1.75% marginal lending rate. This rate structure has been in place for 15 months thus far. Today’s do-nothing decision was universally expected. It will be a long time before the currently “appropriate” stance gets […] More
Central Bank Watch
No Changes Announced By Bank of England Monetary Policy Committee
August 5, 2010
The Bank of England as expected left its Bank Rate at 0.5% and its asset purchase program ceiling at Gbp 200 billion and released a bare bones statement informing investors that minutes of this month’s meeting will be published August 18th, one week after the scheduled quarterly Inflation Report due August 11. The statement gave […] More
New Overnight Developments Abroad - Daily Update
Stocks Up Ahead of ECB and BOE Decisions and U.S. Claims Data
August 5, 2010
Equities overnight rose 1.7% in Japan, 2.1% in Indonesia, 0.9% in Thailand and 0.5% in Australia. In Europe, stocks have traded up 0.9% in France and by 0.4% in Germany and Britain. Some markets bucked the trend: there were losses of 0.9% in China, 0.3% in South Korea and 0.2% in India. A disappointing jump […] More
