Deeper Analysis
U.S. and Canadian Labor Statistics
October 5, 2012
The 7.8% U.S. unemployment rate in September matched the rate that President Obama inherited in January 2009, and that was the last time before now that the rate was below 8%. 7.8% represents a 2.2 percentage point decline from the peak of 10.0% in October 2009 and a drop of 1.2 percentage points from September […] More
Central Bank Watch
Bank of Japan Defers Any Action to its End-October Comprehensive Review
October 5, 2012
The Bank of Japan had stretched quantitative stimulus by JPY 10 trillion to a JPY 80 trillion total at its September Policy Board meeting and will be publishing its semi-annual economic and inflation review after its meeting at the end of this month. So this week’s in-between meeting always figured to be a wait-and-see affair, […] More
Foreign Exchange Insights and Next Week
Dollar Performs Best When Investors are Worried
October 5, 2012
Uncertainty promotes currency market stability. The dollar’s major appeal over the last four years didn’t reflect comparatively resilient U.S. economic growth or other fundamental advantages associated perennially with U.S. asset markets. Rather, the dollar performed best when elevated risk aversion caused the search for asset safety to become paramount. The yen has also benefited from […] More
New Overnight Developments Abroad - Daily Update
Awaiting U.S. September Jobs Figures
October 5, 2012
The dollar is unchanged against the yen, Canadian dollar, Chinese yuan and sterling. It has edged 0.1% firmer relative to the euro and Swiss franc and is down 0.3% and 0.1% against the New Zealand and Australian dollars. Share prices rose 0.9% in Australia and Indonesia, 0.7% in Singapore, 0.6% in New Zealand, 0.4% in […] More
