Foreign Exchange Insights and Next Week
Lots of Puzzles to Ponder
June 6, 2013
The dollar at today’s lows of 95.90 yen and 1.3306 per euro had depreciated 7.6% against the yen since May 22 and 3.8% against the euro since May 17. This slide was associated with the softest patch of equity market performance so far this year. Investor expectations haven’t been very consistent. One perception is that […] More
Central Bank Watch
ECB Press Conference Reviewed
June 6, 2013
By consensus, members of the 23-person ECB Governing Council concluded today that conditions had not changed sufficiently in a one-directional way since their May easing to grant further action now, so the refinancing rate, deposit rate, and marginal lending rate were left respectively at 0.5%, 0.0%, and 1.0%. A statement hinted officials, nonetheless, will maintain […] More
Central Bank Watch
National Bank of Serbia Eases Somewhat Surprisingly
June 6, 2013
The Executive Board of the central bank authorized a second straight reduction of the one-week repo rate, this time by 25 basis points to 11.25%. Between June 2012 and February 2013, eight hikes had been undertaken, lifting the rate from 9.5% to 11.75%. A cut of 50 bps in May was the first easing since […] More
Central Bank Watch
Bank of England: No Policy Changes is No Surprise
June 6, 2013
As expected the Monetary Policy Committee voted to leave its Bank Rate at 0.5%, the level since March 2009, and to keep the Asset Purchase Program limit at GBP 375 billion. That limit was reached by early November, four months after a GBP 50 billion increase decided at the July 2012 meeting. Minutes of today’s […] More
New Overnight Developments Abroad - Daily Update
Focus on Central Banks and Stock Market Behavior
June 6, 2013
Share prices fell sharply in Asia but are up in Europe. Equities dropped 1.5% in Singapore and South Korea, 1.3% in China, 1.1% in Australia and Hong Kong and 0.9% in Japan. Stocks are up 0.9% in Spain, 0.4% in France, and 0.2% in Germany but unchanged in the U.K. and 0.3% softer in Italy. […] More
