Foreign Exchange Insights and Next Week
Fed’s Optimistic Outlook Unlikely to Happen
June 20, 2013
Biological metaphors help to understand what’s happening in U.S. and global financial markets. Financial markets are like an over-active auto-immune system. Weakened economies get monetary medicine to nurse them back to health. As the process evolves, the medicine is withdrawn gradually, not all at once. Ideally, policymakers want the increments of policy change to be […] More
Central Bank Watch
Swiss National Bank’s Quarterly Monetary Policy Review
June 20, 2013
It’s been almost two years since the 3-month Libor target point and range were cut in August 2011 to zero and 0.0-0.25% and authorities imposed a cap on franc strength versus the euro of 1.2000 on September 6, 2011. Today’s quarterly policy review reaffirmed those guidelines and made minuscule changes in its economic outlook. Real […] More
Central Bank Watch
Norwegian Central Bank Rate Left at 1.5%
June 20, 2013
Rate History: The key policy rate was slashed from 5.75% in October 2008 to 1.25% by mid-2009, then raised four times by 25 bps each between October 2009 and May 2011. From the resulting 2.25% level, the Executive Board later implemented two reductions, first by 50 bps to 1.75% in December 2011 and by 25 […] More
New Overnight Developments Abroad - Daily Update
No Place to Hide as Commodities, Stocks and Bonds Tumble in Wake of Bernanke’s Press Conference
June 20, 2013
Gold dived 5.4% and is under $1300 per ounce. West Texas Intermediate crude oil dropped 2.2% to $96.11 per barrel. In futures trading, the 10-year Treasury yield jumped 8 basis points on top of a 12-bp post-Bernanke rise on Wednesday. At 2.43%, such is 81 basis points or 50% higher than the level when the […] More
