Foreign Exchange Insights and Next Week
Next Week
March 21, 2014
Central bank interest policy meetings are planned next week in Hungary, Romania, the Czech Republic, Israel, the Philippines, Norway, and South Africa. The latest set of U.S. bank stress tests will be reported by the Federal Reserve on Wednesday. Lockhart, Plosser, Bullard, George and Evans are among the Fed officials speaking publicly. The Swiss quarterly […] More
New Overnight Developments Abroad - Daily Update
Scant Change in Dollar
March 21, 2014
The dollar is unchanged from Thursday closing levels against the yuan, loonie and sterling. The U.S. currency lost 0.1% relative to the yen, euro and Swissie and shows larger 0.4% declines versus the Australian and New Zealand dollars. Asian share prices rebounded 3.4% in China, 1.2% in Hong Kong, 0.8% in Australia and South Korea […] More
Central Bank Watch
Swiss National Bank Quarterly Monetary Policy Review Leaves Settings in Place
March 20, 2014
Swiss monetary policy settings were left unchanged, and the released statement contained many elements common to recent quarterly reviews other than the retention of cap of 1.2000 francs per dollar to be defended by unlimited intervention if necessary, a 3-month Libor interest rate target range of 0.0-0.25%, and a point interest rate target pinned at […] More
New Overnight Developments Abroad - Daily Update
Broadly Stronger Dollar in Wake of Yellen’s Press Conference
March 20, 2014
The dollar shows overnight advances of 1.4% against the Swiss franc, 1.3% versus the kiwi, 1.2% vis-a-vis the euro and Australian currency, 0.9% against the loonie, 0.8% versus sterling, 0.7% against the yen, and even 0.6% relative to the Chinese yuan. Share prices fell by 2.5% in Indonesia, 1.8% in Hong Kong, 1.7% in Japan, […] More
Foreign Exchange Insights and Next Week
Take Two: Shouldn’t the Dollar Be Appreciating More Sharply?
March 19, 2014
One year ago, my Insights essay of the week was entitled Shouldn’t the Dollar be Appreciating More Sharply?. The falling U.S. fiscal and current account deficits were cited. So were a better composition of capital inflows, stronger growth than found in most other advanced economies, and low inflation. In the intervening year since the article […] More
Central Bank Watch
Central Bank of Iceland
March 19, 2014
Sedlabanki’s one-week collateralized lending rate will continue to be at 6.0%, the level since the last of six 25-basis point hikes engineered between August 2011 and November 2012. A statement released by officials noted that inflation lately has fallen more than expected but retained a long-term bias toward further tightening as unutilized productive resources get […] More
Central Bank Watch
FOMC Preview
March 19, 2014
The decision of the first Federal Open Market Committee meeting to be presided over by Chairwoman Janet Yellen is scheduled for 14OO EDT (1800 GMT) and will be followed by a press conference at 1430 EDT. New forecasts will be unveiled. Investors have been prepared to expect another $10 billion reduction in the size of […] More
New Overnight Developments Abroad - Daily Update
Awaiting Possible New Clues from the FOMC
March 19, 2014
The FOMC decision is due at 1600 GMT and will be followed by Janet Yellen’s first press conference a half hour later. Malaysian Flight 370 is still missing, with concerns climbing it will never be found. The dollar is unchanged against the euro and kiwi, up 0.4% versus the loonie and 0.1% relative to the […] More
Central Bank Watch
Central Bank of the Republic of Turkey: No Further Interest Rate Hike Now
March 18, 2014
Excessive inflation, fed in part by selling pressure on the lira, a big current account deficit, and lessening investor ease with emerging market investments prompted a “strong and front-loaded monetary tightening” in late January that saw hikes of 425 basis points in Turkey’s overnight lending rate, 450 bps in the overnight borrowing rate, and 550 […] More
New Overnight Developments Abroad - Daily Update
Tensions Escalate Between Russia and the West
March 18, 2014
Russian President Putin accepted Crimea’s request to be annexed, and Western economic sanctions were imposed in response, making a Russian recession virtually certain. Malaysian Flight 370 remains missing. More evidence emerged that Chinese economic growth faces downside risks. Reserve Bank of Australia Board minutes point to no policy change for some time. ZEW Institute March […] More
