New Overnight Developments Abroad - Daily Update
Festering Concerns
April 15, 2014
Russia appears to be doing to Eastern Ukraine what it did in Crimea, and the West seems powerless to resolve the crisis. A day ahead of China’s release of first-quarter GDP, analysts anticipate a sub-7.5% growth rate. The ZEW Institute measures of investor sentiment toward Germany and the euro area fell in March. Investors await […] More
Central Bank Watch
Monetary Authority of Singapore’s Semi-Annual Policy Review
April 14, 2014
The last monetary policy change was a tightening in April 2012. For the third semi-annual review in a row, MAS officials concluded that current settings remain appropriate. Domestic interest rate policy is subordinated to an exchange rate target corridor, whose upward slope was steepened two years ago. Today’s statement defends the current policy as follows, […] More
New Overnight Developments Abroad - Daily Update
Ukraine Crisis Keeps Equities on Offer
April 14, 2014
At Russia’s initiative, the U.N. Security Council debated the Ukraine crisis but made no progress toward fashioning a cool-down there. Stocks began the week with losses of 1.3% in Australia, 0.6% in Taiwan and New Zealand, and 0.4% in Japan and India. In Europe, equities are down 1.6% in Russia, 1.7% in Spain, 0.9% in […] More
Deeper Analysis
G20 Statement from Washington D.C.
April 12, 2014
G20 finance ministers and central bank governors meeting on the periphery of the World Bank/IMF semi-annual meetings released a statement that mostly lays out work to be done before the Brisbane Summit in September. The statement says nothing about currency market policy coordination. Strengthening growth is predicted, but vigilance must continue “in the face of […] More
Foreign Exchange Insights and Next Week
Next Week
April 11, 2014
The IMF/World Bank spring meetings in Washington, D.C. continue to run through the weekend of April 12-13. Later today, a communique will be released jointly by the Group of Twenty finance ministers and central bank leaders. Later next week, the Bank of Japan’s holds a quarterly branch managers meeting, the Federal Reserve Beige Book will […] More
Central Bank Watch
Central Reserve Bank Peru
April 11, 2014
Peru’s monetary policy bias remains skewed toward ease, but officials prefer to use non-interest rate instruments such as the further reserve requirement cut announced today after the monthly meeting. The RR ratio drops to 12.0% from 12.5%, while the 4.0% reference interest rate was not changed. This past November saw the reference rate reduced by […] More
New Overnight Developments Abroad - Daily Update
Rough Day Concludes Rough Week for Equities, Especially Tech Sector
April 11, 2014
Stocks in Europe have slumped so far by 1.8% in Germany and Switzerland, 1.7% in Spain, 1.4% in France and 1.2% in Britain and Italy. Japan’s Nikkei closed down 2.4% and below the 14,000 level. Stocks also dropped by 1.0% in Australia, 0.8% in Hong Kong, 0.6% in south Korea and 0.5% in New Zealand […] More
Foreign Exchange Insights and Next Week
Lackluster Dollar All Things Considered
April 10, 2014
I confess that I’m a die-hard dollar bear, a predisposition that comes to me naturally. In most manners of life, one’s early experiences are very impressionable. I began studying economics in the mid-1960s when Keynes was king, so it was easy for me to be skeptical of contradictory theories such as monetarism. My introduction to […] More
Central Bank Watch
Bank of England
April 10, 2014
There’s not much to say about this month’s Bank of England monetary policy meeting, which ended with the release of a statement that divulged no useful background information on the decision to extend policy settings and redirected the public to meeting minutes, which will be released April 23rd for any fresh insights. The Bank Rate […] More
Central Bank Watch
Bank of Korea Monetary Policy Stays on Hold
April 10, 2014
After five 25-basis point increases in South Korea’s seven-day repo rate between June 2010 and June 2011, such was cut 25 basis points in July 2012, October 2012 and, most recently, May 2013. Policy has been on hold for the past eleven months at a rate level of 2.5%, but strengthening economic recovery and a […] More
