Central Bank Watch
National Bank of Romania
March 31, 2016
Romania’s monetary policy rate was cut 125 basis points in the second half of 2013, another 125 basis points during 2014, and a full percentage point in four moves during the first five months of 2015. Those actions reduced the rate from 5.25% to its present level of 1.75%. Today’s statement kept 1.75%, but a […] More
New Overnight Developments Abroad - Daily Update
Market Focus on Soft Global Economy
March 31, 2016
A little past noon in New York finds the dollar with scant change against the yen, sterling, and the Canadian and Aussie dollars, but the U.S. currency has slipped about a half percent vis-a-vis the euro and Swiss franc. European stocks are down. North American Share prices are little changed. Japan’s Nikkei fell 0.7%. The […] More
New Overnight Developments Abroad - Daily Update
Yellen Put to the Rescue
March 30, 2016
Markets continued to react Wednesday to Fed Chair Yellen’s speech and Q&A yesterday, which stressed continuing external downside risks to future U.S. growth and the need therefore for a very cautious approach to interest rate tightening. Her comments counterbalance a slew of remarks by other Fed officials in recent weeks that suggested the risks were […] More
New Overnight Developments Abroad - Daily Update
Oil Price Retreat Extended
March 29, 2016
West Texas Intermediate crude oil slid another 2% and is trading about 7% below last Wednesday’s close. Gold (down 0.3%) and most metals are lower, too, adding to the heaviness of commodity-sensitive currencies. A narrowly mixed dollar is down 0.5% against the New Zealand dollar and shows losses of 0.2% against the loonie and sterling […] More
Central Bank Watch
Bank of Israel
March 28, 2016
Israel’s policy interest rate, 0.10% since a 15-basis point cut in February 2015, was again left unchanged after the March monthly meeting of monetary policymakers. In 2011, 2012, 2013 and 2014 the rate was cut three times each year. All the reductions were by 25 basis points. A statement explaining today’s decision noted that expected […] More
New Overnight Developments Abroad - Daily Update
Easter Monday
March 28, 2016
Markets are closed in Germany, Italy, Spain, the U.K., Sweden, Finland, Australia, and New Zealand for Easter Monday and in South Africa for Family Day. No meaningful data have been reported out of Asia or Europe. U.S. personal income and spending figures get released later today, as do pending home sales. The main take-away from […] More
Foreign Exchange Insights and Next Week
Next Week
March 25, 2016
Quarter’s End: The coming week bridges the first and second quarters and, for countries like India and Japan, the end of one fiscal year and the start of another. Europe Goes on Daylight Savings Time: Clocks move ahead one hour, restoring the London-N.Y. time spread to five hours and the differential with Paris, Madrid, and […] More
New Overnight Developments Abroad - Daily Update
Little Happening on Good Friday 2016
March 25, 2016
Markets are closed for Good Friday in the U.K., Germany, Spain, Switzerland, Italy, Portugal, Australia, New Zealand, South Africa, Singapore, India, Brazil, Canada and the United States. Greece is shut for Independence Day. The Good Friday/Easter Monday holiday period tends to be one of the quietest market times of the year. Sure enough, the dollar […] More
Foreign Exchange Insights and Next Week
Managing the Dollar Through a Period of Policy Normalization
March 24, 2016
So far, so good. After years of running an extraordinarily loose monetary policy required by insufficiently high inflation, excessive labor market capacity, an inappropriately tight U.S. fiscal stance, and broken-down Washington politics offering no hope for a more balanced macroeconomic strategy, the Fed faces the challenging task of policy normalization. It goes without saying that […] More
Central Bank Watch
Central Bank of the Republic of Turkey Narrows Overnight Interest Rate Corridor by 25 Basis Points
March 24, 2016
The 7.5% one-week repo rate and 7.5% overnight deposit rate were left unchanged, but the 10.75% overnight lending rate was cut to 10.5% at the latest meeting of Turkey’s Monetary Policy Committee. At a few previous meetings, officials had delayed a promised simplification of their Byzantine rate structure, but now a small first step in […] More
