Foreign Exchange Insights and Next Week
Next Week’s Menu: April 1 – 7, 2023
March 31, 2023
Central Banks: Interest rate policies will be reviewed in Australia, New Zealand, India, Poland, Romania and Sri Lanka. The Bank of Japan publishes its quarterly Tankan survey of corporate conditions and expectations. Kazuo Ueda replaces Kuroda and Bank of Japan governor with a five-year term. The Bank of Canada releases its business outlook survey. Holidays […] More
Central Bank Watch
25-Basis Point Hike in Bank of Mexico’s Interest Rate
March 31, 2023
Like the South African Reserve Bank and Central Bank of Colombia, news arrived late yesterday that the Bank of Mexico also was raising its policy rate. The increase of 25 basis points was smaller than earlier moves but lifts the overnight interbank rate to a record high of 11.25% versus a pandemic low of 4.0% […] More
New Overnight Developments Abroad - Daily Update
A Typical Quarter-End Deluge of Economic Data
March 31, 2023
Prior to the U.S. release of personal income and spending, the dollar was showing overnight gains of 0.4% against the Swiss franc, Japanese yen and Australian dollar and of 0.3% versus the euro and on a weighted basis as measured by the DXY index. Nonetheless, the dollar over the whole first quarter lost ground on […] More
Central Bank Watch
Colombian Central Bank Hike
March 30, 2023
The Central Bank of Colombia’s policy interest rate has been lifted by only 25 basis points to 13.0%. Similar to most countries around the world where central banks target inflation, consumer prices in Colombia with a 12-month 13.25% rise is currently running way above the objective, which in Colombia’s case is 3.0%. A year ago, […] More
Central Bank Watch
50-Basis Point South African Central Bank Rate Hike Surpasses Expectations
March 30, 2023
The previous rate two rate hikes of 50 basis points in November and 25 basis points in January had been smaller than their predecessor moves, and this month’s decision to raise the repo rate resulted from a 3-2 split decision with two members of the South African Reserve Bank‘s Monetary Policy Committee favoring another 25-basis […] More
New Overnight Developments Abroad - Daily Update
Softer Dollar, Lower Bond Yields, and Equities Recover Further
March 30, 2023
Risk-on trading continued overnight. The dollar fell 0.4% against the Swiss franc, 0.3% relative to the euro and yen, 0.2% versus the Australian dollar and sterling and 0.1% vis-a-vis the Canadian dollar, kiwi, and Mexican peso. Ten-year sovereign debt yields dipped 3 basis points in the U.K., 2 bps in Germany and a basis point […] More
Central Bank Watch
Rate Hike in Thailand
March 29, 2023
The Central Bank of Thailand’s policy interest rate has been lifted by another 25 basis points to 1.75%, its highest level since in August 2019. When the global pandemic had been most severe, the interest rate had been at 0.50% from May 2020 until an initial move toward nomalization in August 2022. Today’s rate hike […] More
New Overnight Developments Abroad - Daily Update
Equities and Crypto Up on this Risk-On Wednesday
March 29, 2023
Stock markets in Asia rose 2.1% in Hong Kong, 1.3% in Japan, and 1.2% in Indonesia. Among those in Europe so far, share prices are up 1.2% in France and Italy, 1.0% in Spain, 0.9% in Germany, and 0.9% in Great Britain. U.S. stock futures show an average rise of 0.8%. A 3.8% rise in […] More
Deeper Analysis
The Global Dimension of the Central Banking Effort to Reduce Inflation
March 28, 2023
A wide spectrum of central banks’ policy interest rates have been raised substantially. The effort began in 2018 in Sweden, in 1921 for monetary authorities in the U.K., South Africa, New Zealand, Pakistan, Poland,Hungary, the Czech Republic, Norway, Denmark, Iceland, South Korea, Sri Lanka, Chile, Mexico, Brazil, Argentina, Peru, Colombia, and Ukraine. In 2022, the […] More
New Overnight Developments Abroad - Daily Update
Financial Markets on Pause Ahead of Barr Testimony and Amid Only a Few Data Reports
March 28, 2023
Federal Reserve Vice Chairman for Banking Oversight Michael Barr will be testifying at 10:00 EDT (14:00 GMT) before the House Banking Committee on recent bank failures and the regulatory response. Meantime, yesterday’s recovery of banking stocks proved shortlived, and overall equity market indices are holding pretty flat in Europe and U.S. futures trading. In the […] More
