Uncategorized
Next Week’s Menu: March 20 – 26, 2021
March 19, 2021
Central Banks: Interest rate policy will be reviewed in Switzerland, Iceland, China, Thailand, South Africa, Mexico, Colombia and the Philippines. NY Federal Reserve District President Williams is one of the Fed officials speaking in public, and Bank of England Governor Bailey gives a speech, too. Minutes from a previous Bank of Japan Board meeting will […] More
Service Sector PMI Surveys and a Whole Lot More Data This Wednesday
March 3, 2021
The dollar overnight rose 1.0% against the Mexican peso, 0.5% relative to the New Zealand dollar, 0.4% versus the Aussie dollar, 0.3% against sterling 0.2% on a trade-weighted basis and 0.1% versus the yen and loonie. Sterling has remained steady on net, by contrast, continuing a pattern of comparative strength since the start of this […] More
Reminders that Covid’s Negative Effect on Economic Activity Isn’t Going Away Quickly
March 2, 2021
Yesterday was a good day from a data release point of view, and equities rallied around the world. Today’s news has been more sobering. German retail sales, which had tumbled 9.1% in December but been forecast to be fairly flat in January, instead took a further 4.5% dive and recorded an even greater year-on-year slide […] More
Equity and Commodity Prices Up Amid Favorable Manufacturing News and Start of New Month
March 1, 2021
The dollar advanced overnight by 0.5% against the Swiss franc, 0.3% relative to the euro, and 0.2% versus the yen, sterling and in trade-weighted terms. Covid cases and deaths slowed yesterday, and Johnson & Johnson’s vaccine has been approved for distribution. Being the first day of the month, a slew of manufacturing purchasing manager surveys […] More
February Ends with a Snag in the U.S. Fiscal Package, Plenty of Price and GDP Data, and President Biden’s First Military Action
February 26, 2021
World financial are exiting February in a highly volatile conditions. Share prices tumbled today by 5.0% in Taiwan, 4.0% in Japan, 3.8% in India, 3.6% in Hong Kong, 2.8% in South Korea, 2.4% in Australia, and 2.1% in China. Equity markets in Europe are down 1.5% in the U.K., 0.9% in France and Italy, and […] More
Stocks and Dollar Falter as Sovereign Debt Yields Resume Their Rise
February 18, 2021
Overnight dollar losses range from 0.7% against sterling to 0.4% relative to the Aussie and New Zealand dollars, 0.3% versus the euro, Swiss franc and peso and 0.2% relative to the yen and loonie. The trade-weighted dollar is 0.3% softer. Ten-year sovereign debt yields are up four basis points in the U.K., lifting the pound […] More
Zambian Central Bank Rate Hike Amid Rising Inflation
February 17, 2021
The Bank of Zambia raised its reference interest rate by 50 basis points to 8.5%, marking the first increase since November 2019. The rate during 2020 had be cut 225 basis points in May and another 125 bps in August, but Zambian inflation has been above the 6-8% target and increasingly so of late. A […] More
Slightly Softer Dollar Ahead of the Start of Trump Impeachment Trial
February 9, 2021
The dollar lost 0.4% in trade-weighted terms and is also down 0.6% against traditional hard currencies like the euro, yen and Swiss franc. The value of a bitcoin advanced to yet another record high of $48,000. Dollar weakness extends to many commodity-sensitive currencies and to gold, which is 0.6% firmer. Day one of the Trump […] More
Dollar Lifted By Domestic Terrorism on Several Fronts
January 28, 2021
There’s been a similar dynamic to the attempted U.S. insurrection on January 6 and the more recent psychological frenzy pushing up a few stocks like Game Stop but depressing broader conventional elements of the market place. There’s an anarchist mad-as-hell-and-not-going-to-take-it thinking behind each of these developments that pit the little guys against the establishment. In […] More
Investors Watching U.S. Earnings Reports and Awaiting FOMC Meeting Results
January 26, 2021
There continued to be a lack of definitive market direction on Tuesday. A two-day policy review by the Federal Open Market begins today. In Congress, members of the House of Representatives delivered their impeachment edict to the senate, but a trial will not begin in earnest until February 9 in order to allow confirmation of […] More
