Uncategorized
Fifty-Basis Point Israeli Central Bank Rate Hike Exceeds Street Estimates
February 20, 2023
At 4.25%, the new Bank of Israel policy rate level is the highest in 172 month, and the latest Israeli CPI inflation rate (5.4%) is at its highest level in 171 months. With today’s 50-basis point increase, the Bank of Israel joins the National Bank of Serbia as ones that have already implemented a pair […] More
Biden in Show of Support Visits Kyiv on U.S. Presidents Day and Near One-Year Anniversary of Russian Invasion
February 20, 2023
Biden’s visit to Kyiv for talks with Zelensky was not pre-announced and comes amid indications of some western allies growing tired of the unresolved Russian-Ukraine war. U.S. and Canadian markets will be closed today for Presidents Day and Family Day, respectively. Such holidays typically sap world financial markets of a degree of leadership and direction. […] More
Next Week’s Menu: February 11 – 17, 2023
February 10, 2023
Central Banks: Indonesian and Filipino monetary policies will be reviewed, and Mester and Bullard are among the central bank officials with public speaking engagements. Events: EU finance ministers have a scheduled meeting, and a natural gas summit is planned. Scheduled U.S. Data Releases: Consumer prices, producer prices, import prices, retail sales, industrial output, capacity utilization, […] More
Overnight Action Dominated by Subpar Tech Company Earnings… Now Investors Await U.S. January Jobs Data
February 3, 2023
North American stock futures and European share prices are mostly down with major tech firms like Alphabet, Amazon, and Apple leading the way. Such concerns also affected some key Asian stock exchanges where the Hang Seng and Shanghai Composite indices lost 1.4% and 0.7%. Yesterday’s big drop in European 10-year sovereign debt yields was reversed […] More
Next Week’s Menu: January 2 – February 3, 2023
January 27, 2023
Central Banks: Monetary policies will be reviewed at the Federal Reserve, Bank of England, European Central Bank, Bank of Brazil and Czech National Bank. Fed Chairman Powell, ECB President Lagarde, and Bank of England will hold press conferences. Special Event: OPEC Plus officials hold a meeting on Thursday. January Purchasing Manager Surveys: Surveys of manufacturers […] More
Today’s South African Reserve Bank Rate Hike of 25 Basis Points Was Less Than Predicted
January 26, 2023
Instead of a 50-basis point rate hike to 7.50% by a 3-2 vote of policymakers, the five-person Monetary Policy Committee voted 3-2 to increase South Africa’s repo rate to 7.25%. The interest rate had been at 6.5% coming into the pandemic year of 2020 and was sliced to 3.5% in five moves by May of […] More
In December The Bank of Japan Surprised Markets with a Policy Tweak; Failure to Tweak Further This Month Also Caught Investors by Surprise
January 18, 2023
Investors had assumed that last month’s doubling of the daily cap on the 10-year Japanese government bond yield to 0.50% was not, as then claimed, a mere technical tweak of the policy of yield curve control meant to enhance market functionality but rather an initial start to exiting the policy altogether. This month’s BOJ policy […] More
Fresh Developments Driving Investor Hopes
November 15, 2022
Equities in the Pacific Rim rose by 4.1% in Hong Kong, 2.6% in Taiwan, and 1.6% in China as yesterday’s talks between the presidents of the United States and China went as well as could have been expected considering their government’s significant differences. The South Korean Kospi rose only 0.2%, and Japan’s Nikkei dipped 0.1%. […] More
Next Week’s Menu: November 12 -18, 2022
November 11, 2022
Central Banks: Interest rate decisions are scheduled in Thailand, China, Indonesia and the Philippines. Minutes from the last Reserve Bank of Australia Board meeting will be published. Special Events: U.S. President Biden and China President Xi Jinping hold their first face-to-face meeting as respective national leaders. They will meet in Bali Indonesia on Monday and […] More
75-Basis Point British Central Bank Rate Hike Decided by 7-2 Vote
November 3, 2022
The Bank of England’s Monetary Policy Committee voted 7-2 to lift the Bank Rate to 3.0%, its highest level in 14 years. The dissenting opinions favored smaller hikes of 50 bps by one and 25 bps by the other. This was the first time in over three decades that the Bank Rate has been raised […] More
