Bank of England
Comparing the Central Bank Interest Rate Paths of the United States, Brazil, U.K., Iceland,Poland and Czech Republic
May 5, 2022
All six of the central banks in this comparative study had interest rate hikes announced either today or yesterday. In none of the cases was the increase the first one of the current cycles. All these tightening cycles represent responses to accelerating inflation caused in large part by external factors like the pandemic, policy responses […] More
Following the Fed’s Lead to an Extent
May 5, 2022
Wednesday saw a post-FOMC rally in U.S. equities and commodity prices but a drop in the dollar and 10-year Treasury yield. The 50-basis point interest rate hike and the details regarding Fed balance sheet reduction were aligned with market expectations, but Powell’s press conference was more dovish than expected, especially his quelling of the possibility […] More
Bank of England Tightens as Expected, and More Moves Lie Ahead
March 17, 2022
The Bank of England as expected engineered a 25-basis point increase in its Bank Rate, but the 8-1 vote included a dissent in favor of a 50-basis point increase. The rate had previously been raised by 15 basis points in December and 25 bps in February, and at 0.75% is now back to its pre-pandemic […] More
Inflation and Russian Invasion of Ukraine Casting Longer Shadows
March 17, 2022
Equities behaved in a widely diverse way overnight after the Fed enacted the first of many rate hikes. Share prices closed up by 7.0% in Hong Kong, 3.5% in Japan, 3.0% in Taiwan, 1.8% in India, 1.7% in China, and 1.1% in Australia. But stock markets so far are down this Thursday by 1.0% in […] More
Rate Hike at the Bank of England
February 3, 2022
After a scheduled meeting of the Bank of England Monetary Policy Committee, the BOE Bank rate was doubled to 0.5%. The increase follows a 15-basis point hike in December and lifts the rate level to its highest point since March 2020. The 25-basis point size of today’s hike was as analysts expected but accompanied with […] More
Omicron, Central Banks, ISIS, Metaverse, OPEC, Russia, Inflation and January PMIs Vying for Market’s Attention
February 3, 2022
The top leader of ISIS and his family have died after a U.S.-led raid in Syria. Geopolitical tensions between the U.S. and Russia remain very high. A total of 3,623 Covid-19 deaths yesterday in the United States were the greatest single-day total in a year. Omicron affected numerous service-sector and composite purchasing manager surveys reported […] More
Bank of England Raises Bank Rate by 15 bps to 0.25%
December 16, 2021
The Bank of England’s nine-person Monetary Policy Committee lifted the bank rate by 15 basis points to 0.25% in an 8-1 decision and indicated that modest further increases will probably be needed in 2022. Today’s move was somewhat controversial insofar as Britain is being hammered by the rapidly spreading Omicron Variant and now undergoing renewed […] More
A Parade of Central Bank Announcements and PMI Releases, Plus Another Strong U.S. Labor Market Indicator
December 16, 2021
The rally late yesterday in U.S. equities carried over into Thursday trading. Share prices rose 2.1% in Japan, 0.8% in China, 0.7% in Taiwan and 0.6% in South Korea. The British, German and French stock markets show gains so far of more than 1.0% today, and the DJIA has gone up by a further 0.6%. […] More
Ezone Producer Price Inflation Leaps; Bank of England Defers Hiking its Bank Rate
November 4, 2021
The intensity of recent inflation has become an all-pervasive concern on numerous fronts. A 2.7% monthly leap in Euroland producer prices during September (led by a 7.7% increase in energy costs) lifted the 12-month rate of producer price inflation by 2.6 percentage points to 16.0%. The monthly and yearly comparisons were each the greatest in […] More
Considerable Central Bank News and a Whole Lot More
September 23, 2021
The takeaways from Fed Chairman Powell’s press conference yesterday are that a tapering of Fed bond purchases could begin as soon as right after the next scheduled FOMC meeting and should be drawn down to zero by mid-2022, plus the lift-off date for the fed funds target could occur next year rather than in 2023. […] More
