Bank of Korea

A Further Surge in Market Interest Rates Ahead of Biden & Powell Speeches Later Today

October 19, 2023

The 30-year Treasury yield jumped to a new high overnight of 5.07%, and the 10-year Treasury gained 7 basis points and is within 3 basis points of 5.00% versus 3.68% at the start of 2023. Surging interest rates continue to drain enthusiasm from stocks. Share prices overnight tumbled 2.5% in Hong Kong, 1.9% in Japan […] More

Softer Dollar As 2-Day FOMC Meeting Gets Underway

September 19, 2023

The dollar slipped overnight by 0.4% against the Canadian, Australian and New Zealand dollars, 0.2% relative to sterling, 0.3% against the peso and 0.1% vis-a-vis the euro and Swiss franc. Dollar/yen is steady. Share prices fell 0.9% in Japan, 0.7% in Singapore, 0.6% in South Korea, 0.5% in Australia and 0.4% in India and Taiwan. […] More

Mega-Hike in Turkish Central Bank Rate and a Republican Presidential Debate that Changes Little

August 24, 2023

The Central Bank of Turkey’s key interest rate was raised to 25.0% from 17.5%. This biggest move so far followed increases of 250 basis points in July and 650 bps in June and catapults the rate well beyond the prior peak of 19.0% for five months from March 2021 to August 2021. The size of […] More

German Recession Confirmed and Interest Rate Decisions in South Korea, Turkey and Indonesia

May 25, 2023

U.S. GDP data will be released shortly. In the meantime, German GDP growth last quarter was revised to -0.3% (not annualized) from zero percent reported originally. That’s the second negative quarter in a row and the third drop in the past four quarter, resulting in a negative year-on-year growth rate of -0.5% as well. The […] More

Financial Markets Fixated on Latest Round of Price and Bank Earnings Data

April 11, 2023

Ahead of U.S. consumer price and producer price releases tomorrow and Thursday, respectively,  investors are combing through a number of other inflation reports around the world. There is additional concern that quarterly U.S. bank earnings due shortly will accentuate recessionary risks, and ongoing IMF/World Bank meetings running all this week also may generate market-sensitive headlines. […] More

Reacting to FOMC Minutes and Awaiting More U.S. Data Reports

February 23, 2023

FOMC minutes published Wednesday afternoon confirmed that some policymakers at the Fed leaned toward a 50-basis point hike rather than the 25-bp increase agreed upon. Consideration of a pause in tightening was off the table, and there was widespread consent that more rate hikes will be necessary. Investors now await revised 4Q U.S. GDP figures, […] More

Less Confidence About Where Inflation May Be Headed

January 13, 2023

Financial market participants are grasping for every straw about inflation the way they once did regarding news about the Covid-19 pandemic. Because there is so much uncertainty regarding each, wide daily and intra-day swings have become common, as each incremental piece of news tips sentiment. In the short first two weeks of 2022, one story […] More

Several Central Bank Policy Meetings Elsewhere on This U.S. Thanksgiving Day

November 24, 2022

With the U.S. observing its quintessentially most unique holiday, the dollar continued to back off from recent highs, dropping 0.3% on a weighted DXY basis  overnight and extending its cumulative decline from peak to 7.8%. The dollar lost 0.9% against the yen today and 0.6% versus sterling but just 0.1% relative to the euro. Prices […] More

Bank of Korea’s Base Rate Increased by 50 Basis Points

October 13, 2022

the Bank of Korea raised its base rate by 50 basis points to 3.0%. The size of that hike is double those of the prior seven increases of 25 basis points that began in August 2021. The vote behind today’s action was 5-2, with two dissents favoring another 25 basis point increase. Officials are sensitive […] More

Dollar Hits New 21st Century High against the Yen, Falls Back 0.8% versus Sterling, and Otherwise Generally Stable

October 12, 2022

The yen touched a new 24-year low of 146.67 per dollar overnight. The Bank of Japan’s continuing negative short-term interest rate stands apart from other central bank policies. Direct currency market intervention can do only so much to limit the yen’s weakness. Japanese data reported this Wednesday showed a 4.3% on-year increase in machine tool […] More

css.php