Bank of Norway
Data and Central Bank Meetings Both in Thursday’s Spotlight
January 25, 2024
The U.S. dollar has been generally steady, however, with overnight upticks of 0.3% against the Swiss franc and 0.1% relative to the euro but 0.1% downticks versus sterling and the Australian, New Zealand and Canadian dollars. U.S. stock futures are also flat. Major continental stock markets are down 0.5-1.1%, pending the ECB rate announcement and […] More
Markets Came Away With a Positive Spin on Powell’s Press Conference
November 2, 2023
Equities rallied overnight on greater speculation that Fed officials might not raise interest rates again in this tightening cycle. Share prices on Thursday closed up 2.2% in Taiwan, 1.8% in South Korea, 1.7% in New Zealand, 1.6% in Indonesia, 1.1% in Japan, and 0.8% in India and Hong Kong. Today’s rises so far around major […] More
Central Bank Rate Changes in Sweden, Norway, Turkey and Brazil
September 22, 2023
The Swedish Riksbank‘s executive board engineered a 25-basis point interest rate hike to 4.0% today, claiming that “inflationary pressures in the Swedish economy are still too high.” That compares with a zero percent rate at the start of the second quarter of 2022 and -0.50% in November 2018. Swedish inflation of 7.5% is far […] More
A Parade of Central Bank Interest Rate Decision and A Shift Away from Risky Assets
September 21, 2023
Sovereign debt has been well-bid in the wake of the Fed’s message not to expect interest rates to fall much in 2024. Many other central banks have chimed in with hawkish messages today. Ten-year sovereign debt yields rose overnight by nine basis points in Italy, seven basis points in the U.K., six bps in the […] More
A Further Rise in 10-Year Sovereign Debt Yields After FOMC Minutes Got Released Yesterday
August 17, 2023
The 10-year U.S. Treasury yield climbed five basis points overnight to a 16-year high. At 4.29%, such is still almost a percentage point south of the 2007 peak of 5.26%. In Europe, 10-year sovereign debt yields rose overnight by six basis points in the U.K., four bps in Italy and Spain and three bps in […] More
Bank of Norway
June 22, 2023
In spite of the Fed’s example of pausing for awhile to assess the uncertain effects of higher interest rates on growth and inflation, several other central banks raised rates today. One of these was the Bank of Norway. Analysts were not surprised by the tightening but had been expecting an increase of 25 basis points, […] More
Mulling Service-Sector PMI Results and Waiting for the ECB Rate Hike
May 4, 2023
The dollar is modestly softer this Thursday, with drops of 0.2% against the yen and 0.1% versus the euro, Canadian dollar, and sterling. Ten-year sovereign debt yields have risen six basis points in Italy, 4 basis points in Spain, 2 basis points in Germany and the United States and a basis point in Great Britain. […] More
Central Bank Authorities in Norway and Turkey Hold Their Fire
January 19, 2023
Norway’s policy rate was cut from 1.5% to 0% in the early months of the pandemic and not increased until September. Another hike of 25 bps to 0.5% followed in December 2021 and six more totaling 225 basis points to 2.75% followed in 2022, including a 25-bp increase last month. Officials didn’t hike further at […] More
Contrasting Concerns Among Central Bankers and Financial Market Investors
January 19, 2023
As often is the case, the World Economic Forum in Davos has thrust central bank policies into the spotlight. The primary concern of monetary policymakers remains inflation. Federal Reserve District Presidents Mester of Cleveland and Bullard of St. Louis endorsed a need to crank the federal funds rate target above 5.0%. European Central Bank President […] More
Bank of Norway and Swiss National Bank
December 15, 2022
A 25-basis point hike of the Bank of Norway‘s policy interest rate to 2.75% matches November’s incremental tightening and brings the rate level to its highest level since February 2009. Rate normalization began in September 2021 from a level of zero percent. More increases are highly probable, as inflation has been higher than imagined earlier […] More
