Central Bank of Iceland
Central Bank Interest Rate Changes in Moldova and Iceland
February 5, 2025
The National Bank of Moldova‘s policy rate was raised by 90 basis points today to 6.5%, its highest level since June 2023. Today’s is the second increase this year following one of 30 basis points in January. The rate had been at 3.6% from May 2024 previously. CPI inflation doubled to 7.0% by December from […] More
Continuing Firestorm of Trump Statements Overwhelms an Otherwise Busy Day of Data Releases and Central Bank Decisions
February 5, 2025
The dollar fell overnight by 0.2% against the euro, Swissy, sterling and Canadian dollar but jumped 1.2% versus China’s yuan and 0.8% relative to the Mexican peso. In other financial market action, Nasdaq futures took a notable hit. Share prices in the Pacific Rim closed up 1.6% in Taiwan, 1.1% in South Korea and 0.5% […] More
Several Points of Focus Today
November 20, 2024
Third-quarter earnings from the Nvidia, which arrive after markets close today, could be highly influential in determining where the stock market goes from here. Forward guidance from the AI chipmaker holds the key. Disinflation and sluggish growth in the euro area are the backdrop to the recent less hawkish tone of ECB officials, but today’s […] More
Strong Yen Sales
October 2, 2024
Japan’s ultra-loose monetary policy when other central banks scrambled to tame a sharp rise inflationary pressure in 2021-3 had encouraged investors to borrow essentially free money offered in Japan and invest in higher yielding assets elsewhere. Those so-called carry trades are now being reversed and consequently driving down the yen, which slumped 0.9% against the […] More
Divergent Central Bank Signals
May 8, 2024
Three European central banks have now cut interest rates this month: the Czech National Bank by 50 basis points last Friday, the National Bank of Moldova by 15 bps yesterday and, most tellingly, the Swedish Riksbank today by 25 basis points to 3.75%. These announcements are a harbinger of coming reductions elsewhere in the region. […] More
A Focus on Central Banks, Particularly the Fed
March 20, 2024
At 14:00 EDT (18:00 GMT), the Federal Open Market Committee will telegraph the decisions from its second scheduled policy meeting of 2024. The federal funds rate target will be left at 5.25-5.50% where such has been since last July. An updated set of forecasts also at 14:00 EDT will provide the first indication of any […] More
A Pause in the Action
February 8, 2024
While equities in China (+1.3%), Japan (+2.1%), France (+0.6% so far), Italy (+0.6%), Spain (+0.5%) and Germany (+0.4%) followed yesterday’s upbeat U.S. example, U.S. futures have paused on technical considerations. China’s gain equated to a loss for Hong Kong today of 1.3% and India of 1.0%. Pakistan’s election today has been marred by outbreaks of […] More
Softer Dollar and Sovereign Debt Prices as Central Banks Not Rushing to Ease but Equities Showing Some Resilience
February 7, 2024
The dollar slid overnight by 0.3% against sterling and 0.2% relative to the euro, Canadian dollar and as measured by the DXY weighted index. A further rise in sovereign debt yields today — 4 basis points in British 10-year gilts, 3 basis points in 10-year U.S. Treasuries, and 2 basis points in German, French, Italian […] More
Ungovernable U.S. Congress Elevates Uncertainty But Dollar Softens Only Modestly
October 4, 2023
In a startling political development, the U.S. House of Representatives has no Speaker, and it could be quite a while before that critical vacancy is filled. Without that critical step, Congress will be rendered impotent. Ordinarily such a crisis might be expected to weigh discernibly on the dollar, but the other force strongly at play […] More
Icelandic Central Bank Rate Hike
August 23, 2023
Policymakers at the Central Bank of Iceland delivered an unexpected 50-basis point additional hike in the 7-day term deposit rate to 9.25%. The cumulative 375 basis points of tightening this year follows a combined 400 bps of increase in 2022 and 125 basis points in 2021. The pandemic low of 0.75% prevailed from November 2020 […] More
