ECB
Financial Markets Continuing to React to American Rescue Plan
March 11, 2021
The $1.9 trillion American Rescue Plan will be signed by President Biden tomorrow. This is an aggressive relief effort aimed predominantly at the middle class and includes another round of direct payments to households, an extension of unemployment benefits, and — something excluded from the CARES act — support for state and local governments. In […] More
No Deals and Many More Covid Cases… Also Several Central Bank Meetings
December 10, 2020
Talks last night between British Prime Minister Johnson and EU Commission President Von Der Leyden failed to achieve a trade deal. The U.S. senate grinch, Mitch McConnell, put the brakes on efforts to nail down a fiscal stimulus. U.S. Covid deaths yesterday nudged above 3k, and that pace has accelerated to 3,340 over the last […] More
ECB Account Identifies Near-Term Outlook Deterioration
November 26, 2020
Minutes from the October 28-29 meeting of the European Central Bank‘s Governing Council warn of a “clear deterioration in the near-term outlook” following the strong third-quarter rebound. Known as the ECB Account, the document cites euro appreciation as well as week demand and lower wage pressures as factors behind very subdued inflation. The second Covid […] More
Dollar Up Marginally, Stock Markets Mixed, and Americans Observe Thanksgiving Day
November 26, 2020
The U.S. Thanksgiving holiday is depriving financial markets of some degree of leadership. The dollar overnight drifted up 0.1-0.2% against the euro, loonie, yen, kiwi, Swiss franc and Australian dollar. The U.S. currency rose a bit more against the peso (0.4%) and sterling (0.3%). Stock markets in Asia closed up 1.4% in Indonesia, 1.0% in […] More
Dollar Rebound Continues While Equities Remain Exposed
October 29, 2020
There’s much to digest today: monetary policy reviews in Japan and Euroland, a first glimpse of U.S. 3Q growth, Covid lockdowns in France and Germany, and latest U.S. political developments as election campaign enters final days. The dollar strengthened overnight by another 1.4% versus the peso, 1.3% against the Australian dollar, 0.8% relative to the […] More
Wednesday’s Bounce in U.S. Equities Appears Shortlived
September 10, 2020
Risk aversion is back in vogue. Share prices overnight plunged 5.0% in Indonesia and fell by 0.6% in Hong Kong and China. While India and Japan saw advances, stocks in Europe are down 0.6% in the U.K., 0.5% in Switzerland, and 0.2% in France. U.S. futures are also lower. The price of WTI oil fell […] More
Covid-19 Is in Control Rather than Being Under Control
July 16, 2020
The best laid plans of mice and men…. Governments want to reopen economic activity, but a rising curve of new coronavirus cases both around the world and in the United States is setting other imperatives. Over the past 24 hours, there were 230.3k cases world wide, including a record 71.7k in the United States, where […] More
ECB Doing Whatever It Takes
March 20, 2020
The European Central Bank created a new Pandemic Emergency Purchase Program, which to start totals EUR 750 billion on top of the EUR 120 billion of incremental quantitative stimulus announced after the scheduled Governing Council meeting earlier this month. Together these actions represent 7.3% of GDP in the common currency area. More will be forthcoming […] More
Central Banks, Economic Data Surprises, and British Voters in the News This Thursday
December 12, 2019
Polls in Britain’s parliamentary election today will close at 22:00 GMT 17:00 EST. The fate of Brexit is at stake. U.S. producer prices stayed unchanged in November, defying expectations of an increase and leaving the 12-month increase at 1.1%. An even bigger surprise was a leap in new jobless insurance claims last week to 252k, […] More
ECB Enhances Stimulus
September 12, 2019
Policymakers at the European Central Bank as expected cut the deposit rate by 10 basis points to minus 0.50%, announced an open-ended asset purchase program to start in November at EUR 20 billion per month, said targeted LTRO operations will carry the average deposit rate, and introduced a a 2-tiered system of reserve remuneration in […] More
