Euroland CPI and unemployment
Lessening Recession Fears in Spite of Persistent Downside Risks
May 2, 2025
A discernible sigh of relief could be heard in the markets after April’s surprisingly healthy U.S. labor situation report. Other lifts came from a 1.7% drop in the price of West Texas Intermediate oil and European manufacturing purchasing manager surveys. Key U.S. stock market indices are up by 1-1.3%, which have correlated this time with […] More
Investors Remain Highly Skeptical about President Trump’s Tariff Plans on This April Fool’s Day
April 1, 2025
The lack of confidence in the U.S. tariff changes to take effect tomorrow is underscored by diverse movements overnight in equities. The expectation is that his tariff moves and other dramatic changes made to the federal government will turn out very poorly for the United States and ultimately improve the relative significance of other countries […] More
Plenty of Anxiety to Go Around
October 31, 2024
Pick your poison: the two-fisted global punch of Covid followed by a spike in inflation, endless wars in the Middle East, climate change accelerating faster than predicted, confusion about where artificial intelligence is taking mankind, and America seemingly on the brink of crossing over to the dark side. There’s plenty of anxiety to go around, […] More
A Lot of Data Out Today for Investors to Digest
August 30, 2024
There’s been a typical end-of-month deluge of economic data releases but without significant financial market repercussions. The dollar rose 0.2% overnight against the Japanese yen and Swiss franc but shows no net change against the euro, sterling or Aussie and New Zealand dollars. Following Thursday’s record high close in the DOW, pre-market trading today has […] More
More Reasons to Keep Investments Safe
April 3, 2024
The news from the Middle East keeps going from bad to worse, and evolving U.S. activity and price data haven’t been quite cooperating with the hope of some Federal Reserve officials to start reducing interest rates at the June FOMC meeting. Fed Chairman Powell delivers a speech today before the Stanford Business, Government and Society […] More
Slew of Data Released on Final Day of August
August 31, 2023
U.S. personal income and consumption expenditure growth in July defied expectations in opposite ways. Personal spending climbed 0.8% on month (0.6% adjusted for inflation), while income growth slowed to 0.2%. Downtrends in total and core U.S. inflation according to the PCE price deflator partly reversed with the former increased 0.3 percentage points to 3.3% and […] More
Many Data to Absorb on Final Day of Second Quarter
June 30, 2023
It’s been a good Friday for equities, which closed up by 1.3% in India and 0.6% in China and South Korea. A sharper-than-forecast 1.6% drop of Japanese industrial production in May left the Nikkei with a 0.1% downtick, and Hong Kong’s Hang Seng index also slipped 0.1% on the day. However, share prices are showing […] More
Much More Than an FOMC Announcement Day
February 1, 2023
The FOMC policy statement at 19:00 GMT today (14:00 EST) will be followed half an hour later by the start of Chairman Powell’s press conference. Officials are expected to raise the target federal funds corridor by 25 basis points to 4.50-4.75%. This is the first scheduled FOMC meeting of 2023 and therefore the one in […] More
Third Quarter Ushered Out With Disturbing Inflation Data, More Central Bank Hikes,High Tension in Asia, a Mega-Storm in the U.S. Southeast, and a Strong Dollar
September 30, 2022
The weighted DXY dollar index rose 0.2% overnight but is 2% below Wednesday’s peak. The dollar advanced so far today by 0.4% against the euro, Swiss franc, Australian dollar and sterling but just 0.1% versus the yen. Thursday had seen heavy selling of equities. Share prices today closed down 1.8% in Japan, 1.2% in Australia, […] More
June Opens on Hopeful Note
June 1, 2021
Manufacturing purchasing managers survey results reveal record growth in many cases, robust business optimism, but also inflationary pressure from demand outstripping supply. Euroland’s factory sector PMI was revised even higher to a record reading of 63.1. The Netherlands, Austria, Germany, Ireland, and Italy all scored above 62.0, and the lowest reading in the group — […] More
