French and Italian industrial production
Cautious Optimism on a Couple of Fronts
October 9, 2020
The reopening of Chinese markets after the Golden Week holiday say the yuan advance 1.3%, reflecting ongoing strength in its offshore value, and China’s stock market advance 1.7%. The dollar also fell overnight by 0.6% against the Swiss franc, 0.5% relative to the kiwi and Mexican peso, 0.4% versus the euro, 0.3% vis-a-vis the Australian […] 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
T.G.I.F. after Another Difficult Week
July 10, 2020
The New York metropolitan area is bracing for a tropical storm front coming later today. The coronavirus’ grip on world financial markets remains relentless. In the United States, the daily total of newly reported cases surpassed 60k for a second straight day, and deaths from the disease climbed by almost 1k to a grand total […] More
Partial Reversal of Monday’s Extreme Financial Market Moves but Mood Remains Extremely Guarded
March 10, 2020
Today’s rebound in equities and sovereign debt yields looks more like a dead-cat bounce than a trend reversal because the Covid-19 pandemic is still widening, skepticism about policy effectiveness and forcefulness is enormous, and the Saudi-Russian oil war is unsettled. Share prices in the Pacific Rim rose 1.8% in China, 3.1% in Australia, 1.6% in […] More
Tariff War
May 10, 2019
President Trump made good on his threat to lift tariffs on $200 billion of imports from China, and Beijing officials promise to answer in kind even as talks continue. Trump erroneously expects the U.S. economy to at worst react neutrally to an escalated tariff war, but that delusion only partly explains his likely motivation. The […] More
ECB Left Policy Unchanged, and Now Investors Await FOMC Minutes
April 10, 2019
At noontime in NY, the dollar was trading at Tuesday’s closing level against the euro and loonie but had drifted lower by 0.4% against the Australian dollar, 0.3% relative to sterling, and 0.2% vis-a-vis the yen and kiwi. The dollar is down more sharply against the peso but up 0.2% versus the Swiss franc and […] More
Stocks Again Reverse Direction… Yen and Dollar Decline
April 10, 2018
A strong Monday session in stocks was almost completely squandered in the last hour of trading by a 300 point drop of the Dow. Once again, the index opened sharply higher on Tuesday and is currently 1.6% higher on the day. Elsewhere, share prices gained 2.2% in Hong Kong, 1.7% in China, 1.3% in Indonesia […] More
Some Fresh Surprises
May 10, 2017
Trump’s firing of FBI Director Comey in the middle of the investigation into Russia’s efforts to influence the 2016 U.S. election has given an upward yank to suspicion that the Trump campaign may have played a complicit role. The firing also served to remind investors that Trump is an uncertainty-seeker. Comments from the Dallas and […] More
Chinese CPI Inflation Fell to 5-Month Low
November 10, 2015
The dollar showed little net change overnight, firming 0.3% against the euro and 0.1% relative to the Swiss franc, falling 0.1% vis-a-vis the loonie, Aussie dollar and sterling, and staying flat versus the yen, kiwi and yuan. Share prices slumped 1.7% in Hong Kong, 1.5% in India, 1.4% in South Korea, 1.1% in Indonesia and […] More
Several Countries Report Industrial Production and EU Commission Turns Down Greek Debt Proposal
June 10, 2015
The dollar recorded overnight losses of 0.9% against the yen, 0.6% versus the Australian and New Zealand dollars, 0.5% vis-a-vis the loonie, 0.4% relative to sterling and 0.1% against the Swiss franc. The Chinese yuan was steady, and the dollar edged up 0.1% against the euro. Bank of Japan Governor Kuroda called the yen weak […] More