German retail sales
Dollar Climbed 0.9% against Yen and to a Two-Week DXY Weighted High
January 4, 2022
Although steady overnight against the euro, Swissie, loonie, yuan, and Australian dollar, the greenback advanced 0.3% against its DXY weighted index, mainly reflecting a 0.9% advance to a 5-year high of 116.35 yen per dollar. The dollar’s buoyancy to within a half percent of its 52-week high mirrors the advance of U.S. long-term interest rates. […] More
Hawkish Remark from Powell and Plenty of More Data to Absorb as December Kicks Off
December 1, 2021
Fed Chairman Powell signaled that a faster tapering of Fed quantitative stimulus will be considered at this month’s FOMC meeting. The U.S. economy is showing resilience, and the risk is rising of higher inflation expectations. The dollar dipped 0.1% on a weighted basis overnight. Equities, 10-year sovereign debt yields, and the prices of oil and […] More
Summits and Manufacturing PMI Releases
November 1, 2021
All Saints Day 2021 marked the end of one summit and start of another and the release of manufacturing purchasing manager surveys for a number of economies. In overnight market action, Equities rallied 2.6% in Japan, over 1% in India, and so far between 0.8% and 1.2% in Germany, France, Italy and Spain. U.S. stock […] More
Inflation Worries Continue to Rattle Financial Markets
October 1, 2021
The week-long Chinese national holiday began Friday, but elsewhere in the Pacific Rim equities closed down 2.3% in Japan, 2.2% in Taiwan, 2.0% in Australia, 1.7% in South Korea and 1.2% in Singapore. Share prices so far in the U.K., Germany, France, Spain, Italy, and Switzerland have lost 0.6-1.0% on this first trading day of […] More
Afghanistan, Covid, and August Purchasing Manager Surveys
September 1, 2021
On this 82nd anniversary of the start of World War II, U.S. military forces have left Afghanistan, creating a whole new source of geopolitical uncertainty. The rapidly spreading Delta Variant of the Covid-19 pandemic remains the dominant economic and political wild card. There were over 160k newly identified U.S. cases of Covid yesterday, and almost […] More
Investors Upbeat In Spite of Worrisome Covid Trends
August 2, 2021
Share prices on the first business day of August in the Pacific Rim closed up 2.0% in China, 1.8% in Japan, 1.5% in Taiwan, 1.3% in Australia, 1.2% in New Zealand, 1.1% in Hong Kong, and 0.7% in South Korea. Gains so far in Europe amount to 0.9% in France, 0.8% in Spain, 0.6% in […] More
Good Day for the Dollar and a Bad One for the Turkish Lira
June 2, 2021
The U.S. dollar strengthened 0.4% against its weighted DXY index overnight, advancing by 0.6% relative to the Swiss franc, 0.5% versus the Australian and New Zealand dollars, 0.4% against the euro, and 0.3% vis-a-vis the Japanese yen. Among the major currencies, only the British pound (+0.1%) outperformed the dollar. At the other extreme, the Turkish […] More
Reminders that Covid’s Negative Effect on Economic Activity Isn’t Going Away Quickly
March 2, 2021
Yesterday was a good day from a data release point of view, and equities rallied around the world. Today’s news has been more sobering. German retail sales, which had tumbled 9.1% in December but been forecast to be fairly flat in January, instead took a further 4.5% dive and recorded an even greater year-on-year slide […] More
Big Stakes in Today’s Georgian Senate Votes: Investors Await Outcome
January 5, 2021
Polls close at 19:00 EST (midnight GMT) in Georgia where both senate seats are being contested today in runoff elections. Democrats need to win each seat in order to control the senate and oust Mitch McConnell as the upper chamber’s gatekeeper to all legislation. The outcome is uncertain and awaited by investors. Stock markets, where […] More
U.K./EU Trade Talks and U.S. Fiscal Stimulus Negotiations Getting Late
December 2, 2020
Time is fast running out for post-Brexit trade talks between the European Union and British government and for U.S. congressional fiscal stimulus negotiations. Both of these remain bogged down, and failure to compromise would have adverse short-term economic implications. Investors are becoming more uneasy. Sterling dropped 0.9% against the dollar overnight, and U.S. and European […] More
