Japanese CPI
A Week of Transition Ends with Release of Weak Data and Fresh Investor Uneasiness
January 22, 2021
The Biden Administration has been busy reorienting American policies, but markets today are most fixated on alarming Covid trends and fresh evidence of their adverse impact on economic activity. U.S. equity futures are set to open 0.5-1.0% lower today after markets closed down 1.7% in Indonesia, 1.6% in Hong Kong, 1.5% in India, 0.9% in […] More
Dollar Down but Stocks Up After U.S. Presidential Debate and First Glimpse at October PMI Surveys
October 23, 2020
The dollar slipped by 0.4% overnight against the Australian and Canadian dollar, 0.3% relative to the Swiss franc, 0.2% vis-a-vis the peso, kiwi, and euro, and 0.1% versus the yen and yuan. Contrary to the softer trend, the dollar has edged up 0.1% against sterling, and sovereign debt yields and share prices are each firmer. […] More
Equities Buoyed by Promising Vaccine News and Expansive Macroeconomic Developments
July 21, 2020
Reports have surfaced of promising results in early Covid-19 vaccine trials involving three different projects — those of Oxford, Pfiser, and BioNTech. Global cases advanced another 210k over the past 24 hours, but there was a smaller number of U.S.-reported deaths (554). Leaders of the European Union compromised on a EUR 750 billion joint pandemic […] More
Provocations by Chinese National People’s Congress and Special Central Bank Meetings in Japan and India
May 22, 2020
China’s government has decided to crack down on Hong Kong dissonance with a series of new security laws. Protesters will have fewer liberties and will be punished more severely. Hong Kong’s stock market plunged 5.6% in response. At China’s National People’s Congress, the tradition of setting an annual growth target was abandoned in a sign […] More
More Evidence of Deep and Global Economic Downturn
April 24, 2020
Dollar movements on the final day of the week have been comparatively modest and somewhat mixed against other major currencies. The price of West Texas Intermediate crude oil extended its rebound but is currently still down 7.6% since last Friday’s close. Gold is little changed. Further substantial declines of 9-10 basis points have occurred today […] More
Dollar Continuing to Flourish Amid Coronavirus Concerns
February 21, 2020
The dollar climbed overnight by 0.8% against the peso, 0.3% relative to the Australian and New Zealand dollars and 0.1% versus the Chinese Renminbi. There have been dips of 0.3% against sterling, 0.2% versus the Swiss franc and 0.1% relative to the yen and euro. Dollar strength can be seen against a broad spectrum of […] More
Regional Themes
January 24, 2020
Asian market activity was depressed by Chinese New Year holiday observances. Equity markets were shut in China, Singapore, Hong Kong, Vietnam, South Korea, and Taiwan. That being said, fears and anger related to the coronavirus outbreak have intensified. Some 40 million people in China have been quarantined. In other Asian news, Japanese CPI inflation ended […] More
More Smoke than Fire
December 20, 2019
A lot of economic data was released on the final day of the final meaningful week of 2019, but the market is settling into yearend mode and showed a muted reaction. The dollar firmed overnight by 0.3% against the euro and Swiss franc but slipped 0.3% relative to sterling. There were dollar upticks of 0.2% […] More
Meaningful Data from Abroad and a Paralyzed U.S. Federal Government
November 22, 2019
Today’s main dollar move has been a 0.4% rise against sterling. Provisional U.K. purchasing manager survey results from November revealed surprisingly weaker-than-expected developments. The composite PMI fell 1.5 points to a sub-50 reading of 48.5, lowest since July 2016 or, that is, right after the infamously ill-advised Brexit referendum. Both manufacturing (48.3) and services (48.6) […] More
Brexit Headed for Photo Finnish and a Lot of Chinese Data Released
October 18, 2019
A debate and vote on British Prime Minister Johnson’s deal with the EU is scheduled Saturday. He needs 318 yes votes for approval, and the outcome figures to be very close to that threshold. Johnson needs only a simple majority win. In a more perfectly designed political system of self-governance, a decision with such profound […] More
