Jay Powell
Rising Energy Prices Lift Long-Term Interest Rates, Which in Turn Depresses Equities but Boost Dollar
September 28, 2021
Ten-year sovereign debt yields jumped overnight by seven basis points in the U.K. and Italy, 5 basis points in Greece, 4 bps in France and Spain, three basis points in the U.S. and Germany and two bps in Japan. Nasdaq and S&P stock futures were down 1.3% and 0.7% with about an hour to go […] More
Powell Speech in 15 Minutes on a Data-Heavy Day
August 27, 2021
Fed Chairman Powell addresses the Jackson Hole Central Bank Symposium at 10 EDT. Markets have been comparatively flat, awaiting what Powell has to say regarding the tapering of Fed bond purchases and what officials anticipate for U.S. growth and inflation. The trade-weighted dollar has edged 0.1% higher. U.S. personal income in July, which had been […] More
Equities, Sovereign Debt Yields, and Commodity Prices Higher, while Dollar Softens at Start of New Week
August 23, 2021
Ahead of the Jackson Hole annual central banking symposium at the end of this week, investors have become more hopeful than last week. Whether bond buying starts to taper this year or in early 2022, it will be quite a while longer before the federal funds target is raised. Second-quarter earnings were good, Equities closed […] More
Fed’s Inaction on Rising Long-Term Interest Rates Sends Dollar Higher
March 5, 2021
Investors had been hoping to hear some voiced protest against the steepening U.S. yield curve from Fed Chairman Powell’s speech yesterday, but it wasn’t to be. Powell expressed a lack of worry about the development, while reaffirming that Fed tightening is years away even if U.S. employment and price growth outpaces the path assumed by […] More
Monetary Policy Differences Starting to Emerge Across Nations
February 24, 2021
The dollar weakened 0.7% overnight against its closest neighbors, the Mexican peso and Canadian dollar. The greenback also fell by 0.6% versus the kiwi, 0.2% relative to the yuan, and 0.1% vis-a-vis the Australian dollar and sterling but advanced 0.6% relative to the Japanese yen and 0.3% vis-a-vis the Swiss franc. Equities were clobbered in […] More
Start of a Fresh Month Sees Dollar Drop and Share Prices Resume Their Rise
December 1, 2020
A slew of manufacturing purchasing manager surveys taken in November were released today. Fed Chairman Powell and Treasury Secretary Mnuchin testify before the Senate Banking Committee today on the Cares Act. After dipping on Sunday, Covid cases and the death count turned upward over the past 24 hours both globally and in the United States. […] More
Policy Support Overriding Covid-19 and Geopolitical Concerns at Least for Now
June 16, 2020
The weakness of stock markets early Monday dramatically reversed direction when the Federal Reserve announced an expansion of its corporate bond purchases. That turnaround extended overnight into trading in the Pacific Rim, where markets closed up 4.9% in Japan, 5.3% in South Korea, 3.9% in Australia, 2.4% in Hong Kong, 2.0% in Singapore, 1.8% in […] More
Equities and Dollar Mostly Firmer
May 21, 2019
Share prices in the Pacific Rim rose 1.2% in China, 0.8% in Indonesia, 0.6% in Taiwan, and 0.4% in Australia, but the Japanese Nikkei closed down 0.1%. stocks in Europe have so far risen today by 1.1% in Germany, 0.8% in the E.K. 0.7% in Italy, 0.6% in France, 0.5% in Switzerland, and 0.3% in […] More
Short-Lived Fed Stockmarket Rally
January 31, 2019
The FOMC’s tightening pause gave a big boost to U.S. stocks yesterday and was augmented by some better-than-expected corporate earnings. But the DOW fell in the first hour of U.S. trading, and share prices have also weakened today in Germany France, and Australia. This contrasts with gains close to 1% in China, Hong Kong and […] More
FOMC Preview
January 30, 2019
The first rule of Federal Reserve chairmen when wearing their communicator-in-chief hat is to do no harm. Chairman Powell failed that test at December’s press conference by placing a very positive spin on U.S. economic trends and appearing not to back away from a baseline expectation that the a couple more interest rate hikes in 2019 […] More
