Monetary Authority of Singapore
Dollar Strengthens to 2024 High
April 12, 2024
Fear that Iran is going to attack Israel is augmenting economic factors strengthening the dollar, which climbed 0.7% on a weighted basis to its strongest point since November. Today’s release of U.S. import price data also buoyed the U.S. currency. Import price gains in March of 0.4% both on month and year-on-year exceeded expectations. Import […] More
Fading Hopes That Fed Will Consider a Rate Cut By March
January 29, 2024
Investors are concluding that Wednesday’s Fed Chairman Powell press conference will not signal that a rate cut might be considered as soon as the following FOMC meeting set for March. U.S. GDP growth last quarter surpassed expectations, and the labor market is still too tight. Although the core PCE price deflator put inflation below 3.0%, […] More
Turmoil in the Mideast and U.S. House of Representatives Buoys Oil and Gold but Depresses Equities and Long-Term Interest rates
October 13, 2023
Price figures continued to dominate the menu of economic data releases on Friday. Markets averted riskier assets, amid disarray in the U.S. Congress and as fears mount of catastrophic warfare in the Mideast. The Monetary Authority of Singapore left its policy stance unchanged. Equity markets fell 2.3% in Hong Kong, 1.0% in Singapore and South […] More
Investors Sensing the Beginning of the End of the Cycle of Rising Central Bank Interest Rates
April 14, 2023
The hope that central bank rates are nearing their peak continues to take some air out of the dollar’s tires. The weighted dollar index touched its lowest level overnight since April 21 of last year and so far has lost a tad over 12% since peaking seven months ago. Compared to Thursday closings, the dollar […] More
Amid Rising Inflation, Some Central Banks React and Others Do Not
April 14, 2022
The weighted DXY dollar index slid 0.3% so far today and is 0.9% below its year-to-date high hit in intraday trading yesterday. Losses of 0.2-0.3% today have occurred against the euro, yen, kiwi, loonie and sterling, while marginal upticks have occurred versus the Swiss franc and Australian dollar. Stock markets closed up 1.2% in Japan […] More
Monetary Authority of Singapore Tightens Stance
October 14, 2021
Today, the Monetary Authority of Singapore, which targets the exchange rate rather than an interest rate and which reviews its stance only semi-annually, surprised analysts by raising the slope of the S-dollar’s allowed trading band. The band had been lowered in April 2020 as Covid hit to a slope of zero percent. Officials did not […] More
Optimism Bumps Up that Recovery Can Withstand Covid, Higher Inflation, and Central Bank Tightening
October 14, 2021
Equities have experienced a better session, with higher closes in Asia of 1.5% in Japan and South Korea and 1.4% in Indonesia. Hong Kong was closed for the Chung Yeung festival. The German Dax, Paris Cac and British Ftse are respectively up 0.9%, 1.0% and 0.7%, and U.S. futures point to similar gains. The move […] More
Marginally Softer Dollar
October 14, 2020
The U.S. dollar edged down overnight by 0.3% against sterling, 0.2% relative to the Australian and New Zealand dollars, and 0.1% versus the yuan, Swiss franc and yen, while holding steady vis-a-vis the euro and loonie. The dollar price of gold firmed 0.5%. Stock markets in the Pacific Rim rose 0.9% in Indonesia, 0.7% in […] More
Monetary Policy Eased in Singapore
March 30, 2020
The semi-annual monetary policy review by officials at the Monetary Authority of Singapore cut the slope of the Singapore dollar’s allowed trading range to zero percent. This matches the slope allowed from April 2016 through April 2018. The center of the trading band will be is present level, and the width of the band remains […] More
Monetary Policy Eased in Singapore
October 15, 2019
Singapore’s monetary policy is reviewed by it Monetary Authority (MAS) semi-annually in April and October, and policy tool used is an allowed band for the trade-weighted Singapore dollar, rather than a domestic interest rate. Three-month Sibor is currently at 1.9%. The S-dollar’s policy band has three elements: a mid-point, the band’s width, and a prescribed […] More
