PBoC
Bitcoin Plunged, Dollar and Price of Oil Rose, and Equities Mixed
December 6, 2021
From $56,830 on Friday to $46,648 on Saturday, the price of a Bitcoin dived more than 15%. At $48,251 now, the price remains about 30% below its record peak. The dollar is benefiting from a belief that Fed policy over the coming six months will pay more attention to containing the spike in inflation than […] 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
U.S. Labor Statistics, Service-Sector PMIs, and a Focus on Some Central Banks
February 3, 2017
The dollar rose modestly overnight ahead of the U.S. jobs data, gaining 0.4% against the kiwi, 0.3% versus the yen, Swissie and sterling, 0.2% relative to the euro, loonie and Australian dollar, and 0.1% against the Mexican peso. China reopened after a week celebrating the Lunar New Year. The dollar fell 0.2% against the yuan, […] More
Fresh Focus on Chinese Policy
February 23, 2016
China again has been the straw that stirred things us. The catalyst today was the largest daily reduction of the yuan’s fixing value by officials at the People’s Bank of China in several weeks. The result was renewed risk aversion. A secondary depressant was a weaker-than-expected German business climate in February reported by the Ifo […] More
Market Reaction to Chinese Monetary Easing
April 20, 2015
The People’s Bank of China slashed its reserve requirement to 18.5% from 19.5%. The full-percentage point reduction was twice as great as a previous 50-bp cut announced on February 4 and came in reaction to weaker GDP and other data announced last week. February’s cut had been the first since three 50-bp reductions engineered in […] More
More Stimulus in China and Japan but a Political Turn for the Worse in Greece
December 29, 2014
Japanese Prime Minister Abe has approved a 3.5 trillion fiscal stimulus (roughly $29 billion) as part of a supplementary fiscal 2014 budget. The extra spending will help small businesses among other things. To provide more liquidity into China’s money market, the central bank there loosened rules governing the bank loan-to-deposit ratios of non-deposit-taking financial institutions. […] More
People’s Bank of China Reduces One-Year Lending Rate by 40 Basis Points to 5.60%
November 21, 2014
In addition to the lending rate reduction announced today and effective tomorrow, monetary officials lowered the one-year deposit rate by 25 basis points to 2.75% and lifted the upper limit of the floating range of interest on the deposits of financial institutions from 1.1 times to 1.2 times. Chinese monetary policy easing came in from […] More
Doubting the Recent Strength of Equities
November 19, 2013
Share prices have dropped back 0.9% in Spain, 0.7% in Italy, 1.0% in France, 0.5% in Britain and 0.4% in Germany. Equities also lost 1.2% in the Philippines, 0.7% in China, 0.6% in New Zealand and Australia, and 0.3% in Japan and Singapore. The U.S. dollar advanced 0.5% against the Australian dollar. Minutes from the […] More
Japanese GDP Released on Otherwise Quiet Monday
August 13, 2012
Overnight dollar movements have been modest, with gains of 0.3% against the kiwi, 0.2% versus the Australian dollar, and 0.1% relative to the loonie and sterling but losses of 0.2% against the euro and Swissie and 0.1% versus the yen. The yuan is steady following a weekend in which the People’s Bank of China failed […] More
Swissie Weakens, Commodity Currencies Strengthen, and Irene Not as Bad as Feared
August 29, 2011
The U.S. dollar rose 1.1% against the Swiss franc but lost 0.6% against the Canadian dollar, 0.7% relative to the kiwi and 0.4% against the Aussie dollar. Other dollar relationships are pretty steady, with dips of 0.1% against the euro, yuan and sterling and no change in the yen. Britain is closed for a late […] More
