Swedish Riksbank
Debate Night and So Much More
June 27, 2024
Tonight’s first of two scheduled prime-time debates between Joe Biden and Donald Trump has financial market participants on edge. So do upcoming releases of U.S. GDP, personal consumption, and and the PCE price deflator as well as French parliamentary elections this weekend. Japanese Finance Minister Suzuki protested the yen’s further drop to 160.8 per dollar, […] More
Divergent Central Bank Signals
May 8, 2024
Three European central banks have now cut interest rates this month: the Czech National Bank by 50 basis points last Friday, the National Bank of Moldova by 15 bps yesterday and, most tellingly, the Swedish Riksbank today by 25 basis points to 3.75%. These announcements are a harbinger of coming reductions elsewhere in the region. […] More
Thumbs Up for U.S. Economy but Thumbs Down for China’s
March 27, 2024
The U.S. stock market near noontime shows a gain so far this Wednesday of about half a percent, and the dollar is buoyant with gains of 0.4% against the Mexican peso, 0.2% versus the Swiss franc, and 0.1% relative to the Chinese yuan and euro. It’s been a rare non-Monday with no U.S. data to […] More
The Morning After… Kicking Off a New Month
February 1, 2024
U.S. share prices reacted poorly to Fed Chairman Powell’s press conference, ending January’s stellar month on a downbeat. Pre-market futures trading today suggest yesterday’s loss will be partly trimmed. Powell didn’t explicitly rule out a rate cut in March but indicated that a reduction then is not in the baseline forecast. More generally, he applauded […] More
Central Bank Rate Changes in Sweden, Norway, Turkey and Brazil
September 22, 2023
The Swedish Riksbank‘s executive board engineered a 25-basis point interest rate hike to 4.0% today, claiming that “inflationary pressures in the Swedish economy are still too high.” That compares with a zero percent rate at the start of the second quarter of 2022 and -0.50% in November 2018. Swedish inflation of 7.5% is far […] More
A Parade of Central Bank Interest Rate Decision and A Shift Away from Risky Assets
September 21, 2023
Sovereign debt has been well-bid in the wake of the Fed’s message not to expect interest rates to fall much in 2024. Many other central banks have chimed in with hawkish messages today. Ten-year sovereign debt yields rose overnight by nine basis points in Italy, seven basis points in the U.K., six bps in the […] More
Sweden’s Third Central Bank Rate Hike of 2023 Lifts Such to a 15-Year High of 3.75%
June 29, 2023
The Swedish Riksbank today became the latest central bank to hike its interest rate higher. That central bank’s policy rate had been -0.50% from early 2016 until an initial hike late in 2018 but was still a mere zero percent when raised 25 basis points in April 2022. By end-2022, such had been raised to […] More
Almost Solid Front of Hawkish Central Bank Policies With a Mounting Focus on Squelching Wage Pressure and Service Sector Prices
June 29, 2023
The leaders of the Federal Reserve, Bank of England, European Central Bank and Bank of Japan participated in a panel discussion yesterday. Powell, Bailey, and Lagarde attempted to outdo each other in displaying their commitment to lowering inflation. Whatever the cost in the short run, each insisted the long-term costs would be even greater if […] More
Swedish Central Bank Rate Hike
April 26, 2023
The Swedish Riksbank repo rate was raised by an as-expected half percentage point to a 14-1/2 year high of 3.5%. The rate had been has low as -0.5% prior to a hike in December 2019 and was at zero percent as recently as a year ago. Four increases later had lifted the repo rate to […] More
Fresh Concerns about the Banking System, But Also Some Good News from Tech Sector
April 26, 2023
First Republic Bank’s deposit base hemorrhaged over $100 billion last quarter. This disclosure sent the company’s stock price plunging 49% overnight. In contrast, the earnings reports of Alphabet and other tech giants surprised on the upside, and the Nasdaq has risen 1.2% in futures trading. In overseas equity markets, Japan’s Nikkei stock index closed down […] More
