U.S. GDP
Fed Showing Patience Amid Robust U.S. Economic Data
March 28, 2024
Governor Waller is the latest top Federal Reserve Governor to affirm the prudence to not cutting rates as soon as the FOMC had been signaling earlier this year. This patience in the face of robust U.S. economic data has not adversely affected investor sentiment the way such did not long ago. U.S. equities are so […] More
Another Bad Day for Stocks.. House of Representatives Ends Speaker Impasse.. And Rate Hikes in Turkey and The Philippines
October 26, 2023
Disappointing third-quarter corporate earnings have been the driving force behind the drop in share prices. Stock markets in the Pacific Rim closed down 2.7% in South Korea, 2.1% in Japan, 1.8% in Indonesia, 1.7% in Taiwan, and 1.4% in India. Share prices have lost 0.8% to 1.4% so far in Germany, France, Italy and Great […] More
Spotlight Shining on Oil Prices
September 28, 2023
Oil inventory data on Wednesday sent the price of West Texas Intermediate up to a 14-month high of $95.03 per barrel overnight, but the price subsequently settled back and is currently 0.5% below yesterday’s close. Investors or on tenterhooks to see where the oil price heads next. An additional concern, which has buttressed sovereign debt […] 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
German Recession Confirmed and Interest Rate Decisions in South Korea, Turkey and Indonesia
May 25, 2023
U.S. GDP data will be released shortly. In the meantime, German GDP growth last quarter was revised to -0.3% (not annualized) from zero percent reported originally. That’s the second negative quarter in a row and the third drop in the past four quarter, resulting in a negative year-on-year growth rate of -0.5% as well. The […] More
Softer Dollar, Lower Bond Yields, and Equities Recover Further
March 30, 2023
Risk-on trading continued overnight. The dollar fell 0.4% against the Swiss franc, 0.3% relative to the euro and yen, 0.2% versus the Australian dollar and sterling and 0.1% vis-a-vis the Canadian dollar, kiwi, and Mexican peso. Ten-year sovereign debt yields dipped 3 basis points in the U.K., 2 bps in Germany and a basis point […] More
Reacting to FOMC Minutes and Awaiting More U.S. Data Reports
February 23, 2023
FOMC minutes published Wednesday afternoon confirmed that some policymakers at the Fed leaned toward a 50-basis point hike rather than the 25-bp increase agreed upon. Consideration of a pause in tightening was off the table, and there was widespread consent that more rate hikes will be necessary. Investors now await revised 4Q U.S. GDP figures, […] More
Takeaways from Today’s U.S. Data Releases
January 26, 2023
Quarterly U.S. real GDP growth of 2.9% annualized in the final quarter slightly exceeded expectations and was only marginally slower than the third quarter’s 3.2% pace. Despite back-to-back contractions of 1.6% in 1Q and 0.6% in 2Q, GDP still managed to expand on average by 2.1% in 2022 after the prior year’s rebound of 5.9%. […] More
Fresh Reality Check Drives Stocks, Bonds and Crypto Lower but Dollar Up
December 22, 2022
The dollar strengthened 0.8% against the New Zealand currency, 0.6% relative to sterling, 0.5% versus the Australian and Canadian dollars, and 0.4% vis-a-vis the Swiss franc but just 0.1% against the euro and not at all versus the Japanese yen or Chinese yuan so far today. Equities had done mighty fine in the Pacific Rim, […] More
Month-End, Powell’s Speech, and a Whole Lot of Released Data to Digest
November 30, 2022
Investors are awaiting Fed Chairman Powell’s luncheon speech today at the Brookings Institution, scheduled to start at 13:30 EST (18:30 GMT). The last business day of each month typically offers a very heavy menu of released data. November saw the biggest monthly drop in the dollar in over a decade, as long-term interest rates fell […] More
