U.S. import prices
Inflation Stays in the Spotlight
August 13, 2021
Quite a few indicators of inflation were released this Friday, among which July U.S. import prices caught the most attention. Import prices had posted monthly advances of at least 0.9% in each of the previous seven months but went up just 0.3% in July. This reduced year-on-year import price inflation by a full percentage point […] More
Stressful Day that Includes the Biden-Putin Talks in Geneva, an FOMC Policy Meeting in Washington, and an Assortment of Meaningful Data Releases
June 16, 2021
The Biden-Putin summit is underway and expected to last around five hours. The U.S. political leaders will then hold separate individual press conferences rather than a joint event. The Federal Open Market Committee is not expected to change monetary policy settings but could for the first time indicate that it’s not too early to begin […] More
Awaiting U.S. Import Prices, Jay Powell’s Speech and Fed’s Beige Book
April 14, 2021
The dollar fell 0.7% overnight against the New Zealand dollar and 0.5% relative to the Turkish lira and Australian dollar. But more senior dollar relationships such as the euro, yen, Swiss franc, sterling, and yuan, the dollar is barely changed and down just 0.1% in weighted terms. For the first time in years, markets have […] More
Awaiting U.S. Data and Wednesday’s FOMC Developments
March 16, 2021
Data releases in Asia and Europe were light this Tuesday, but U.S. retail sales, industrial production, import prices, capacity utilization, and NAHB housing index are due shortly. Today is also the first of a two-day FOMC policy review that will include the quarterly update of macroeconomic and interest rate forecasts as well as Chairman Powell’s […] More
Stocks and Dollar Falter as Sovereign Debt Yields Resume Their Rise
February 18, 2021
Overnight dollar losses range from 0.7% against sterling to 0.4% relative to the Aussie and New Zealand dollars, 0.3% versus the euro, Swiss franc and peso and 0.2% relative to the yen and loonie. The trade-weighted dollar is 0.3% softer. Ten-year sovereign debt yields are up four basis points in the U.K., lifting the pound […] More
Electoral College Honors Voters’ Choice and Picks Biden; Data Focus on China
December 15, 2020
The dollar is little changed today. It’s biggest move, a 0.4% decline against sterling, comes as trade talks were extended past the deadline and as British labor market data revealed a full return of average wage earnings growth to the pre-pandemic pace but also a larger-than-forecast 64.3k jump in jobless insurance claims due to a […] More
Further Erosion of Dollar’s Value
September 15, 2020
The dollar dropped 0.6% to a 16-month low against the Chinese yuan overnight and also lost 0.5% relative to the Australian dollar, 0.4% vis-a-vis the Mexican peso, 0.3% versus the kiwi, Swiss franc, loonie, euro and sterling, as well as 0.1% against Japan’s yen. The latest declines bring the dollar’s trade-weighted depreciation over the past […] More
Dollar and European Equities Slip
August 13, 2020
The dollar slid overnight by 0.6% against sterling, 0.4% versus the euro, 0.3% relative to the loonie, and 0.1% against the Swiss franc. Equities closed higher by 1.8% in Japan, 1.3% in Singapore and 0.7% in Taiwan, but trading in Europe has seen losses so far today of 1.1% in the U.K., 0.3% in Germany […] More
Two Competing Covid Narratives
July 15, 2020
As is the case on so many matters, faith and reason are clashing in how psychology is being affected by the coronavirus news. This week at least, faith — in this case optimism generated by favorable reports regarding a British vaccine in testing — is overriding the reality of accelerating trends in the virus’ spread […] More
Easter Break Over but Covid-19 Pandemic Continues to Dominate Financial Market News
April 14, 2020
Having made the three biggest mistakes in handling the pandemic, the United States has now taken the global lead in both number of cases (30.3% of the worldwide total) and deaths (23,644 or 19.6% of the total). The mistakes were 1) being late to socially distance people, 2) deficient testing to identify asymptomatic carriers of […] More
