U.S. PPI
Intensifying Global Risk Aversion
May 12, 2022
Equities hit an air pocket on Thursday in the Pacific Rim and Europe, closing down 2.2% in Taiwan and Hong Kong, 3.2% lower in Indonesia, and off 1.8% in Japan and Australia, 2.1% in India, 1.6% in South Korea and 1.9% in Singapore. Share price declines of 2.0% or more have so far occurred in […] More
Rising Inflation Lifts Interest Rates, the Dollar and the Price of Gold
April 13, 2022
The hope is that March might see inflation crest, but investors have heard that story before only to be disappointed. Fresh on the heals of yesterday’s U.S. March CPI data (a 483-month high of 8.5% in the total index and a 475-month 6.5% high of core CPI), U.S. producer price data arrive today. The Federal […] More
Stagflation Breezes this Ides of March
March 15, 2022
Concerns that China will pay a price for supporting Russia’s invasion of Ukraine led to a huge rout in the Shanghai equity exchange, which tumbled 5.6% today, as in its vassal Hong Kong, the Hang Seng plunged by a similar 5.7%. Equities also closed down 2.0% in Taiwan, 1.3% in India and 0.7% in Australia. […] More
The Fact of Inflation Persistence is More Certain than Russia’s Claim to Be Partially Pulling Troops Back from the Russian Border
February 15, 2022
Stock markets rebounded Tuesday on reports out of Russia that some military forces at the border with Ukraine will be pulled back. President Putin’s real intentions remain to be seen. Nonetheless, Putin wasn’t expected to flinch, so the unexpected nature of his action triggered an initial sigh of relief from investors. Prices of WTI oil […] 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
Numerous Inflation and Industrial Production Reports Released This Friday
September 10, 2021
There were also two central bank policy rate announcements, and each involved an interest rate increase: The Central Reserve Bank of Peru‘s Board of Directors hiked its policy interest rate twice as much as analysts were anticipating to 1.0% from 0.5%. This was the second straight increase after a hike of 25 bps in August, […] More
Yet Another Higher-than-Assumed U.S. Inflation Number and Other Disappointing Data
August 12, 2021
The dollar has edged up 0.1% against the euro, loonie, Swissie, yuan and its weighted DXY index. The dollar climbed 0.5% relative to the Australian and New Zealand dollars but is unchanged so far today versus the Japanese yen. Asian equity markets mostly lost modest ground Thursday, and U.S. share prices are a bit lower […] More
Firmer Dollar as Investors Await U.S. Data Today and FOMC Tomorrow
June 15, 2021
The U.S. dollar‘s largest overnight gains are against the Turkish lira (1.1%), Canadian dollar and sterling (each +0.4). After his meeting with Biden, Turkish President Erdogan didn’t back off his provocative military plans, and that weighed on the lira. In Pacific Rim stock market action, markets in New Zealand, Japan, Australia Taiwan, and Singapore closed […] More
Weaker-than-Forecast European Industrial Production Lifts Dollar
April 9, 2021
The dollar rebounded 0.2% against its weighted index overnight from a 2-week low. One boost came from a five-basis point rise of the ten-year U.S. Treasury yield, even though other comparable sovereign debt yields also advances strongly. The dollar rose 0.4% against the yen, 0.3% versus the Mexican peso, 0.2% vis-a-vis the Swiss franc and […] More
Large Rise in Dollar and Sovereign Debt Yields
March 12, 2021
Yesterday was a momentous day for the Biden Administration. He signed the nearly $1.9 trillion American Rescue Plan on the one-year anniversary of last year’s Covid lockdown and then gave his first prime time address to the nation, setting a goals for vaccinations and a start of permissible family gatherings. Overnight, the trade-weighted dollar climbed […] More
