South Africa’s central bank confirmed its dovish policy on Wednesday, lowering its interest rate on repos by 25 basis points to 6.50%, its lowest since January 2016. February’s consumer price index shows that inflation is under control at 4% annualised (January: 4...
The USD is in a bear market. Japan’s yen has defied fates by not caving into interest rate differentials, which would have sent USD/JPY significantly higher than its current 106...
The European Central Bank says the Eurozone economy is healthy. Lending to non-financial corporations and households increased by 3% in February, a slight decrease from 3.30% in January and slightly higher than December’s 2.90...
Today’s announcement that January US Pending Home Sales fell 4.7% points to an economic slowdown. It is triggered by the US Federal Reserve’s money-tightening strategy that is finally taking hold, but also by winter weather...
Relationship between the two largest economies does not bode well. The Trump administration memorandum released on Thursday to impose 25% tariffs on Chinese imports worth USD 60 billion is worrying investors. The first signs are already in place: Hong Kong Hang Seng sells off -2...
Markets are on a knife-edge. US President Trumps imposing new trade sanctions against China has meaningfully increased the probability of a trade war. China is unlikely to site idly buy this time around. While at the EU summit, which is expected to discuss the US steel and aluminum tariffs...
Markets are once again bracing for US Trump trade policy “on the fly”. With Rex Tillerson out of the way, Larry Kudlow supporting punitive actions against China and Peter Novara and Wilder Ross steady daring Trump on just about anything could happen today...
As broadly expected the FOMC lifted the Feds fund rate targets by 25bps to 1.50% - 1.75%. Fed members adjusted their forecast so that they reflect their more optimistic view of the US economy. The press statement also underwent changes, all positive...
Elected on Sunday 18 March with a majority of 76%, President Vladimir Vladimirovitch Poutine confirms his fourth and (supposedly) last mandate as President of the Russian Federation, giving a strong signal on international stage and confirming his popularity among the Russian public opinion...
According to the Federal Government’s Expert Group published, Switzerland is also expected to take advantage of the broad-based economic recovery. The SECO revised its growth forecast to the upside as it anticipates that the dynamic recovery will continue. The economy is expected to growth 2...
Further sideways consolidation likely. (By Peter Rosenstreich) • Bitcoin trades indistinctly at the 8200 range, breaking hourly support at 7614 (02/02/2018 low) and expecting to trade sideway in the shortterm...
Following Zhou Xiaochuan retirement announcement five months ago, markets were looking for newly elected People’s Bank of China governor announcement of March 19...
Blowback from scandal deepened today as Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe took responsibility for the loss of trust in his governments. However he continues to deny that he or his wife had intervened in the sale of land to a connected school operator...
Facing a strong depreciation against the single currency (EUR/CHF at 1.17; +9.04% in 1 year) and anticipating the risk of a potential trade war escalation, the Swiss National Bank finally took the decision to maintain its deposit rate stable at -0.75...
Financial markets are encountering turbulence on the last trading day of the week amid allegation that Trump has fired his national security adviser H.R. McMaster...
Following recent reforms in Chinese Government and growing regulatory power of People’s Bank of China with the aim of improving stability either from a political and financial standpoint, today’s economic data release of February Retail Sales and February Industrial Production are given at 9...
This morning, the US dollar erased partially yesterday losses caused by another disruption in the Trump administration. Indeed, on Tuesday, the greenback fell sharply as Donald Trump fired his Secretary of State, Rex Tillerson, and named CIA director Mike Pompeo for the job...
5.80%, a level that was not seen since the 1970s. February Net change in employment is estimated at 15’400 following January decline at -88’000, mainly boosted by an increase in part-time jobs and decline in full-time positions while Canadian hourly earnings remained solid, valued at 3...
The CPI surprised to the upside in January as the headline gauge printed at 2.1%y/y versus 1.9% expected, while the core measure, which excludes the most volatile components came in at 1.8%y/y versus 1.7% median forecast...
Threatening Europe, China and Japan aluminum (10%) and steel industries (25%) after implementing heavy tariffs, Donald Trump is now focusing on one of Europe’s flagship industry following infructuous discussions of both European and US negotiators in Brussels, aiming at exempting European industr...
