In January 2017, the Fed chairperson Janet Yellen, delivered a fairly hawkish statement, indicating that the Fed would raise the key interest rate three times during the year, if both herself and her committee, felt the USA economy was robust enough to cope with the rises. True to her commitment, the rate was duly raised […]
We’ve become accustomed to many new buzz words and phrases since the various credit crises developed back in 2007/2008: TARP, asset purchase, credit crunch, ZIRP (zero interest rate policy), NIRP (negative interest rate policy), taper, taper twist, helicopter money etc. And how could we ignore the most infamous nuspeak of “Q.E.” (Quantitative easing). Well now
Last week was a (relatively) quiet week for: economic calendar news and events, market moving Trump tweets, whilst the narrative causing tensions with North Korea, also appeared to recede. Perhaps it was that stability and a return to a focus on key data, which created an environment and the underpinning sentiment, allowing fundamentals to determine
Not only did the pound surge versus its peers earlier in the week, after CPI inflation reached 2.9%, when the latest inflation figures were released on Tuesday, sparking rumours that the BoE might raise rates on Thursday, sterling then spiked when the “no change” base rate announcement was actually made. It surged as a result
Undoubtedly, the key economic calendar event for the coming week, is the FOMC decision on interest rates, which will be revealed on Wednesday. Currently at 1.25%, the FOMC/Fed rate has increased twice in 2017 and the FOMC did suggest earlier in the year, with the usual caveats and sophist language allowing adequate room to grow
In a relatively quiet day, for medium to high economic calendar events published in the USA, Wednesday saw the USA monthly budget statement come in beating the forecast at -$107b for August, still significantly ahead of the -$42.9 recorded for July, but the result was not as bad as many analysts had feared, who had
On Thursday morning, the UK’s central bank the Bank of England, via its MPC (monetary policy committee), will reveal its latest decision regarding interest rates. On Tuesday the UK’s official statistics body, the ONS, announced that the (CPI) annual inflation figure for the U.K. came in at 2.9%, missing the forecast. The monthly figure for
The major currency talking point during Tuesday’s trading sessions, concerned the soaring rise of the UK’s pound, versus its peers. U.K. CPI inflation came in at 2.9% YoY for August, missing the forecast and increasing from the 2.6% recorded in July. The MoM rise was 0.6%, soaring from the -0.1% recorded in July. As a
Global equities enjoyed a relief rally on Monday with certain global indices reaching record highs. Hurricane Irma avoided Miami, whilst the potential catastrophic damage, which some mainstream media commentators were terming “Irmageddon”, failed to materialise to its full predicted extent, as the eye of the storm and the projected direction, was nudged off course. The
Measured versus a basket of its peers, the U.S. dollar closed out the week by plunging to its lowest level in approximately two years on Friday, whilst WTI oil collapsed by circa 3%. With hurricane Irma approaching and a huge earthquake hitting Mexico, which fortunately took place a sufficient distance from Mexico City, avoiding the
