Tag Archives: FX Trends

Many people understand politics and economics to be two different disciplines. I remember in graduate school more than two decades ago, many colleagues and professors operationally defined political economy as how politics, by which they meant the state, screws up economics. I spoke at the Fixed Income Leaders Summit earlier this week and teased that many seemed to think that politics comes from the ancient Greek “poly”...

Swiss Franc The euro continues to weaken against the franc at 1.0922. But the speed of the descent has slowed. The dollar is stronger, in particular against EUR, CHF and AUD. The ECB bond buying program has finally started.  For us the main reason of the weaker Euro was, however, the bad US jobs report, that will delay also a normalization of rates in the euro zone. via Dukascopy FX Rates The US dollar is posting...

The US dollar is posting modest upticks against most of the European currencies and the Canadian and Australian dollars.However, it has fallen against the yen and taken out the recent low, leaving little between it and the May 3 low near JPY105.50.  The New Zealand dollar though is the strongest of the major currencies; gaining 1.5% following the RBNZ’s decision to leave rates on hold, and signal of little urgency to...

On Swiss Franc Once again the Swiss Franc appreciates both against EUR and USD.The euro topped at 1.1095 shortly before the US payroll data and has fallen to 1.0932. The dollar has fallen from 0.9947 to 0.9596. New CHF trade recommendation by Dennis Gartman: We wish to sell the EUR and to buy the Swiss franc this morning upon receipt of this commentary. As we write, the cross is trading 1.0972:1 and we shall risk...

Click to see the video. I am in Boston to attend the Fixed Income Leaders Summit and was invited to join Alix Steel, Joe Weisenthal, and Scarlet Fu on Bloomberg TV.   We talked about the peripheral in Europe, especially Portugal, Italy and Spain. Each has a pressing issue.  In Portugal, yields have not fallen as much as in other peripheral countries.  In Italy, they are belatedly addressing the recapitalization of...

The most important element in next week’s FOMC meeting may come from the dot plot and whether Fed officials back away from the two hikes thought appropriate in March. When looking the schedule of FOMC meetings, and understanding that when the Fed says “gradual” to describe the normalization process, it does not mean hiking at back-to-back meetings, seeing two hikes this year without a summer move is difficult. After...

With today’s gains, the price of Brent has nearly doubled from its lows in January. Of course, the price of oil is still less than half of levels that prevailed two years ago.  At the same time, many leveraged investors cast a jaundiced eye toward currency pegs.  Many have concluded that the Middle East currency pegs cannot be sustained. Through a combination of the moral suasion and the power of sovereign, Saudi...

Swiss Franc Once again both EUR and USD broke down against the franc. The adverse effect of the Friday US jobs reports is visible again.Moreover, CHF appreciated with the Asian block, with AUD and NZD and with the oil price. Swiss sales are pretty high to Asian countries. We also know that rising oil prices usually lead to a stronger CHF. Japan The Japanese yen is the major currency not to be gaining against...

Brexit Predict This Great Graphic shows the price people are willing to pay to bet that the UK votes to leave the EU at the June 23 referendum on the PredictIt events markets.   We included the lower chart to give some sense of volume of activity on this wager in this event market. Brexit predict – click to enlarge. Presently, one would have to wager 42 cents to win a dollar if the UK votes to leave.  On May 23,...

In March, the ECB decided to increase its asset purchases from 60 to 80 bln euros a month and to include corporate bonds.  The corporate bond buying program begins this week.   We use an FAQ format to discuss the key issues. What is the ECB doing?   The ECB will buy euro-denominated, investment grade bonds from companies incorporated within the eurozone. What is the duration of the corporate bonds that the ECB will...