Tag Archives: New Zealand

Overview: The dollar is mostly softer today, but largely within the recent ranges, as the market appears to be waiting for tomorrow's US CPI. There are a few exceptions to note. The yen is trading near its recent lows. A less hawkish Reserve Bank of New Zealand has triggered a sell-off of the local dollar. Softer than expected Norwegian inflation has knocked the krone lower. Most emerging market currencies are firmer, with several Asia Pacific currencies bucking the...

Overview:  Federal Reserve Chair Powell's offered a stronger case for a pause in the monetary tightening before the weekend and this sapped the dollar's mojo. The greenback is mostly consolidating through the European morning in quiet turnover. The JP Morgan Emerging Market Currency Index is trying to snap a four-day decline. The South African rand is recovering from its recent slide and is up nearly 1%. The South Korea won is benefitting from China's decision to...

Overview: The dollar sprang higher yesterday but follow-through buying today has been limited. The little more than 0.5% gain in the Dollar Index was among the largest since mid-March. And yet, the debt ceiling anxiety and weak US bank shares persist. Today's talks at the White House have been postponed until early next week. Both sides are incentivized to bring it to the brink to demonstrate to their constituencies that they got the best deal possible. Both the...

Overview: The banking crisis is ebbing. The Bank of England and European Central Bank assured investors that the AT1 bonds are senior to equity claims, and Switzerland is a unique case. Bank share indices in the Europe and the US rose yesterday, even though the shares of First Republic Bank fell by 47% yesterday. The $123-stock at the end of last month reached almost $11 yesterday. It is trading around $14.75 pre-market. Global equities are building on yesterday's...

Overview: The pendulum of market psychology is swinging dramatically. Amid the US banking crisis, Credit Suisse's long-running pressures percolated back to top-of-mind, sending ripples through the capital markets, trigging a sharp slide in the euro. The SNB support is helping the markets calm today. The odds of a 50 bp hike by the ECB today have been cut to about 50% compared with a nearly 100% a week ago. The market has about a 66% chance of a 25 bp hike by the Fed...

Overview: Rising interest rates are weighing on risk appetites and the dollar is broadly stronger. Sterling is a notable exception after a stronger than expected flash PMI and better than expected public finances. The correlation between higher US rates and a weaker yen is increasing and the greenback looks poised to rechallenge the JPY135 area. A slightly better than expected preliminary PMI and hawkish minutes from the recent RBA meeting has done little to support...

Overview:  Yesterday's string of dismal US economic data delivered a material blow to those still thinking that a soft-landing was possible. Retail sales by the most in the a year. Manufacturing output fell by nearly 2.5% in the last two months of 2022. Bad economic news weighed on US stocks. The honeymoon of New Year may have ended yesterday. The US 10-year yield fell below 3.40% for the first time since the middle of last September. The Atlanta Fed's GDPNow...

The week ahead has a relatively light economic schedule, punctuated by the US Thanksgiving Day holiday on November 24. Nevertheless, the data highlights include the preliminary November PMIs, Tokyo's November CPI, and the FOMC minutes from this month's meeting. The data is not the driver now; psychology is. The precise print, for example, of the eurozone and the UK's preliminary PMI will likely be of little consequence. The composite has fallen for six consecutive...

Overview:  Global equities moved higher in the wake of the strong gains in the US yesterday. US futures point to the possibility of a gap higher opening today. Most of the large Asia Pacific bourses rallied 1%-2%, with China’s CSI a notable exception, slipping fractionally. Europe’s Stoxx 600 is edging higher and is near two-week highs. If the gains are sustained, it will be the fourth consecutive advancing session, the longest in two months. Benchmark yields are...

It isn’t just the vast difference between Chinese consumer prices and those in the US or Europe, China’s CPI has been categorically distinct from China’s PPI, too. That distance hints at the real problem which the whole is just now beginning to confront, having been lulled into an inflationary illusion made up from all these things. To start with, yesterday China’s NBS reported the index for its consumer prices rose 2.1% year-over-year in April 2022. That’s up from...