Turkish Rate Hike April 18, 2025 In a big surprise, officials at the Central Bank of Turkey (TCMB) lifted their interest rate yesterday by 350 basis points on the heels of three cuts of 250 bps undertaken between December and March. The new rate becomes 46.0%, defying analyst expectations that it was going to be…
Egyptian Interest Rate Cut April 18, 2025 The Central Bank of Egypt slashed its overnight deposit rate by 225 basis points to 25.0%. A peak of 27.25% had been maintained previously since March 2024. Similarly-sized reductions were made in the overnight lending rate and discount rates to 26.0% and 25.5%, respectively. A released statement proclaims…
World Financial Markets Quieted by Widely Shared Good Friday Holiday Observances April 18, 2025 Today is a holiday in Australia, New Zealand, most of Europe and the Western Hemisphere, and many places in Europe. The weighted DXY dollar index fluctuated in a extremely narrow 0.2% high/low range overnight. Among stock markets that were open for…
Central Bank Policies in the Spotlight; Dollar and U.S. Equities Rebound April 17, 2025 The weighed dollar index recovered 0.5% from Wednesday’s intra-day low, with overnight gains of 0.5% against the Swiss franc and yen, 0.3% versus the yen, Canadian dollar and Swiss franc, and 0.1% relative to sterling. Ten-year sovereign debt yields, which had…
Better-Than-Forecast Chinese Data, Another U.S. Tariff Initiative, and a Speech From Fed Chairman Powell Later Today April 16, 2025 In overnight financial market action, the weighted DXY dollar index depreciated 0.6% and touched a 3-year low some 9.8% below its year-to-date high in mid-January. Dollar declines were pretty much across-the-board including losses of 0.9% against…
Market’s Attention Pivoting to How Central Banks Might React to Changing Global Outlook April 15, 2025 Whereas equities mostly rose Tuesday in Asia and Europe, U.S. stock futures are trading slightly in the red. Share prices closed up by 2.1% in India, 1.8% in Taiwan and Singapore, and 0.8% in Japan and have so far…
Singapore Monetary Policy Eased After Weaker-Than-Expected GDP Data April 14, 2025 The Monetary Authority of Singapore flattened the slope of the SGD’s target rate following news that GDP in that economy had contracted by 0.8% between 4Q 2024 and last quarter. That bigger-than-expected decline was the first negative GDP movement since a 0.5% drop in…
Temporary Reciprocal Tariff Pause on Tech Lifts Equities But Dollar Continues to Weaken April 14, 2025 (196) The dollar fell overnight by 0.9% against sterling, 0.8% versus the Mexican peso and New Zealand’s currency, 0.6% relative to the Aussie dollar, 0.2% vis-a-vis the loonie, and 0.3% against the Japanese yen and euro. Intra-day lows of…
How Badly Has the United States Been Ripped Off by the Post-WW2 Economic Order? April 13, 2025 The moral basis for President Trump’s punitive tariff policy has been the assertion that the progression of free-trade treaties over the past 80 years have been unevenly practiced, resulting in a huge disadvantage for America’s economy. In a…
Next Week’s Menu: April 12-18, 2025 April 11, 2025 Central Banks: Monetary policy stances will be reviewed in Canada, South Korea, Ukraine, Turkey and at the European Central Bank. Reserve Bank of Australia Board minutes and the Bank of Canada quarterly Monetary Policy Report will be published. ECB President Lagarde and Bank of Canada Macklem…