What Have You Got to Lose? April 3, 2025 As a politician, U.S. President Trump has shown an uncanny aptitude for selecting short, catchy slogans that proved to be a huge success at the ballot box. The best known of these is Make America Great Again, whose acronym MAGA took on the name of his…
Quiet So Far in Markets as U.S. Reciprocal Tariff Details Are Awaited April 2, 2025 U.S. President Trump picked a light day from a data release standpoint to kick off his reciprocal tariff program that is meant to bring back manufacturing to the United States eventually. The operative message is to not look for immediate…
Investors Remain Highly Skeptical about President Trump’s Tariff Plans on This April Fool’s Day April 1, 2025 The lack of confidence in the U.S. tariff changes to take effect tomorrow is underscored by diverse movements overnight in equities. The expectation is that his tariff moves and other dramatic changes made to the federal government will…
March 2025 and 1Q25 in Figures March 31, 2025 World investors had a bad case of tariffobia during the first ten weeks of the Trump presidency, and it showed in a relatively weak performance of North American equities, higher sovereign debt yields, a sharp rise in the price of gold into record high territory, and…
Seeking Safety Over Risk on Final Day of the Quarter March 31, 2025 (198) The main theme in financial markets today has been a flight to safety, with stock markets tumbling 4.2% in Taiwan, 4.1% in Japan, 1.5% in Thailand and Vietnam, and 1.3% in Hong Kong. Major euro area stock markets so far show…
Next Week’s Menu: March 29 – April 4, 2025 March 28, 2025 Central Banks: Monetary policy reviews are scheduled in Colombia, Australia, Poland and the Philippines. The Bank of Japan’s Tankan quarterly survey of corporate conditions and expectations and minutes from the last policy meetings at the European Central Bank and the Bank of Russia…
Mexican Central Bank Rate Cut March 28, 2025 The Bank of Mexico‘s overnight interbank rate has been cut another half percentage point to 9.0%, its lowest level since September 2022. There was a 50-basis point cut at the prior February review of monetary policy and five previous cuts of 25 basis points that began a…
U.S. Personal Consumption Report and Many European Data Releases March 28, 2025 Shortly before the release of U.S. personal income, PCE and the PCE price deflator this Friday morning, the dollar was showing overnight advances of 0.3% against the euro and peso, 0.2% versus the the Swiss franc and sterling, and 0.1% relative to the…
U.S. Pivots Back to Tariff Threats, Sending Equity Markets Lower in Europe and Much of Asia March 27, 2025 Share prices on Thursday fell 1.4% in Taiwan and South Korea, 0.6% in Japan, and 0.4% in Australia, and European stock markets so far show losses of 04-0.8% in Germany, France, the U.K. and Italy. In…
Tentative Black Sea Ceasefire, Lower-Than-Forecast British Inflation & Chancellor Reeves to Augment Spending Cuts March 26, 2025 A tentative U.S.-brokered deal to end Black Sea combat and attacks on energy infrastructure has been announced between Ukraine and Russia, provided the U.S. reduces economic sanctions against Putin’s state. British Chancellor of the Exchequer Reeves is now…