Next Week’s Menu: January 4-10, 2025 January 3, 2025 Central Banks: Monetary policies will be reviewed in Israel and Serbia. Minutes from the FOMC meeting in December get published, and Kansas City Fed President Schmid and Philadelphia President Harker have speaking engagements. Deputy Governor Breeden and European Central Bank Executive Board member Lane speak publicly…
Difficult Session for Chinese Stock Market and Currency January 3, 2025 The dollar in offshore trading advanced to somewhat above 7.35 yuan, depressing China’s currency to an 18-year low, and the Shanghai Composite equity index tumbled 1.6% after officials let China’s 10-year interest rate slide below previous support levels. Against other currencies, the dollar is…
The New Year’s Opening Act January 2, 2025 Year 2025 in America kicked off with a terrorist act in the deep south city of New Orleans and news of a second straight double-digit decline in U.S. mortgage applications, yet pre-open stock futures point to a rebound from last week’s decline. The dollar also made gains,…
December 2024 and Full 2024 in Figures January 1, 2025 In spite of lessening monetary restraint by many central banks during 2024, long-term interest rates tended to end higher. Among economies featured in the table below, the rise in British interest rates ranked highest for both the whole year and in just December. Between the…
Day Before Christmas and Not Much to Report December 24, 2024 Compared to Monday closing levels, the dollar is unchanged against the euro, yen, and sterling. The greenback is up 0.3% relative to the Australian dollar and by 0.2% versus the Canadian dollar and Swiss franc but shows a 0.4% loss relative to the Mexican…
Jamaican Central Bank Interest Rate Cut December 23, 2024 The latest central bank to announce the result of its last monetary policy review of 2024 is the Bank of Jamaica. Officials there reduced the interest rate by 25 basis points to 6.0%. This was the fourth such cut since August. The rate previously had been…
The Start of Christmas Week Finds Dollar Atypically Well-Bid December 23, 2024 More years than not since the onset of flexible dollar rates, the U.S. currency has exhibited a soft tendency in late December. This seasonal bias was especially pronounced early on, as the dollar fell against the Deutsche mark between mid-December and yearend 13…
Next Week’s Menu: December 21-28, 2024 December 20, 2024 Central Banks: Interest rate policy reviews are scheduled in Turkey and Egypt, and minutes from previous central bank policy meetings in Australia, Japan and Canada will be published. Holidays and Special Events: The distraction of end-of-year holidays to business and financial market activity is arguably maximized…
Mexican Central Bank Rate Cut December 20, 2024 The Bank of Mexico’s policy interest rate has been reduced by another 25 basis points to 10.0%. This was the fourth such cut since August and the fifth one since March. The rate had been at a peak of 11.25% for a year prior to that initial…
A Few More Central Bank Decisions, A Lot More Price Data, and A Possible U.S. Government Shutdown Is Looking More Likely December 20, 2024 The U.S. dollar fell overnight by 0.4% against the Japanese yen, Swiss franc, and British pound. Smaller dips of 0.2% and 0.1% happened versus the euro and Canadian dollar, while bigger…