U.S. GDP, PCE Price Deflator, and the Preliminary February Purchasing Manager Surveys Top Friday’s Menu February 20, 2026 The dollar was narrowly mixed just prior to the eagerly awaited twin-bill of U.S. economic data releases, unchanged against the euro and loonie, 0.3% higher relative to New Zealand’s currency, 0.3% stronger against the Mexican peso, and…
Interest Rate Cut in the Philippines February 19, 2026 There has been another interest rate cut at the Central Bank of the Philippines, the sixth in a row for this monetary authority that reviews its policy stance on a bi-monthly basis. At 4.25%, the new rate level will be back to its lowest level since…
Next Week’s Menu: February 14-20, 2026 February 13, 2026 Central Banks: Monetary policies will be reviewed in New Zealand, Indonesia, Romania and the Philippines. Minutes from the last policy meetings at the Reserve Bank of Australia and the Federal Open Market Committee are being published. The Fed is also preparing its semi-annual Monetary Policy Report….
Central Bank Rate Cuts of 100 Basis Points in Egypt and 50 BPS in Russia February 13, 2026 Egyptian consumer price inflation, which crested in September 2023 at 38.0%, receded to 11.7% two years later and is currently at 11.9%. The Central Bank of Egypt‘s policy interest rate over the past ten months has been…
Dollar Exhibits Better Tone Ahead of U.S. CPI Releases, But Tech Stocks Retreat February 13, 2026 Thursday’s difficult session for U.S. equities, led by the tech sector, extended into other countries on Friday with share prices closing down 1.6% in Singapore, 1.4% in Australia, 1.3% in China and India, 1.7% in Hong Kong, and 1.6%…
Narrowly Mixed Dollar as Investors Await U.S. CPI Data Tomorrow February 12, 2026 There were 227k new U.S. jobless insurance claims last week, down a bit from the last week of January but more or less aligned with what had been expected. The net takeaway from yesterday’s January jobs figures was that, excluding other policy…
Inconsistencies in the MAGA Agenda February 11, 2026 Masks are the latest issue where far right politicians have taken strong stands both opposing and embracing an issue. In the early days of Covid when medical authorities believed that the spread of the pandemic could be slowed down by the wearing of masks, Republicans politicized that…
Awaiting January U.S. Jobs Data and Puzzling Over Other Weird News February 11, 2026 The Labor Department’s monthly employment situation report, which will in addition include a variety of revisions to past data, is due within the hour. Analysts are anticipating an unchanged 4.4% jobless rate, marginally softer wage growth of some 3.6% year-on-year and…
Many Data Releases and a Chinese Warning about U.S. Treasury Exposures and the Dollar February 10, 2026 U.S. retail sales, import prices and the employment cost index get released within the hour followed tomorrow by January labor market figures tomorrow and consumer prices data on Friday. Meanwhile, many economic statistics from other countries were reported…
Weaker Dollar and Huge Election Victory for Japanese PM Takaichi’s LDP Party February 9, 2026 (153) In lower house Japanese parliamentary elections yesterday, the ruling Liberal Democratic Party won 316 of 465 contested seats, up from 198 in the previous election and exceeding their prior record high of 300 in the 1986 election. Yesterday’s landslide…