Next Week’s Menu: September 20 – 26, 2025 September 19, 2025 Central Banks: Interest rate reviews are scheduled in China, Switzerland, Sweden, Mexico, Hungary and the Czech Republic. Minutes will be published from the Bank of Japan Board meeting. Many officials from the Federal Reserve (Powell, Williams, Bowman, Daly, Musalem, Barkin, Barr, Bostic and Goolsbee)…
Dollar, Which Had Begun This Week with Monday Losses, Finishes Up on a Rising Note September 19, 2025 In the short term at least, the dollar survived a cut of the federal funds rate target and further efforts by the Trump administration to influence monetary policy. Compared to Thursday closing levels, the dollar has strengthened…
Rate Cuts in Macao, Hong Kong, Moldova and Norway September 18, 2025 Moldovan monetary policy has been heavily influenced by the Covid pandemic and the war between Russia and Ukraine, and the interest rate has undergone wild swings this decade. The Bank of Moldova’s policy interest rate was today cut by 25 basis points to…
Busy Session for Central Bank Watchers September 18, 2025 On this Thursday, investors continued to react to yesterday’s interest rate reductions by the Federal Reserve (-25 basis points as expected), Canada (-25 bps as well as expected), Indonesia (an unexpected 25-bp cut). Brazil’s Selic rate was left unchanged for a second straight review at 15.0%,…
FOMC Cuts Federal Funds Target by Consensus of 25 Basis Points… Newcomer Miran Stakes Out a Dissenting Position September 17, 2025 The new federal funds target range will be 4.0-4.25%. Eleven voting FOMC members favored a rate cut of 25 basis points. Governor Stephen Miran, who was only sworn in yesterday on the first day…
Bank of Canada Interest Rate Cut to 2.5% from 2.75% September 17, 2025 Today”s correctly anticipated 25-basis point reduction of the Canadian policy interest rate followed a half-year pause in monetary easing. The new overnight rate level is half the size of the 5.0% peak that had been maintained from July 2023 until an initial…
Marking Time Until the Fed Announcement September 17, 2025 The dollar is up a tad, and U.S. equity futures are little changed. Share prices today fell 1.1% in South Korea but rose 1.8% in Hong Kong. Ten-year sovereign debt yields are two basis points lower in Germany and the U.K., a basis point down in…
Softer Dollar Again September 16, 2025 The dollar was nudged lower as the Federal Open Market Committee prepared to begin a 2-day policy review that is likely to cut the federal funds rate target for the first time since last December. President Trump’s newest governor-appointee Stephen Miran and Lisa Cook, whom he tried to prevent…
A Long, Long View of the Dollar’s External Value: Low Now and In Danger of Weakening Further September 15, 2025 Charts of the often-quoted DXY/USDX weighted index of the dollar provide a view going back to the birth of flexible dollar rates some 52 and a half years ago. The currency weights reflect trade flows…
Soft Chinese Data, A Downgraded French Credit Rating, Upcoming Monetary Policy Reviews, and a Japanese Holiday September 15, 2025 (174) Japanese markets were closed today in observance of Respect for the Aged Day, but China released August economic figures, which on the whole surprised to the downside. A 3.4% 12-month rate of rise in Chinese…