Other Economies Attracting Interest as U.S. Steers an Isolationist Course March 18, 2025 Once again, stock markets in Europe are flashing green, with overnight advances of at least 1.0% in Germany, Italy and Spain. In the Pacific Rim, the Hang Seng of Hong Kong, Sensex of India and Japanese Nikkei closed up 2.5%, 1.5% and…
Chinese Data, Big Week for Central Banks, and U.S. Share Prices Fall Further Behind Other Stock Markets March 17, 2025 The dollar lost fractional ground overnight, losing 0.6% against the kiwi, 0.4% against the Swissy and Australian dollar, 0.3% relative to sterling and the euro and 0.1% versus the yen, peso and loonie. Equities in…
Next Week’s Menu: March 15-21, 2025 March 14, 2025 Central Banks: The week ahead will be very active for central bankers, with policy reviews planned at the Federal Reserve and central banks in Japan, China, Indonesia, the U.K., Taiwan, Russia, Armenia, Moldova, Uzbekistan, Switzerland, Sweden, Iceland, Brazil, Chile, and South Africa. The Fed’s review will…
News of Likely Congressional CR Deal to Avert Government Shutdown Outweighs Impact of Further Weak Data and Escalated Verbal Trade War March 14, 2025 Friday’s positive developments outweighed downside news in the market trenches. Overnight moves in the dollar were mixed, as the greenback gained 0.6% against the yen, 0.4% versus the Swissy, and 0.1%…
Does the U.S. Economy Really Do Better Under Republican Presidential Rule? March 13, 2025 The pivotal voter perception that returned Donald Trump to the White House in the 2024 election was the perception that Republicans do a better job of handling the economy than the Democrats. Beginning with a posting during the Obama-McCain presidential campaign…
Sour Investor Mood Ahead of U.S. PPI Release March 13, 2025 U.S. equities got only a dead-cat bounce from Wednesday’s slightly better-than-expected consumer price data and are back showing red ahead of producer price figures due shortly. With his assortment of U.S. policy about-faces, President Trump has acquired a Grinch-like aura in the world financial…
Seventh Canadian Central Bank Rate Cut Since June 2024 March 12, 2025 At 2.75%, the Bank of Canada‘s policy interest rate will be 225 basis points below its former cyclical peak of 5.0% from July 2023 to June 2024. That cumulative decline was more than double the one percentage point reduction of the federal funds…
Some Reprieve in the Panic But Uneasiness Lingers March 12, 2025 U.S. stock futures were up 0.5-1.0% about an hour before the release of U.S. consumer price figures. In currency trading, the dollar rose 0.6% against the yen despite Bank of Japan Governor Ueda dispelling any notion of imminent direct intervention. He said recent yen…
Where’s the Bottom? March 11, 2025 Stock market action today has featured some tepid bottom-fishing after Monday’s debacle. In pre-open futures, the DOW, SPX and Nasdaq each bounced 0.3% higher. In Europe, the British Ftse and German Dax are up 0.2% so far, but French and Italian equities are just flat. Japan’s Nikkei closed 0.6%,…
What a Stock Market Difference Trump 2.0 Makes March 10, 2025 During the first seven weeks after Donald Trump took office as the 45th president of the United States, the S&P 500, Dow Jones Industrials, and Nasdaq respectively logged gains of 4.6%, 5.4% and 5.5%. And so began what proved to be multiple years of…