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Central Banks
AUD drops on Employment Figures
The Aussie Dollar has seen a drop in its price due to wage and unemployment data released over the past day and a half. The economic data shows that unemployment has fallen to its lowest level in nearly 50 years with the jobless rate at 3.4% compared to analysts expecting the figure to remain at 3.5%. Wages also rose modestly in the last quarter to...
Reserve Bank of Australia hikes Cash Rate by 0.50%
The Reserve Bank of Australia, (RBA) has increased the Country’s cash rate by half a percent to combat the rising inflation in its latest cash rate change. The increase was in line with most analyst’s expectations as the RBA continues to fight inflation and bring it back into the 2-3% range. The current forecast from the RBA...
RBA preview – likely 50bp hike incoming
Todays RBA policy meeting is expected by most analysts to result in a 50bp hike as the bank tries to play catch up and get on top of elevated inflation figures. The slightly lower Q2 CPI figures released last week has seen futures markets price out what was earlier feared could be a 75bp supersized move, a 50bp hike would see the ban...
US dollar drops as the economy shrinks by 0.9% for the last quarter.
US economic data revealed last night shows that the country’s GDP has shrunk by 0.9%, although some are remaining positive that a recession may still be avoided. Despite the worrying figures, Federal Reserve Chair, Jerome Powell, outlined his belief that due to low unemployment figures of 3.6% and a strong market for jobs with 11 million job open...
Preview: the Bank of Canada rate decision
One of the must-watch economic events this week will be the Bank of Canada interest rate decision. The rate decision is due to be announced at 15:00 PM London time on Wednesday. Why is the announcement important? A bank interest rate is a rate at which a country's central bank lends money to local banks. The interest rate is charged by the nat...
Interest Rates: Ultra Low, Near Zero or Negative?
In a pandemic-induced environment, central banks and governments have absorbed all the shocks of the virus on the financial markets by injecting massive liquidity in the economy, keeping credit flowing and supporting the global economy with huge fiscal stimulus plans to manage an unparalleled health and economic crisis. Governments and Central ...
A Cautious Fed
A Cautious Fed FOMC Meeting Investors were eagerly looking forward to the Fed’s statement and forecasts for clues on how the Fed is viewing the health of the economy after easing lockdown measures. Global central banks have played a crucial part in absorbing the pandemic-induced shocks in the global economy. Together with huge fiscal intervent...
Eyes on the Fed and the Dot Plots
Global central banks have been a crucial part in providing aid and support to the global economy during the coronavirus pandemic. Faced with an unprecedented crisis, central bankers have rapidly deployed various monetary tools to keep credit flowing and support businesses and households. Given that interest rates were somewhat already at record-...
2019 in a Nutshell and the Transition to a New Decade
If we could describe the year 2019 in one word, we believe uncertainty says it all. The world entered 2019 with a high level of ambiguity and is poised to finish the year with the same extent of uncertainties. The Global Economic Policy Uncertainty Index which is a GDP-weighted average of national EPU indices for 20 countries has remained in ele...
Fed in Focus – US Repo and Funds Rate
Fed in Focus - US Repo and Funds Rate During the week, it was all about the Repo market. A Repurchase Agreement known as Repo is a form of short-term borrowing for dealers in government securities. The Repo market plays a key role in supporting liquidity in the financial markets. It facilitates the flow of cash and securities around the financi...
ECB: Draghi’s Last Call for A Significant Degree of Monetary Stimulus
Central banks of major economies like the US, UK and Japan turned to quantitative easing (QE) at a time where they were unable to push interest rates any lower. The European Central Bank (ECB) launched its first large scale of asset purchases in 2015 and was among the latest central bank to join the QE bandwagon. How QE works The ECB adopted the...
All Eyes on Jackson Hole Economic Symposium
All Eyes on Jackson Hole Economic Symposium The annual Jackson Hole Economic Symposium is sponsored by the Federal Reserve of Kansas City and is annually held in Wyoming. It is an exclusive central bank conference which fosters open discussions on global policy matters. The event is closely watched by market participants and has the potential to af...
RBA August Statement
The Main Headlines of the RBA August Statement By Philip Lowe, Governor: Monetary Policy Decision The Board decided to leave the cash rate unchanged at 1.00 per cent. The outlook for the global economy remains reasonable. The persistent downside risks to the global economy combined with subdued inflation have led a number of central ban...
Dissecting the FOMC Statement
Dissecting the FOMC Statement The US Federal Reserve cut interest rates overnight by 25 basis points, taking the US Federal Funds rate to 2.25%. The rate cut was mostly seen as a hawkish one. In the press conference, Chair Powell said that the central bank’s rate cut was a “mid-cycle adjustment to policy” rather than “the beginning of a ...
Fundamental Analysis: Macro Factors
Fundamental Analysis: Macro Factors The rapidly growing global interconnectedness means that the health of one country's economy can impact the world markets. As a result, traders generally follow the economic calendar to ensure that they do not miss out on any relevant indicators that may signal a move in the financial markets. In this article, ...