Economic Conditions

It is not that the US dollar had a particularly good week.  It was mixed.  The best performers were sterling and the Canadian dollar. The pound led with a 1.6% gain, followed closely by the Canadian dollar.  It is not...

The last week of April is eventful. The Reserve Bank of New Zealand, the Federal Reserve and the Bank of Japan hold policy meetings.  The UK, Eurozone, and the US provide the first estimates of Q1 GDP. Japan, the Eurozone,...

The US dollar has had a rough few months.  It has fallen against most major and emerging market currencies this year.  A critical issue for global investors and policymakers is whether the dollar’s uptrend is over, or is this just...

Equity markets are seeing this week's gains trimmed after the S&P 500 fell 0.5% yesterday, recording its biggest loss in two weeks.  Disappointing earnings in some tech leaders spurred profit taking.  The US 10-year Treasuries are consolidating the week's nine...

The US dollar has been largely confined to yesterday's ranges against the major currencies. China's yuan slipped lower for the first time in four sessions, while the Shanghai Composite fell 2.3%, the most since the end of February.  The US...

Global capital markets staged an impressive recovery after the initial reaction to the failure to freeze oil output sent reverberations through the oil markets, commodities, and Asian equities. The sharp reversal begun in Europe and extended in North America has...

Oil producers failed to reach an agreement yesterday at the meeting in Doha.  That is the main spur to today's activity.  It is not that the outcome was a surprise.  One newswire poll found around half of the respondents thought...

It is never easy, but the week ahead may be particularly difficult for market participants. It will first have to respond to weekend developments.  First, the front page of the NY Times on Saturday was a report that Saudi Arabia...

After initially extending its recent recovery gains against the major currencies, the US dollar began consolidating in the European morning.  An unexpected shift by the Monetary Authority of Singapore, replacing a modest and gradual currency appreciation with a more neutral...

The US dollar bid well in Europe and is poised to start the North American session with the wind to its back.  Despite firmer equity and industrial metal prices, most emerging market currencies are also succumbing to the rebounding greenback. ...

Over the past three months and the past month, the dollar has fallen against all the major currencies but the British pound.  Sterling's underperformance can largely be explained by uncertainty created by the Tory government's sponsored referendum on continued EU...

Although there is no convincing technical evidence that dollar's retreat in Q1 is over, we suspect it is nearly complete.  We will be especially sensitive to reversal patterns, divergences with technical indicators, and other signs that the move is exhausted....

The US dollar is mostly lower as the North American session is set to begin.  The holiday in many centers, especially in Europe, has limited activity, and a few orders seemed to drive prices, which remain within the recent ranges....

Four events will shape market psychology in the week ahead.  They are Yellen's speech to the NY Economic Club, US jobs data, Eurozone March CPI and PMI, and Japan's Tankan Survey.  The broad backdrop is characterized by the rebuilding of...

The holiday shutters most markets today.  Several Asian markets were open, and equities were narrowly mixed, with Japan and China posting small gains.  Most of the other local markets, including Australia, Korea and Taiwan slipped. The US dollar is trading...