Currencies

Already driving a housing bubble in all major Asian cities from Seoul to Jakarta, significant hot money inflows are what Hong Kong, China and Singapore seek to avoid. However, Greece’s exit from the Eurozone coupled with subsequent quantitative easing by...

The Bank of England believes that cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin could be big news and even UK chancellor George Osborne is tweeting about it. But it is important to note the detail in the central bank’s comments. It is talking about...

Numerous companies have reported that developments in the currency markets, especially the dollar's appreciation, has been an important headwind on their earnings.  The logic is compelling.  US S&P 500 companies earn almost 50% of their revenue from foreign markets.  Given...

As the next five-year review of the IMF’s international reserve asset approaches, reviewers should strongly consider the case for including the Chinese yuan in the basket.The Special Drawing Rights (SDR) is an international reserve asset used to supplement IMF member...

The two main knocks against the US from global investors have been largely addressed.  The US budget deficit has been reduced from 10% of GDP to less than 3%.  The current account deficit has been halved.  Nevertheless, many observers, including...

The dramatic slide in the value of the rouble has claimed its first banking casualty. The Russian Central Bank, to the tune of US$530m, is bailing out Trust Bank.  The emergency liquidity line’s intent is as life support for one...

What can't go up forever apparently will not and today has seen a couple violent moves.  The dollar, which has risen by more than 10% against the yen since the BOJ surprised with a 5-4 vote to accelerate its already...

The US dollar remains king.  It continues to receive support through the divergence in growth and interest rate differentials.  Even though the ECB did not take fresh action this past week, there is little doubt that it will in early...

Throughout 2014, financial traders around the world have been enthusiastically taking to bitcoin as a new area for speculation. Analysts, commentators and investors have all ensured that 2014, for investments at least, may well be remembered as the year of...

Official comments have injected volatility into the foreign exchange market.  As we anticipated, Japanese officials pushed back against the seemingly free-fall in the yen sparked by the aggressive BOJ action and the diversification of the government pension funds.  Finance Minister...

The run on the yen continues.  The US dollar and euro are at new multi-year highs against the yen.  The BOJ confirmed its JPY80 trillion monetary base target unexpectedly adopted at the end of last month.  Last month's seemingly last...

Suppose you’re in the supermarket shopping for groceries. While you’re strolling the aisle with your cart, a shadowy figure looms over your shoulder and changes the prices on the items you want to buy before you get a chance to...

While the US dollar has come back bid today, the real story is the drop in the Japanese yen.  The yen is off almost 1% against the US dollar and nearly as much against the euro.  The greenback poked through...

The underlying driver of the foreign exchange market is the divergence between the US and the other high-income countries.  This was underscored in the past couple of weeks.  Between the BOJ and the government's pension fund, monetary stimulus and capital...

The US dollar is narrowly mixed as the market awaits for North American jobs data to close out the week.  It has been another good week for the greenback.  It has appreciated against all the major and emerging market currencies....