February
The dollar advanced against a basket of major currencies on Tuesday trading after U.S. housing data, where investors will put the Fed meeting this week under scrutiny to get clues whether the Fed will taper or continue with stimulus.
The U.S. dollar fell after a report showing housing starts came in at 914,000 in May, compared with expectations of 950,000 and a prior of 856,000, while building permits slipped to 974,000 from a prior of 1,005,000 and predictions of 975,000, yet it rebounded again to hit a new high.
Another report from the U.S. showed that CPI rose to 0.1% in May from a previous of -0.4%, lower than expectations of 0.2%.
Although most of the recent data from the United States have pointed to improvement in the economy, investors still needs stronger clues the Fed will ...
U.K. inflation rebounded in May, moving away from the bank’s target on significant jump in air fares.
Today`s data showed that CPI for the year ended May rose to 2.7% after dropping to 2.4% in April, higher than median forecast of 2.7%, taking advantage of a 22% rise in air fares from April, where higher closing and footwear costs also helped to push the index up.
On the monthly basis, the reading lingered at 0.2%, above forecast of 0.1%.
Annual Core CPI, which excludes alcohol, food, tobacco and energy prices, climbed to 2.2% from a prior of 2.0%.
The BOE’s inflation report release last month showed a cut in the bank’s inflation forecast as it mentioned that inflation may come back to target earlier than estimated, yet the expected a rise to 3.1% in the third quarter, lower ...
The dollar rebounded against a basket of major currencies on Monday trading, recouping some of its losses incurred over the previous couple of weeks, where investors will put the Fed meeting week under scrutiny to get clues whether the Fed will taper or continue with stimulus.
The U.S. dollar recorded last week its fourth straight weekly drop versus a basket of major currencies, losing around 4.3%, amid uncertainty about Fed stimulus after major central banks decided to hold their monetary stance this month.
The dollar index, which tracks the dollar movements versus a basket of six major currencies, rebounded today to touch a peak of 80.92, compared with the session’s opening of 80.70.
However, the dollar may face further downside pressure as it remains below key level at 81.08, ...
Squeezed To Square: A False EUR Bid Into FOMC?
Asset class prices continue to fluctuate, mostly on the market's expectation of Fed tapering through QE easing later this year. The degree of 'swaying volatility' has already tapered somewhat, on the back of last week's major positioning. Mind you, there are always a few last minute requirements that unnerve the weaker of market positions. This week's highlights are primarily Fed related, including the FOMC statement, FOMC forecasts, and the chairman's press conference.
The Fed's communication skills had better be sharp, any miscommunication and the bleeding starts again. Investors will be looking for any changes in the regular statement and forecasts from 'helicopter' Ben and his fellow cohorts. Despite having already done some significant ...
After the jobs report week another cheerful week is witnessed for the world’s largest economy as reports released showed fewer Americans filling for jobless claims, better-than-projected retail sales and a stable expansion of the country’s industrial production reflecting in fact an enhanced consumer and employer confidence while that inflation remain subdued but wholesale prices rose slightly.
In fact the number of Americans who filed for unemployment claims dropped unexpectedly last week; the US initial jobless claims for June 08 came in at 334 thousand from 346 thousand; below the projected reading of 346 thousand while that the continuing claims for June 01 came in at 2973 thousand.
Accordingly it is so far clear that the labor market is only improving further as already shown ...
The global economy may be entering an era of slower but more sustainable growth as the scars of the recent debt crisis seems to be healing, the World Bank said in its latest update on economic conditions.
In its semi-annual report released last week, the World Bank slashed its growth forecasts for 2013, citing a deeper than expected recession in Europe and a slowdown in China and India.
Renewing fears about growth, it said the global economy was likely to grow by 2.2 percent this year, a downgrade from its January forecast of 2.4 percent.
The World Bank has lowered its growth projections for the Eurozone economy this year, as fiscal and banking consolidation is dragging down growth, and is now projecting an economic contraction of 0.6 percent for 2013 compared 0.1 percent that the World ...
Growth on Track Despite Mixed Data
- The May retail sales report came in better than expected, with sales rising 0.6 percent. Core retail sales were somewhat softer at 0.3 percent, which followed a downwardly revised figure for April, and indicate a more modest pace of consumer spending in the second quarter.
- Small businesses are gradually gaining confidence; the May NFIB index jumped 2.5 points to 94.4.
- Industrial production came in flat for May as lower utilities output offset modest gains in mining and manufacturing.
Growth on Track Despite Mixed Data
Data this week were mixed relative to market expectations, but showed no derailment of the economy's current growth track. The steady improvement in the economy over the past few months has finally spilled over to the small business ...
- Industrial production was unchanged in May 2013 following a revised decline of 0.4% in April (was -0.5%) and the 0.2% gain (was 0.3%) in March. Market expectations had been for a 0.2% increase in the month.
- The capacity utilization rate edged downward to 77.6% from 77.7% in April.
The steady level of in factory activity in May left overall industrial production in the second quarter of 2013 tracking in line with its first-quarter 2013 average and suggested that the goods-producing side of the economy will not provide much in the way of support to overall economic growth in the period. The pullback in the expansion in the industrial sector remains consistent with our expectation for real GDP growth to moderate to 1.9% in the second quarter of 2013 from the annualized 2.4% quarterly ...
- US producer price index rose 0.5% in May 2013, which was faster than market expectations for a 0.1% gain and resulting in the year-over-year rate rising to 1.7% from 0.6% in April.
- Excluding both the volatile food (0.6% month over month in May) and energy (1.3% month over month) components, the core producer price index met market expectations and posted a 0.1% gain.
Core prices were 1.7% higher than in May 2012.
- US producer prices rose 0.5% in May 2013, and the year-over-year rate stood at 1.7%, which was up from just 0.6% in April. The increase in May largely reflected higher energy prices of 1.3% that were driven by a 1.5% increase in gasoline prices, a 4.0% increase in natural gas, and a 4.9% jump in heating oil prices. Moderating these gains was a 0.5% dip in passenger car ...
- Manufacturing sales dropped 2.4% in April 2013, which was well below market expectations for a 0.3% increase, and followed a downwardly revised 0.6% decline (was -0.3%) in March but an upwardly revised 3.5% (was 2.8%) gain in February.
- Much of the weakness was concentrated in outsized declines in the petroleum and coal, and primary metal components. Excluding these two components, however, sales were still down 0.7% in the month.
- Controlling for the effect of prices, the volume of manufacturing sales dropped 1.6%. Providing some offset in terms of production, inventories climbed 0.6%, which was up from a 0.2% pace of increase in March.
- The drop in the volume of sales in April was larger than expected and disappointingly, left the measure down 3.5% from a year ago. With that said, ...