St. Louis Federal Reserve President James Bullard, who on Friday called for a dramatic increase in the Fed’s overnight lending rate to more than 3% this year, is crossing the wires with the following comments dripping through:Key Qoutes: Russia’s war will mean less globalization, more fragmentation around the worldDirect macroeconomic …
Read More »USD/CHF Struggles at 0.9350
The Swiss franc benefits amid a risk-off market mood, as reflected by the USD/CHF down 0.25%. Falling US Treasury yields, led by the 10-year, underpin the USD/CHF pair.Overnight, the USD/CHF reached a daily high at 0.9357, but a risk-off market mood, which benefitted the low-yielder Swiss franc, impeded USD bulls …
Read More »Fed’s Mester Sees Need for Some Half-Point Rate Hikes This Year
Federal Reserve Bank of Cleveland President Loretta Mester says she supports front-loading interest-rate increases this year, likely including some half percentage-point hikes, to curb the hottest inflation in four decades.“I think we’re going to need to do some 50 basis-point moves,” Mester said on a call with reporters Wednesday. “I …
Read More »USD/CAD Remains Firm Amid Russia – Ukraine’s Concerns
The Canadian dollar remains firm versus the American counterpart, with the USD/CAD down 0.37% in the week.Russia/Ukraine woes and US central bank hawkishness could not stop CAD bulls from extending USD/CAD losses. USD/CAD drop extends to seven straight days amid a risk-off market mood in the equity markets, which has …
Read More »WTI touches fresh weekly highs around $114.00
The oil bulls remain in control with WTI up more than $5.0 on the day in the $114.00 area. WTI has now recovered more than 50% of its pullback from multi-year highs near $130 to $93 earlier this month. Traders have cited a major Russian pipeline outage, a bullish US …
Read More »Powell: Digital Currencies Will Require New Regulations
Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell said Wednesday that new forms of digital money such as cryptocurrencies and stablecoins present risks to the US financial system and will require new rules to protect consumersPowell, speaking Wednesday on a panel organized by the Bank for International Settlements, a global organization of central …
Read More »Fed’s Daly: Want to get rates to about 2.5% at least, inflation is top of mind
San Francisco Fed President and FOMC member Mary Daly said on Wednesday that she wants to march rates to about 2.5% given that inflation is at the top of her mind, reported Reuters. The real neutral rate is about 0.5%, meaning the nominal rate is around 2.5%, Daly noted, adding …
Read More »Eurozone Consumer Confidence Deteriorates in March
The flash estimate of March Eurozone Consumer Confidence dropped to two year low at -18.7 in March from -8.8 the month prior, data from the European Commission on Wednesday showed. That was much steeper than the expected drop to -12.9 and marked the worst such reading since May 2020. While …
Read More »Inflation Fears Control The Markets
Inflation fears pushed bond yields higher, with bonds posting record losses, as traders flocked to stocks. But futures contracts for US indices such as the Dow Jones, S&P 500, and Nasdaq, headed lower. Oil prices also remained volatile with pressure. Investors today seem to be thinking about the distribution of …
Read More »Oil rises in turbulent trading after Caspian Sea pipeline disruption
Oil prices rose in volatile trading on Wednesday due to disruptions in crude exports from Russia and Kazakhstan via the Caspian Sea pipeline. The price of Brent crude futures rose $3.13, or 2.7 percent, to record $118.61 a barrel. The price had fallen earlier to 114.45 dollars a barrel. The …
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