Over 500,000 US jobs created in January but what does ‘awe upside surprise’ mean for Fed’s rate hike cycle? February 3, 2023 More than half-a-million new jobs were created in the US this month, leading to renewed fears the Federal Reserve could hike up interest rates when it meets next month. Statistics from the US Department of Labor howed jobs rose by 517,000 in January, while the unemployment rate changed marginally, at 3.4 percent. This week the [...]
US economy races ahead of UK despite Federal Reserve crushing Americans with rate hikes January 26, 2023 The US economy is growing much faster than expected despite the Federal Reserve piling pressure on Americans with aggressive interest rate hikes to tame inflation, official figures out today show. Stateside gross domestic product (GDP) climbed 2.9 per cent over the three months to December, better than the 2.6 per cent growth pencilled in by [...]
US economy adds more jobs than expected in headache for Fed January 6, 2023 The US economy added more jobs than expected last month, but cooling wage growth may convince the Federal Reserve to hold off on repeating jumbo interest rate hikes this year, official figures out today reveal. Some 223k Americans bagged a new job last month, down slightly from November, according to data from the US Bureau [...]
Markets cheer US inflation slowdown as Nasdaq flies over five per cent November 10, 2022 Global markets have cheered signs that US inflation is falling much faster than experts expected, dialling down pressure on the Federal Reserve to keep hiking interest rates aggressively. Wall Street’s tech-heavy Nasdaq index flew more than five per cent, while the S&P 500 and Dow Jones shot up more than four per cent and nearly [...]
All market eyes on the Fed today as interest rates are set to rise by another 75bps November 2, 2022 While European markets started the month on a positive note, and look set to continue that vibe this morning, US markets lost their early momentum, finishing the session lower, after the latest job openings numbers, and ISM manufacturing report, showed that the US economy remained in decent shape, despite concerns over an economic slowdown. “We [...]
All eyes on the EU as ECB faces ‘nightmare scenario’ of record inflation and need to hike rates again October 31, 2022 Last week was the fourth successive week of gains for equity markets in Europe as well as the US, despite some high-profile earnings misses. It’s been particularly notable that while there were some notable earnings misses, especially in the tech sector, by and large the more traditional areas of the market have performed better. “While [...]
Weekend read: Volatile month in UK gilt market turns the Old Lady into a hawk October 29, 2022 As October is coming to a close, it’s been a rollercoaster month for the UK’s financial market. Following the bungled mini-budget on 23 September that sent equities spiralling, the pound plummeted to an all-time low against the dollar and bond yields soaring higher. In the first few days following Kwasi Kwarteng’s announcement of the mini-budget, [...]
US inflation tops expectations in sign Federal Reserve has more work to do October 13, 2022 US inflation climbed higher than expected on a monthly basis in September in a sign the Federal Reserve’s series of steep rate hikes are failing to tame the toughest price pressures. Inflation hit 0.4 per cent last month, above Wall Street’s expectations of a 0.2 per cent increase and higher than August’s print, figures from [...]
Federal Reserve to press on with third 75 basis point hike after inflation overshoot September 13, 2022 The US Federal Reserve is set to hike the world’s most important interest rate by another historic amount to tame sticky inflation, Wall Street warned today. A hotter than expected inflation reading published today prompted a wave of economists to bet on the Fed lifting US borrowing costs 75 basis points for the third time [...]
Walmart maintains outlook for next year as profits tighten against inflationary pressures August 16, 2022 US retail giant Walmart’s profits were eaten into by inflation as it maintains its outlook for the next financial year despite revenue being up 8.4 per cent. The supermarket chain took in $152.9bn in Q2 but said this strong growth was “partially driven by inflation”, which tempered its outlook, and its profits. Its comparative sales [...]