What you need to know before the open – 03/02 February 4, 2014 Another downbeat day anticipated after US and Asian markets plummeted, following surprisingly poor manufacturing data from the US. European stocks are expected to mirror counterparts this morning, opening lower: ETX Capital #morningcall: #FTSE100 down 43 points, the #DAX to slide 94 points and the #CAC40 to drop 38 points — ETX Capital (@ETXCapital) [...]
Janet Yellen sworn in as Federal Reserve chair February 3, 2014 NEW FEDERAL Reserve chair Janet Yellen was officially sworn in for her four-year term yesterday, the first woman to hold the top post at the world’s most powerful central bank. Before her promotion, she had been the Fed’s vice chair for three years, playing a major role in the development of emergency monetary policy in response [...]
Real emerging market risk is not repeat of 1997 Asian crisis February 3, 2014 Don’t prepare for a reversal in market’s appetite for risk anytime soon TO SOME analysts, the bloodbath in emerging markets over the past fortnight bears uneasy similarities to the early stages of previous full-blown emerging market crises. As a recent note by Brewin Dolphin pointed out, such episodes have historically recurred every 15 years or [...]
CNBC Comment: Don’t blame the Fed for sentiment swing February 3, 2014 WHAT is the difference between the global economy on the last day of 2013 and the first day of 2014? Absolutely nothing. And yet if you look at financial markets, you’d think that something dramatic had happened to send sentiment diving off a cliff after 1 January. What happened to the glorious 2013 rally, accompanied [...]
Pictures: Janet Yellen sworn in as Fed chair February 3, 2014 This afternoon Janet Yellen was sworn in as the first female Fed chair in its 100-year history. Yellen was sworn in by Fed governor Daniel Tarullo, the senior member of the Fed’s board.
Former Fed chair Bernanke to take Brookings job February 3, 2014 A big hire for Brookings. They've got former Fed chairman Ben Bernanke on board, after eight years at the head of the central bank. Bernanke's new title is that of "distinguished fellow in reisdence" at the Hutchins Center on Fiscal and Monetary Policy. Here's what David Wessel, director of the Hutchins Center, has to say [...]
The power of monetary policy in 4 charts January 31, 2014 The monetary policy responses of Japan and the Eurozone to weak inflation couldn't be more different. Deflation risks At a dovish extreme, you have the Bank of Japan respondingly aggressively to deflation. 2013 saw newly installed central banker Haruhiko Kuroda steer the economy from deflation to inflation in excess of one per cent. While the [...]
Asian shares take a hit as Fed stays the course on tapering January 31, 2014 Asian shares fell on Friday, in wake of fears about the impact of the Federal Reserve's tapering of its stimulus programme on emerging markets. Trading volumes were down due to the Chinese New Year. Japan's Nikkei share average declined 0.6 per cent after a resurgent yen hit exporter shares. Investors were initially optimistic after Japan's [...]
Why we’re not about to witness the death of the global bubble economy January 30, 2014 AN ABNORMAL amount of liquidity is still afloat in today’s global markets, amounting to an unprecedented estimate of 27 per cent of global GDP. And whatever the troubles facing some emerging markets in recent months – apparently in the face of the Fed taper – this important ratio of global liquidity to GDP is not [...]
What you need to know before the open – 30/01 January 30, 2014 European markets are expected lower this morning after the Fed’s open market committee made the unanimous decision last night to trim another $10bn off its asset purchase programme. In addition, PMI figures from China showed that manufacturing activity in the country contracted in January. Asian markets slipped on the news, with the Nikkei losing 3.2 [...]