Fed finds US growing modestly October 10, 2012 The US economy is growing modestly, according to the Federal Reserve’s latest Beige Book, released last night. In its September report, based on anecdotal evidence collected by regional Fed banks, the Fed said hiring conditions were little changed over the several weeks. Its business contacts suggest economic activity is still expanding modestly in most regions [...]
Yellen says QE in the states helps the world October 10, 2012 Federal Reserve asset purchases boost US growth and thus benefit the world economy, Fed vice chair Janet Yellen said at an IMF event in Tokyo yesterday. Yellen denied critics’ claims that asset purchases on balance harm emerging economies by distorting capital flows.
Japanese car sales in China fall off a cliff October 9, 2012 JAPANESE car sales in China tumbled last month, data revealed yesterday, as the diplomatic spat over the Senkaku/Diaoyu island chain fed through into consumer decision making. Toyota’s sales in China plummeted 48.9 per cent in September compared to a year earlier, while Honda sales dived 40.5 per cent, Nissan’s plunged 35.3 per cent and Suzuki’s [...]
Jitters on Wall Street ahead of earnings season October 9, 2012 US stocks fell yesterday, led by losses in technology after brokerage downgrades of Intel and other major companies as worries increased about third-quarter US earnings. Shares of Intel, the world’s largest semiconductor maker, lost 2.7 per cent after negative reports by at least two brokerages. Robert W Baird & Co cut its price target on [...]
Why the Dow industrial and transportation divergence may be ominous October 9, 2012 Dow Theory is becoming hard to ignore. Created by Wall Street Journal founder Charles Dow, it suggests that divergences between the Dow Jones Transportation Average (DJTA) and the Dow Jones Industrials Average (DJIA) indicate future trends in the economy. Deep divergences between the two could mean that the DJTA would prevail, and the DJIA (as [...]
Krugman’s senseless manifesto is good on rhetoric but bad on economics October 9, 2012 NOBEL Prize winner Paul Krugman will shortly be in town. With Lord Richard Layard, he will be calling for more public spending and borrowing. The two have issued a Manifesto for Economic Sense. But is it? The opening sentences make dramatic claims: “More than four years after the financial crisis began, the world’s major advanced [...]
Thousands of Greeks protest in anger at Merkel’s visit to Athens October 8, 2012 ABOUT 8,000 demonstrators chanted anti-austerity slogans and hoisted banners warning Angela Merkel she was not welcome in Greece at a protest yesterday, the eve of a visit by the German chancellor. Organised by labour unions fed up with wage and benefit cuts, the demonstration was called before Merkel said she was coming to Greece in [...]
Wall Street may be heading for a pullback as earnings season starts October 7, 2012 WALL Street may be bracing for a pullback as US earnings season begins this week – if the clouds of profit warnings from bellwethers ranging from FedEx to Hewlett-Packard lead to a downpour of lower profits, or even losses. Thanks to aggressive stimulus plans from central banks around the world, the Standard & Poor’s 500 [...]
Fed minutes reveal unease over quantitative easing programme October 4, 2012 SEVERAL senior members of the US Federal Reserve are concerned over the risks surrounding its huge asset-buying stimulus programme, according to minutes of its September policy meeting released last night. The Fed announced last month that it would kick off a third spell of quantitative easing (QE3) at a rate of $40bn (£24.7bn) per month, [...]
Aussie outlook spinning around October 2, 2012 THE Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA) yesterday called the end of the country’s commodities boom, citing the effects of the Chinese slowdown on the mining sector. At the same time, it announced that the official cash rate will be cut by a quarter of a point – down to 3.25 per cent. This latest drop [...]