Category Archive: 4.) Marc to Market

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FX Daily April 25: Dollar Pares Pre-Weekend Gains Against Euro and Yen

2016-04-25

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2016-04-25

The US dollar starts what promises to be an eventful week giving back some the gains score in second half of last week against the euro and yen.    Equity markets are extending their pre-weekend losses.   Commodities are also trading with a heavier bias.  Markets in Australia, New Zealand, and Italy are closed for national …

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The Week Ahead: FOMC, BOJ and More

2016-04-24

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2016-04-24

The last week of April is eventful. The Reserve Bank of New Zealand, the Federal Reserve and the Bank of Japan hold policy meetings.  The UK, eurozone, and the US provide the first estimates of Q1 GDP. Japan, the eurozone, and Australia report consumer prices, while the US updates the Fed’s preferred (targeted) inflation measure, the …

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Weekly Speculative Positions: Reduction of US Dollar Exposure at What may be the Bottom

2016-04-23

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2016-04-23

Speculators in the futures market continued to press a bearish view of the US dollar the CFTC reporting week ending April 19. For one and half month traders continue to increase their long CHF position against the dollar. It has risen to 7.3k contracts.

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Dollar’s Technical Tone Improves

2016-04-23

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2016-04-23

It is not that the US dollar had a particularly good week.  It was mixed.  The best performers were sterling and the Canadian dollar. The pound led with a 1.6% gain, followed closely by the Canadian dollar.   The latest polls suggest that tho...

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The State of the Bull

2016-04-22

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2016-04-22

(here is a draft of my monthly column for a Chinese paper) The US dollar has had a rough few months.  It has fallen against most major and emerging market currencies this year.  A critical issue for global investors and policymakers is whether ...

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Emerging Markets: What has Changed

2016-04-22

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2016-04-22

(from my colleague Dr. Win Thin)China’s central bank may be leaning less dovish Turkey has a new central bank governor Argentina issued external debt for the first time since it defaulted 15 years ago Brazil's lower house voted to impeach Preside...

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FX Daily, April 22: Capital Markets Mostly Consolidate, Yen Drops

2016-04-22

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2016-04-22

Equity markets are seeing this week's gains trimmed after the S&P 500 fell 0.5% yesterday, recording its biggest loss in two weeks.  Disappointing earnings in some tech leaders spurred profit-taking, The US 10-year Treasuries are consolidati...

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Japanese Capital Flows: Six Observations

2016-04-21

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2016-04-21

The following observations are drawn from the weekly report of Japan’s Ministry of Finance unless noted otherwise.  We use the weekly data instead of monthly to identify changes of trend earlier.  We use simple convention of the week by the last rather than the first day. That means that the report for the week ending April …

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FX Daily, April 21: ECB Takes Center Stage

2016-04-21

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2016-04-21

The ECB meeting is the session's highlight.  In recognition of the risk that ECB President Draghi expresses displeasure with the premature tightening of financial conditions through the exchange rate channel is encouraged a modest bout of euro s...

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Status of 9/11 Bill and the Saudi Threat

2016-04-20

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2016-04-20

There continues to be much discussion among investors of New York Times report last weekend in which a Saudi official threatened to sell $750 bln of US Treasuries and assets if a bill that would allow families of victims to sue the Saudi governm...

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FX Daily April 20: Bulls’ Charge Stalls, while Greenback Consolidates Losses

2016-04-20

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2016-04-20

The US dollar has been largely confined to yesterday’s ranges against the major currencies. China’s yuan slipped lower for the first time in four sessions, while the Shanghai Composite fell 2.3%, the most since the end of February.   While a few equity markets in Asia managed to follow suit after US equity market gains carried …

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Making Sense of China’s Gold Fix and Hungary’s Dim Sum Offering

2016-04-19

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2016-04-19

Earlier today, China launched its first gold fix.  It will offer a fixing twice a day going forward yuan. The Shanghai Gold Exchange established the fix the same way it is done in London and New York, by prices submitted by financial institutions.  In China’s case, 18 institutions, including two foreign banks, participate in the …

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Some Thoughts on US Fiscal Policy

2016-04-19

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2016-04-19

The US presidential selection process is well underway, and yet there has been no coherent discussion of fiscal policy. In part, this is because it does not appear particularly urgent. The US deficit peaked in 2009 at 10.1% of GDP.  Last year it stood at what for most OECD countries an enviable 2.6%.  This year and next … Continue reading...

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FX Daily April 20: Markets Build on Yesterday’s Dramatic Recovery

2016-04-19

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2016-04-19

Global capital markets staged an impressive recovery after the initial reaction to the failure to freeze oil output sent reverberations through the oil markets, commodities, and Asian equities. The sharp reversal begun in Europe and extended in N...

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FX Daily, April 18: Doha Failure Sets Tone

2016-04-18

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2016-04-18

Oil producers failed to reach an agreement yesterday at the meeting in Doha.  That is the main spur to today’s activity.  It is not that the outcome was a surprise.  One newswire poll found around half of the respondents thought an agreement was elusive.   Although not oil experts by any stretch, we too thought political … Continue reading...

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Beware of Particularly Challenging Week Ahead

2016-04-17

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2016-04-17

It is never easy, but the week ahead may be particularly difficult for market participants. It will first have to respond to weekend developments.   First, the front page of the NY Times on Saturday was a report that the Saudi Arabia warned the US if a bill making its way through Congress that would allow it (Saudi … Continue reading...

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Weekly Speculative Positions: Yen Speculators Continue to Press

2016-04-16

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2016-04-16

Disclosure

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FX Weekly: The Dollar’s Technical Condition Remains Vulnerable

2016-04-16

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2016-04-16

The US dollar turned in a mixed performance last week, which given the softer than expected inflation, retail sales data, and industrial output figures, coupled with the poor technical backdrop, could be a signal that its decline in recent months has run its course.    The dollar-bloc continued its advance, led by the Australian dollar’s nearly …

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SDR Does Not Stand for Secret Dollar Replacement

2016-04-15

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2016-04-15

At the IMF/World Bank meetings this week, Chinese officials are again pushing for greater use of the IMF's unit of account, Special Drawing Rights.   It is China's turn as the rotating host of the G20, which gives it greater influence over its ag...

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FX Daily, 04/15: Better Chinese Data Fails to Deter Pre-Weekend Profit-Taking

2016-04-15

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2016-04-15

China’s slew of economic data lends credence to ideas that the world’s second-largest economy may be stabilizing.  However, the data failed to have a wider impact on the global capital markets, including supporting Chinese equities.  In fact,  the seven-day advance in the MSCI Asia-Pacific Index was snapped with a fractional loss today. European shares are …

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