Tag Archive: China

SNB Spent $68 Billion On Currency Manipulation In 2016

2017-03-24

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2017-03-24

SNB Intervention, 2010 - 2017
While Donald Trump has repeatedly expressed his displeasure with China for manipulating its currency, he appears to have recently figured out that over the past 2 years Beijing has been spending hundreds of billions in dollar to strengthen, not weaken, the Yuan and to halt the ~$1 trillion in capital flight from China.

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Non-Randomly Surveying RMB

2017-03-23

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2017-03-23

PBOC RMB Liquidity Management 2014-2017
China’s central bank, unlike other central banks, is constantly active almost never resting. Because it is always in motion, the PBOC can seem to be “adding” liquidity at the very same time it might be “draining” it. Its specific actions should never be interpreted as standalone procedures related solely to some unknown policy stance. That is particularly true given that we know what their stance is and has been – neutral.

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Pressure, Sure, But From Where?

2017-03-22

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2017-03-22

Belly of the Curve Gone Flat 2009-2017
It may just be that in life you have to get used to disappointment. Though not for lack of trying, I have spent a great deal of time over the years intending to piece together exactly what happened on days like October 15, 2014. The official explanation is an obvious whitewash, one so haphazard that I doubt it will ever be referred to again outside of ridicule.

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Digital Gold – For Now Caveat Emptor

2017-03-20

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2017-03-20

Bitcoin Gold, 2012 - 2017
Bitcoin surpasses gold price - a psychological and arbitrary headline. Royal Mint blockchain gold asks you to trust in the UK government. Royal Canadian Mint and GoldMoney blockchain product asks you to trust in government and the technology, servers, websites etc of the providers. Invest in a gold mine using cryptocurrency - but wait until 2022 for your gold and trust the miners that it is there. Blockchain and gold will likely make a "good...

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Trump: Unilateralism or Isolationism?

2017-03-17

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2017-03-17

Many who think that the US is becoming isolationist are wrong. The thrust is now more about unilateralism. Unilateralism can lead to the US being more isolated.

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FX Daily, March 16: Greenback Consolidates Losses as Yields Stabilize

2017-03-16

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2017-03-16

The US dollar remained under pressure in Asia following the disappointment that the FOMC did not signal a more aggressive stance, even though its delivered the nearly universally expected 25 bp rate hike. News that the populist-nationalist Freedom Party did worse than expected in the Dutch elections also helped underpin the euro, which rose to nearly $1.0750 from a low close to $1.06 yesterday.

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China’s NPC Ends with New Initiatives

2017-03-15

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2017-03-15

China will make its mainland bond market more accessible. As China's portfolio of patents grows it will likely become more protective of others' intellectual property rights. PRC President Xi will likely visit US President Trump early next month.

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China Starts 2017 With Chronic, Not Stable And Surely Not ‘Reflation’

2017-03-15

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2017-03-15

China Industrial Production 1999 - 2017
The first major economic data of 2017 from China was highly disappointing to expectations of either stability or hopes for actual acceleration. On all counts for the combined January-February period, the big three statistics missed: Industrial Production was 6.3%, Fixed Asset Investment 8.9%, and Retail Sales just 9.5%.

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Trump Administration Modifying Stance on Way to G20

2017-03-14

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2017-03-14

Confrontation with China has been dialed down. Criticism of the Fed has been walked back. There is less talk about the dollar. Employment data has been embraced.

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Time, The Biggest Risk

2017-03-11

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2017-03-11

Oil WTI, May 2016 - February 2017
If there is still no current or present indication of rising economic fortunes, and there isn’t, then the “reflation” idea turns instead to what might be different this time as compared to the others. In 2013 and 2014, it was QE3 and particularly the intended effects (open ended and faster paced, a bigger commitment by the Fed to purportedly do whatever it took) upon expectations that supposedly set it apart from the failures of QE’s 1 and 2. This...

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Same Country, Different Worlds

2017-03-10

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2017-03-10

China CPI PPI, February 2007 - 2017
To my mind, “reflation” has always proceeded under false pretenses. This goes for more than just the latest version, as we witnessed the same incongruity in each of the prior three. The trend is grounded in mere hope more than rational analysis, largely because I think human nature demands it. We are conditioned to believe especially in the 21st century that the worst kinds of things are either unrealistic or apply to some far off location nowhere...

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US Trade Skews

2017-03-09

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2017-03-09

US Trade Export, NSA 1989-2016
US trade statistics dramatically improved in January 2017, though questions remain as to interpreting by how much. On the export side, US exports of goods rose 8.7% year-over-year (NSA). While that was the highest growth rate since 2012, there is part symmetry to account for some of it.

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China And Reserves, A Straightforward Process Unnecessarily Made Into A Riddle

2017-03-08

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2017-03-08

China Official Foreign Exchange 2015-2017
The fact that China reported a small increase in official “reserves” for February 2017 is one of the least surprising results in all of finance. The gamma of those reserves is as predictable as the ticking clock of CNY, in no small part because what is behind the changes in those balances are the gears that lie behind face of the forex timepiece.

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Importance of Hiding Gold Creatively and Securely If Taking Delivery

2017-03-04

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2017-03-04

Gold Interview
Why gold retains value? Interesting unknown gold facts. "Prepare your jaws for a sizeable drop!" History, finite, rare and peak gold. "It is beautiful to look at...". 'Heavy metal' - Thud sound of a gold bar (kilo). 'Going for gold' - Olympic gold medals to Chelthenham 'Gold Cup'.

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China Net Imported 1,300t Of Gold In 2016

2017-02-15

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2017-02-15

Hong Kong - China gold Trade Jan 2011 - Nov 2016
For 2016 international merchandise trade statistics point out China has net imported roughly 1,300 tonnes of gold, down 17 % from 2015. The importance of measuring gold imports into the Chinese domestic gold market – which are prohibited from being exported – is to come to the best understanding on the division of above ground reserves in and outside the Chinese domestic market.

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FX Daily, February 14: Markets Showing Little Love on Valentines

2017-02-14

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2017-02-14

EUR/CHF - Euro Swiss Franc, February 14
Corrective pressures are gripping the major capital markets today.The Dollar Index's nine-day advancing streak is being threatened by the position adjustment ahead of Yellen's testimony later today. Despite record high closes in the main US equity markets yesterday, Asia could not follow suit. It tried to initially, and recorded new highs since July 2015, but sellers emerged and the MSCI Asia Pacific Index closed marginally lower on the lows of the...

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FX Traders Have To (Re)Learn A New Skill

2017-02-11

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2017-02-11

China Trade Balance with United States, April 2016-January 2017
Dear FX traders: forget the dot plot, and prepare to learn a new - or to some forgotten - skill: how to read trade flows. As Bloomberg's Vincent Cignarella and Andrea Wong point out, currency traders accustomed to analyzing the Fed’s dot plot and monthly U.S. jobs figures to predict the direction of the world's reserve currency are having to learn, or in some cases re-learn, a largely forgotten ability: how to scrutinize trade data. With...

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FX Daily, February 10: US Dollar Holding on to Week’s Gains

2017-02-10

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2017-02-10

The US dollar is about 12 hours away from gaining against all the major currencies this week. The main talking points today remain Trump-centric. The US dollar is mixed as European trading gets underway. Of note the dollar is continuing to gain on the yen. The yen is off 0.4%, which is nearly half the week's decline. The Aussie is the strongest on the day, up about 0.2% to trim the week's loss to about 0.45%.

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Destroying The “Wind & Solar Will Save Us” Delusion

2017-02-05

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2017-02-05

World Energy Consumption, 1985 - 2015
Submitted by Gail Tverberg via Our Finite World blog, The “Wind and Solar Will Save Us” story is based on a long list of misunderstandings and apples to oranges comparisons. Somehow, people seem to believe that our economy of 7.5 billion people can get along with a very short list of energy supplies. This short … Continue reading »

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Switzerland’s Gold Exports To China Surge To 158 Tons In December

2017-01-28

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2017-01-28

Silk Road Gold Demand, India Imports, Turkey Imports, Russian Reserves, China SGE Withdrawals
Switzerland's Gold Exports To China Surge To 158 Tonnes In December. Switzerland's gold bullion exports to China saw a huge jump in December, climbing to 158 tons versus a much lower 30.6 tons in November - a jump of 416%.

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