Tag Archive: Sweden

FX Daily, July 01: The Greenback is Bid to Start the Second Half

Soft Asian manufacturing PMIs weighed on local shares after the S&P 500 set new record highs yesterday. European shares are recouping yesterday's month-end losses, while US futures indices are bid. The US 10-year yield is around 1.47%, and European yields are 1-2 bp higher. 

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FX Daily, June 29: Fear that the Mutating Virus Could Slow Recoveries Takes a Toll on Risk Appetites Ahead of Quarter-End

Fear that the new mutation of the covid virus will slow the global recovery has sent ripples across the global capital markets. The foreign exchange market has the clearest reaction, and the dollar is bid.

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FX Daily, June 21: Dollar Surge Stalls

Pressure on equities seen last week carried over into Asia and Europe today. The MSCI Asia Pacific Index fell for the fourth consecutive session, led by more than a 3% decline in the Nikkei. Australia, Taiwan, and Hong Kong bourses fell by more than 1%. European equities opened lower, but have turned higher.

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FX Daily, May 12: The Dollar Stabilizes but Stocks, Not So Much

The markets remain on edge. Asia Pacific and US equities have yet to find stable footing, and inflation fears are elevated. The foreign exchange market has turned quiet as the dollar consolidates its recent losses.

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FX Daily, March 15: Big Week Begins Quietly

The capital markets are beginning a new and busy week in a non-committal fashion.  Equities are mixed.  Except for Japan, Hong Kong, and Australia, most markets in the Asia Pacific region were lower, led Chinese and Indian shares. 

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FX Daily, January 19: Even When She Speaks Softly, She’s Yellen

Overview: The animal spirits are on the march today.  Equities are mostly higher, peripheral European bonds are firm, and the dollar is mostly softer. After posting the first back-to-back decline this year, the MSCI Asia Pacific Index bounced back today, led by a 2.7% gain in Hong Kong (20-month high) and a 2.6% rise in South Korea's Kospi. 

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FX Daily, November 27: Dollar Offered Ahead of the Weekend

Equities are finishing the week on a firm tone, while the US dollar remains heavy.   In the Asia Pacific, only Australia and India did not end the week on a firm note.  The MSCI Asia Pacific completed its fourth consecutive weekly gain, for around a 13% gain. 

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FX Daily, April 15: Dollar Rises as Equities Slump

Overview:  The recovery in equities stalled, and the risk-off mood has helped lift the US dollar, which had been trending lower. Taiwan and Malaysia were notable exceptions in the Asia Pacific regions to the heavier equity tone. The Nikkei gave back almost 0.5% after surging more than 3% on Tuesday. Europe's Dow Jones Stoxx 600 is ending a five-day rally. 

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FX Weekly Preview: Economic Data in the Holiday-Shortened Week

The capital markets will turn increasingly quiet in the week ahead as the Christmas holiday thins participation. If this is the season of goodwill, investors are lapping it up.  Global equity markets are finishing a strong year on a high note.  Record highs were recorded in the S&P 500 and the Dow Jones Stoxx 600.  The MSCI Emerging Markets equity index is at its best level since August 2018. 

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FX Daily, November 5: Animal Spirits Remain Animated

The prospects that the US-China deal could include some rolling back of existing US tariffs helped underpin risk appetites. After new record highs in the US S&P 500 and NASDAQ, Asia Pacific markets marched higher, and the MSCI Asia Pacific reached its highest level since August 2018. A small rate cut by China and catch-up by Tokyo, which was on holiday on Monday, helped extended the regional rally for the 14th session in the past 17.

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FX Daily, October 24: Flash PMIs Disappoint Despite Negative Interest Rates

Overview: As the UK awaits the EU's decision on its request, disappointing flash PMI readings Japan, Australia, and Germany have filled the news vacuum. Sweden's Riksbank retained a hawkish tone while keeping rates on hold, and Norway's Norges Bank also stood pat. The market expects Turkey to deliver a rate cut, while the ECB meeting is Draghi's last at the helm.

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FX Daily, September 10: Turn Around Tuesday

Overview: The momentum from the end of last week carried into yesterday's activity, but the momentum began fading.  Today, equities were mixed in Asia Pacific and weaker in Europe. The Dow Jones Stoxx 600 reversed lower yesterday and is slipped further today.  The S&P 500 may gap lower at the open.

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FX Weekly Preview: Talking and Fighting in the Week Ahead

Equity markets and the US dollar closed last week and August on a firm note. Ahead of the weekend, the dollar rose to new highs for the year against the euro, Swedish krona, Norwegian krone, and the New Zealand dollar. While the next set of US and Chinese tariffs start September 1, the market is making the most of the lull.

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Globally Synchronized…

The economic sickness is predictably spreading. While unexpected in most of the world which still, somehow, depends on central banking forecasts, it really has been almost inevitable. From the very start, just the utterance of the word “decoupling” was the kiss of death.

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Elektronisches Zentralbankengeld hat Vorteile

Die Schweizerische Nationalbank hat dem E-Franken eine Absage erteilt – zu Unrecht, sagt Dirk Niepelt im Interview mit finews.ch. Der Direktor des SNB-nahen Studienzentrums Gerzensee erklärt, warum digitales Geld Vorteile bringt. Vergangene Woche hat sich Andréa Mächler, Mitglied des dreiköpfigen Direktoriums der Schweizerischen Nationalbank (SNB), kritisch zur Einführung eines elektronischen Frankens durch die SNB geäussert, wie auch finews.ch...

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Oil Prices, CPI: Why Not Zero?

In the early throes of economic devastation in 1931, Sweden found itself particularly vulnerable to any number of destabilizing factors. The global economy had been hit by depression, and the Great Contraction was bearing down on the Swedish monetary system. The krona had always been linked to the British pound, so that when the Bank of England removed gold convertibility (left the gold standard) from its notes on September 19 that year the Swedish...

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FX Daily, May 30: Mixed Dollar as Market Awaits Preliminary EMU CPI and US Jobs

With the backdrop of US interest rates unable to get much traction, despite the strong probability of another Fed rate hike in a couple of weeks, the third since last November election, the US dollar mixed today. The chief story today, though, is not the greenback but the euro. The euro is trading heavily for the fourth session.

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Sweden’s Gold Reserves: 10,000 gold bars (pet rocks) shrouded in Official Secrecy

In February 2017 while preparing for a presentation in Gothenburg about central bank gold, I emailed Sweden’s central bank, the Riksbank, enquiring whether the Riksbank physically audits Sweden’s gold and whether it would provide me with a gold bar weight list of Sweden’s gold reserves (gold bar holdings). The Swedish official gold reserves are significant and amount to 125.7 tonnes, making the Swedish nation the world’s 28th largest official gold...

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FX Daily, December 21: Dollar Mixed in Thinning Activity, Dow 20,000 Watch Continues

The US dollar is narrowly mixed as the holiday markets make for light turnover. Global equity markets are not finding much encouragement from the new record highs by the Dow Jones Industrials. There have been a few developments to note.

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FX Daily, August 11: Sterling Struggles to Find a Bid, While RBNZ Can’t Knock Kiwi Down

Once again, EUR/CHF reverses in the middle of the week. A part from technical reasons, the weak French CPI (+0.4% YoY) and Italian CPI (-0.2% YoY) exercised downwards pressure on the euro. The US dollar has found steadier footing today after trading heavily yesterday. There are two main themes. The first is sterling’s heavy tone.

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