The focus of the financial markets this week revolved around the hawkish sentiment expressed by Chairman Powell during his annual state of the economy address to Congress. His remarks echoed his post-FOMC comments from the previous week, emphasizing that the pause in June was…
Last week was dominated by decisions from two of the biggest central banks: the US Federal Reserve (Fed), and the European Central Bank (ECB). While the Fed paused and did not raise rates (although it is expected to do so again at the next…
Last week, the financial markets witnessed rate hikes by both the Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA) and the Bank of Canada (BOC). These moves were motivated by the ongoing battle against inflation. Despite a lack of other significant economic data releases, the global markets…
The theme continues in having equity markets looking at economic prospects and the glass half full as opposed to anything that could derail the progress. The earnings releases we had in the US last week were not that good as far as consumer stocks…
The brightest ray of sunshine in global markets came from Japan. Q1 GDP growth was seen to be much stronger than expected, at +1.6% annualised. It propelled the Japan Topix equity index to new highs. Elsewhere in Asia, however, China experienced deceleration. On the…
The most significant news pertaining to economic data releases was that of the Bank of England raising the reference interest rate (the base rate) from 4.25% to 4.5% in its ongoing fight against inflation. There was little else by way of economic data that…
