All Entries Tagged With: "China"
Chinese Officials Promise Support
On Monday and Tuesday, Chinese related stocks saw strength. Over the weekend, Chinese officials declared that they would funnel money to support entrepreneurs battered by China’s recent headwinds. Although the Chinese economy continues to grow, the Shanghai Composite has shown tremendous weakness over the past year, and China has opted to begin easing again after [...]
Asian Currency Outlook in 2012
Currency traders had a particularly interesting year in 2011. The expiration of the second round of quantitative easing (QE2), multiple interventions by the Bank of Japan (BoJ), and the initiation of a hard peg of the Swiss franc to the euro all contributed to an intensely volatile forex year. While it will be hard to [...]
Bank of Japan Leaves Rates Unchanged
On Wednesday, the Bank of Japan (BoJ) met to decide interest rate policy. To the surprise of no one perhaps, the BoJ kept interest rates near 0%. Japan’s economy has struggled with stagnation for decades now, and it has consistently maintained a low interest rate policy. The BoJ also revised its expectations for Japan’s future [...]
US Senate to Force Trade War with China?
On Monday, the U.S. senate voted to begin the debate on a bill that would place trade restrictions on countries deemed to be undervaluing their currencies. The Chinese would be the key target of the bill, as China has been widely characterized as a currency manipulator by many economic commentators. On Tuesday, the Chinese government [...]
Fed’s Doves Willing to Do Work
Last week, Charles Evans—governor of the Federal Reserve of Chicago—gave a speech in which he outlined his beliefs about monetary policy going forward in the short-term. Evans may be considered an inflation dove, relatively speaking, as he made clear in his willingness to endorse action despite possible inflationary consequences. “Conditions still aren’t much different from [...]
China to Save Europe, or Take Its Problems Global?
On Tuesday, Italy’s five-year bond auction disappointed, as yields on Italian debt surged to a decade high. The result was that the euro depreciated significantly against the U.S. dollar and gold surged to nearly 1,340 euro per ounce. Earlier in the summer, the European Central Bank (ECB) had intervened in Italy’s bond auctions in an [...]
Is the Chinese Economy a Bubble?
Wikileaks, the infamous organization known for publishing top-secret communications cables, recently published another load of documents on the Internet. The new release includes a document demonstrating that Chinese officials have been aware of the possibility of asset bubbles within the Chinese economy since 2009. Some in the investment community have been warning of the possibility [...]
Swiss National Bank Chickens Out
On Wednesday, the Swiss National Bank (SNB) declined to peg its currency, the franc, to the euro. The announcement, or lack thereof, may have been the driving force behind the franc’s rally Wednesday morning. The EUR/CHF traded down nearly 2% at one point, before bouncing back slightly later in the session. Speculation mounted last week [...]
Yuan’s Increase Against the Dollar Is Largest in Almost 20 Years
On Thursday, the USD/CNY pair weakened, as the yuan strengthened above the 6.4 level for the first time in 17 years, Bloomberg reports. The move is notable as it may indicate a shift in Chinese monetary policy. The People’s Bank of China—China’s central bank—maintains a peg with the U.S. dollar. As the dollar has weakened, [...]
Russian Ruble Tumbles
Generally speaking, over the past year, the trend for the Russian ruble has been one of appreciation. At one point, the ruble had appreciated against the U.S. dollar by almost 15%. Yet, in recent days, this trend has begun to reverse, and the ruble has experienced a sharp sell-off. On Tuesday, at one point in [...]
