Posts Tagged ‘Euro’
June 12, 2019
Some shots were fired last Friday, but it seems that the markets can only hear the siren song of White House tweets. There was an important story from Bloomberg reporter Saleha Mohsin titled, “Trump’s Currency War Plan Puts Treasury and Commerce at Odds.” The article noted that “a Commerce Department proposal to impose countervailing tariffs on countries that it determines have devalued their currencies has alarmed officials at the Treasury Department.”
It appears that President Trump has grown frustrated by Treasury’s failure to name any country as a “currency manipulator.” It has been Treasury’s bailiwick to monitor the foreign exchange interventions of countries who strive to artificially hold down the value of their currencies in an effort gain a competitive advantage versus any G20 country, especially the U.S. (from the Treasury Department perspective).
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Tags:Angela Merkel, Commerce Department, currency manipulation, Euro, Euro/Swiss cross, Gerhard Schroeder, Germany, Nord Stream 2, SNB, Steve Mnuchin, Swiss Franc, Treasury Department, U.S. Dollar, Wilbur Ross
Posted in Currency, Germany, SNB, trade, United States | 15 Comments »
June 5, 2019
The above reference is from the wonderful cult movie, Putney’s Swope. The CEO of a major advertising firm has a heart attack during a board meeting and the sycophants don’t realize it as they continue peppering him with questions. When he’s unable to respond they ask, “How Many Syllables, Mario?”
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Tags:ECB, EU, Euro, Germany, Mario Draghi, Reserve Bank of Australia, RSX, Russia, U.S. Dollar
Posted in Currency, ECB, Russia, United States | 3 Comments »
May 8, 2019
We have all been bogged down with tweets coming from the White House about China. Because high-speed traders force us to parse the messages and assess the immediate impact on the markets, we’re hostage to President Trump’s tariff policy. The bottom line is that Robert Lighthizer is left to inform the world when China will acquiesce to the U.S.’s demand for reliable and hardened enforcement mechanisms to solidify any genuine agreement. From my perspective, the critical point on global markets is that once China/U.S. trade agreement is done the president will set his sights on targeting the ENORMOUS TRADE IMBALANCE that favors Germany.
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Tags:China, Euro, euro/swiss, Euro/Yen, Europe, Fed, Germany, RBA, RBNZ, trade, trade imbalance, U.S., yield-curve targeting
Posted in Currency, Europe, Fed, United States | 32 Comments »
April 10, 2019
President Mario Draghi’s press conference proceeded as expected as the European Central Bank laid out its plans for dealing with a slowing global economy suffering from the slings and arrows of president Trump’s trade war threats against the Chinese and now the Europeans. The ECB plans on keeping its interest rate policy intact through 2019 and probably longer as it confronts the recent headwinds to growth. The media asked several times about the possibility of tiering of rates in an effort to remove the adverse impact from the NEGATIVE DEPOSIT RATE FOR RESERVES PARKED AT THE ECB.
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Tags:Art Cashin, ECB, Euro, Fed, Mario Draghi, Richard Clarida, U.S. Dollar
Posted in Currency, ECB, Fed | 8 Comments »
April 9, 2019
There are so many issues plaguing Europe right now, and surprisingly, Brexit is not the most significant. On Wednesday morning — yes, Wednesday — the ECB announces its rate decision and it is expected that rates will remain unchanged, with the main refinancing rate at zero. The only possible news will be that the ECB actually engages in a tiered financing. This would mean that some banks would get relief from the -0.40% rate that the ECB charges banks to deposit cash at the central bank. There have been rumors that the ECB was planning on raising interest rates in the hope that boost for some European domestic rates would help lift the equity valuations of some profit-stressed financial institutions.
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Tags:Angela Merkel, Brexit, Bundesbank, ECB, Euro, France, Germany, Mario Draghi, Theresa May, U.K.
Posted in Currency, ECB, Europe, France, Germany | 3 Comments »
March 7, 2019
ECB President Mario Draghi’s press conference was, once again, another act of flim-flam as he PIVOTED away from any tightening for the next [FILL IN THE YEAR]. There was NO SURPRISE as the TLTRO was well telegraphed various news outlets in recent weeks. What’s amazing is that the currency markets were surprised by Draghi’s press conference as the U.S. DOLLAR staged a sizable rally, reaching its highest level in more than three months. The YEN was stronger as the weak stock markets provided a sense of Japanese repatriation of invested capital, while GOLD performed dismally.
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Tags:ECB, Euro, Fed, Gold, Jerome Powell, Mario Draghi, nonfarm payrolls, U.S. yield curves
Posted in Currency, ECB, Gold | 11 Comments »
February 7, 2019
There are so many things causing angst in the global markets. There was news out of France on Thursday that the government was recalling its envoy to Rome because Italian politicians met with the yellow vest movement. To President Macron I offer this history lesson: In 2011-12 French President Nicolas Sarkozy–with the cooperation of German Chancellor Angela Merkel–crushed the Italian bond market in an effort to remove Prime Minister Berlusconi. The Eurocrats in Brussels parachuted in a preferred bureaucrat, Mario Monti, in an effort to get Italian politicians to halt the fiscal bleeding. The French have a great deal of audacity in complaining about Italian meddling, especially as Salvini/Maio have a legitimate reason: the upcoming European Parliamentary elections.
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Tags:Bund, Euro, Europe, France, MMT, modern monetary theory
Posted in Debt Market, Europe | 13 Comments »
January 24, 2019
The ECB did exactly as expected, which was less than its deposit rate (if that’s even possible). President Draghi answered questions for an hour and said absolutely nothing except that risks were now weighted to the downside. The structural theme of his composed narrative was the concept of persistence and assessment. Draghi laid the need for continued ECB monetary ease on many factors inhibiting growth:
- German auto production slowing;
- U.S.trade actions are creating greater uncertainty due to tariff threats;
- China slowdown; and
- Brexit
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Tags:ECB, EU, Euro, Mario Draghi, yield curves
Posted in Currency, ECB | 31 Comments »
January 23, 2019
The Bank of Japan did not surprise the markets as they remained committed to the lunacy of QQE, even with positive growth for many years. In an effort to make the central bank’s policy ever more relevant the BOJ lowered their inflation expectations, which the markets interpreted as lower for longer, resulting in a flurry of YEN selling of against all of the major traded currencies. There was even movement in the Swiss/yen cross as both central banks battle to keep their currencies in check by keeping interest rates negative.
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Tags:Angela Merkel, BOJ, ECB, Euro, Germany, inflation, Japanese yen, Mario Draghi, QE
Posted in Currency, Davos, ECB, Germany | 8 Comments »
January 22, 2019
In a desperate attempt to deflect from the damage to his presidency, Emmanuel Macron on Tuesday codified what Bernard Connolly has written about for 25 years. As Charles de Gaulle supposedly said to Konrad Adenauer: “Europe is France and Germany, the rest trimmings.” In a resurrection of European history, Angela Merkel and Macron signed a new Treaty of Aachen. While the treaty language is vapid, the symbolism cannot be minimized. Germany and France promise to come to each other’s defense if attacked while also promising to work for a more unified financial and fiscal system.
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Tags:Angela Merkel, Annegret Kramp-Karrenbauer, BOJ, CDU, Emmanuel Macron, Euro, Eurobond, France, Germany, inflation, SNB, Swiss/yen cross
Posted in BoJ, Currency, Europe, France, Germany | 11 Comments »
