The ECB and The Bank of England delivered their interest rate announcements, and, as I expected on Tuesday, the result was absolutely no change to current policy. The FED had paved the way for maintaining the present course and the Europeans were certainly not willing to risk upsetting the markets. What surprised me was the fact that the EURO CURRENCY rallied strongly as President Draghi presided over a press conference in which he put on an act of stonewalling and obfuscation that made Alan Greenspan look like a freshman debater. Wow, Mr. Draghi can evade the best of questions and believe me I listened to the entire press conference and the questions were of a very high caliber. Mr. Draghi did invoke a new strategy and that was lengthening his answers so no one could remember what he had really said in the beginning. The bottom line is this:
Posts Tagged ‘Ivey PMI’
Notes From Underground: Did I miss anything while I was away???
September 7, 2011The unemployment report on Friday was much weaker than expected as zero net jobs were created. More disheartening was that average hourly earnings produced a negative number, which failed to confirm and support the earlier released personal consumption data. The equity markets went into risk-off mode as the economy went into the Labor Day weekend in a very fragile state.
Notes From Underground: The Unemployment Data (A Tale of Two Numbers)
February 6, 2011As all the media reported, the U.S. unemployment numbers clouded and befuddled the markets as the non-farm payroll (NFP) was much lower than expected, yet the unemployment rate dropped to 9.o percent to 9.4 percent. This is the second consecutive month that the headline unemployment rate dropped 0.4 percent. However, both reporting periods showed very anemic JOBS GROWTH. Ben Bernanke and other FED officials have said it would take jobs growth of more than 200,000 a month to begin to bring the rate down. Even though the rate dropped 0.4 percent on a NFP number of 36,000-plus, it raises more questions than answers. (more…)
Notes From Underground: Bank of Canada raises rates + robust Ivey PMI = Canadian Dollar gets a boost
September 8, 2010The BOC raised rates 25 basis points today as it attempts to remove the stimulus it provided while the world financial system was under extreme stress. The statement from the bank was mildly hawkish and because the market was unsure of the bank’s intensions, the LOONY went immediately bid. An hour later, the IVEY PMI was released and the data was much more robust than anticipated. All in all a very positive day for Canadian fundamentals.