Bank Of Japan Defiantly Keeps Rates Low
This week’s two-day Bank of Japan meeting has confounded expectations with the bank maintaining its ultra-low interest rates and loose monetary policy stance.
Read MoreInterest Rates
Has the Peak in Official Rates Been Reached?
With increasing signs that inflation will ease in 2023, the peak in official rates for the US and Australia looks to have been priced by markets with only one or two rate hikes remaining.
Read MoreOptimistic Commodities Markets Looking to Pre-Empt the Fed
Gold and other commodity prices are rising primarily on the hope that the slowing inflation and weakening greenback become the trend in 2023, not just a one-off.
Read MoreLittle Xmas Cheer for Wall St from the Federal Grinch
It was more divot than pivot for the Wall Street hackers, who seem to have wildly misjudged the Federal Reserve’s course of action even as inflation continues to fall.
Read MoreThe Yield Curve, Recessions and Soft Landings
One of the accepted truisms in modern finance is that a lot of information can be derived from the yield curve – Quay Global explains why and what it’s telling us now.
Read MoreSeason’s Greetings from the Fed
As expected the US Fed lifted its key interest rate half a per cent at its final meeting for 2022 and held out the possibility of a slower pace of rises next year.
Read MoreAnd Miles to Go Before the RBA Sleeps on Inflation
The RBA has raised interest rates for an eighth straight month, lifting its key cash rate by 0.25% to 3.1% as it continues to try and get inflation under control.
Read MoreTrying to Join the Dots on the Fed’s Mixed Messaging
Amid all the hype and hyperbole in the wake of this week’s speech from Fed chair Jay Powell, there is one more obstacle for the bulls to hurdle before they can charge off into 2023.
Read MorePlenty of Food For Thought Ahead of RBA Meeting
What will the RBA make of Thursday’s data ahead of its meeting next Tuesday, as house prices fell further last month and new private capex again eased in the September quarter?
Read MoreCPI Re-Weighting Helps Take the Pressure Down
Inflation seemed to moderate slowly in October while new building approvals slid sharply for the same month, according to data from the ABS yesterday.
Read MoreRBNZ Puts the Boot to Inflation in a Big Way
The Reserve Bank of New Zealand has decided to try and steamroll inflation with a record 0.75% lift in the country’s official cash rate announced on Wednesday.
Read MoreInvestors Hoping against Hope for Fed Pivot
Investors still believe that the Fed’s pivot is alive and well – despite the myriad of contrary comments last week from some of the central bank’s most senior officials.
Read MoreJobs Strength Makes Xmas Rate Hike a Near Certainty
The much stronger than expected jobs data for October all but confirmed that 0.25% would be added to the official cash rate at the RBA’s next meeting on December 6.
Read MoreYou Go Your Way and I’ll Go Mine
GAM Investments’ Adrian Owens considers whether the UK and US economies are really moving in such different directions and if the inflation outlook is markedly better in the UK.
Read MoreWhere are Australian Interest Rates Heading and What Does this Mean for Stocks?
After many years of near zero interest rates, 2022 has been characterised by a reversal of this with Central Banks around the world raising interest rates to combat inflation.
Read MoreAnd Whitehall Makes Three for Rate Rises
In Cup week we got a fitting interest rate rise trifecta after the Bank of England followed the US Federal Reserve and the Reserve Bank of Australia in lifting its key rate by 0.75%.
Read MoreFed Action Deflates Wall Street Rally
It would be fair to say that Wall Street got caught by its own story-making about what the Fed was going to do after lifting rates at this week’s meeting.
Read MoreFurther Housing Weakness Encouraging for the RBA
It’s just what the RBA wants to see – the property and housing sectors are both weakening at the same time with the recent series of rate rises the ostensible catalyst.
Read MoreWill Seventh Rate Hike Prove the Charm for RBA?
As widely forecast, the Reserve Bank has pushed its key cash rate up 0.25% to a new 9-year high of 2.85%, making it seven consecutive board meetings with an increase.
Read MoreCPI as Expected, Likewise the Rate Rise to Come
No surprises from the September quarter CPI with a surge in the annual rate to 7.3% which means the RBA will now look seriously at a 0.5% increase at its November meeting.
Read MoreBritish Bond Market a Bulldog’s Breakfast
A worrying jump in UK bond yields has forced the Bank of England to double its support buying and warn for the second time in a fortnight of “material risk” to the UK’s financial stability.
Read MoreFive Reasons the RBA was Right to Slow Down and Why the Top Is Near
AMP Chief Economist Shane Oliver takes a look at the RBA’s latest interest rate decision and explains why he thinks it made sense to slow down the pace of interest rate hikes.
Read MoreNo Let-Up on Rate Rises from RBNZ
Unlike the RBA, the Reserve Bank of New Zealand has continued to hammer the country’s economy with another half a per cent lift in its official cash rate on Wednesday.
Read MoreRBA Hedges its Bets with Smaller Rate Rise
Some saw the Reserve Bank’s decision to lift the cash rate by 0.25% as a ‘surprise’, while investors saw the attraction of the smaller increase and sent the ASX sharply higher.
Read MoreTightened Policy Taking Toll on Property Market
The Australian housing sector is feeling the pressure from rising rates with house prices and finance trending down, while building approvals enjoyed a September relief rebound.
Read MoreDiary: Home Is Where the Heart Is
Will data released yesterday showing house prices fell again in September cause the Reserve Bank to blink at its October meeting today and rethink its next rate move?
Read MoreAbnormal the New Normal for Monetary Policy
It was a rare time in central banking this week with rate rises seemingly here, there and everywhere as September again confirmed itself as the oddest month for financial markets.
Read MoreUS Fed Going for Inflation’s Jugular
For the third time in a row the US Federal Reserve raised its key interest rate by 0.75 percentage points and made it clear it was not looking to slow its aggressive tightening stance.
Read MoreMarkets Already Looking Past Next Rate Rise
Only a couple more sleeps until the September meeting of the US Federal Reserve and its forecast three quarters of a per cent rate rise – the question now is, where to from here?
Read MoreNAB Survey Confirms Toothless Tightening
The latest NAB survey of business conditions and confidence will not give the RBA any comfort in its campaign to slow demand and lower inflation by raising interest rates.
Read MoreWhy Rising Interest Rates aren’t Working (Yet)
According to the theory, high interest rates stifle economic activity, reducing demand and moderating consumer prices. Quay Global looks into why this is yet to happen.
Read MoreDiary: Inflation Consternation
The coming week sees the setup for the Fed meeting later this month but it is the US inflation reading set to dominate because it is the driver of the Fed’s rate rise decisions this year.
Read MoreECB Gets Aggressive with 75bp Rate Rise
The European Central Bank has joined the US Federal Reserve and raised its interest rate by a larger than forecast 75 basis points to tackle record inflation.
Read MoreDovish RBA Talk Eases Investors’ Troubled Minds
The ASX bounced yesterday after Reserve Bank governor Philip Lowe hinted that future interest rate rises from the central bank will be smaller and slower in coming.
Read MoreRate Rise, Schmate Schmise
We have suddenly become pretty blasé and ho-hum about a half a per cent boost to the RBA cash rate if the reaction from markets to yesterday’s increase is any guide.
Read MoreDiary: See You and Raise You
It’s just not the RBA armed and ready to fire another shot at the still strong economy this week – the ECB also has the chance to take aim and pop off either a 0.50% or even 0.75% increase.
Read MoreHigher US Interest Rates Test the World
Magellan’s Michael Collins explains how a high US dollar exporting inflation, a shrinking US economy and struggles in emerging countries stand out among the challenges facing markets at the moment.
Read MoreWhy the Cash Rate Is Likely to Peak with a 2 Rather than a 3 in Front of it
AMP’s Shane Oliver takes a look at the outlook for the RBA’s cash rate following its latest hike and explains why he believes the consensus expectations for rates to rise above 3% are too hawkish.
Read MoreProperty Weakness May Slow Further Rate Rises
Statements from the RBA Governor hinted that the time for big rate increases had passed and that smaller rises would follow from here, no doubt with slumping house prices a factor.
Read MoreEconomics Wrap: At a Rate of Knots
The RBA is widely expected to lift the cash rate by a half a per cent tomorrow, which would see cumulative hikes since May reach 175 basis points – the fastest pace on record.
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