In its latest meeting on Tuesday, the Reserve Bank of Australia decided to leave the interest rate for the Australian Dollar unchanged from its current record low of 0.25%. In a statement, the RBA said that they would not increase the rate until they were confident that the inflation rate would increase at the target rate of 2-3%. As expected, they were concerned...
The New Zealand Dollar has been relatively stable over the past few days, owing to a lack of major global news. Countries around the world are beginning to stabilise their rate of coronavirus infections, after entering various states of lockdown. Spain, which had been one of the latest countries to be hit hard by an outbreak, has finally reported a decreasing rate...
UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson has now been placed in intensive care, following an admittance to hospital just a few days prior. For now his duties have been taken over by Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab. While a spokesperson from 10 Downing Street has said that Johnson was moved due to his condition worsening, they also stressed that he was still conscious and...
On Friday, the Non farm payroll data was finally released for the month of March. From the 8th-14th March, 701,000 jobs were lost in the United States, far exceeding predictions of 100,000. This is the highest figure of jobs lost in 11 years, and is only the start. The first state to come under lockdown, which was California, only started on the 20th. Therefore it...
This week’s jobless claims more than doubled last weeks’ record high, reaching 6.648 million. Last week’s figure of 3.28 million jobless claims was already 5 times larger than the previous record of 700,000. And now it has doubled this new figure again.
Economists have taken this as a sign that the government stimulus packages are already too late, with more...
Despite a drop in the Nikkei 225, Japan’s stock index, the Japanese Yen has seen 3 straight days of gains now against the US Dollar. In contrast, the Nikkei dropped back below 18,000 points, a one week low.
Traditionally a very stable currency pair due to both currencies being strong safe havens, USD/JPY was steadily rising in the months leading up to March....
As covered last week, there is currently a shortage in gold due to the recent high demand. While there is a shortage in gold, it is not the traditional kind of shortage. There is still enough gold, but the problem is that due to the travel restrictions, it is very difficult to actually deliver it into New York, where the COMEX futures are delivered.
Of course,...
This week’s US jobless claims data has hit unprecedented numbers, jumping to 3.28 million. Initial expectations of 1-1.5 million, which was still a very high estimate, were blown out of the water.
In response to this news, the Dow Jones Industrial Average, which had been on a resurgence in the past 3 days, is now reversing once again. Over the past few days, the...
The New Zealand Dollar is fighting it’s way back up as the country enters it’s first official day of nationwide lockdown. It posted a 0.67% gain for the trading day, up to 0.58390 cents against the US Dollar. Just a week ago the NZD had dropped to 0.56, and looked ready to hit the 55 cent mark, as news broke of Air New Zealand’s layoffs.
Similar movement can be...
The Nikkei 225, or Japanese Stock Index had an 8% gain for the day, following on from its 7% gain from the previous day. Less than a week ago the Nikkei had just hit lows not seen since 2017, falling below 20,000 points. However in just 2 days it has made back its losses and is now rapidly on the rebound back to the 20,000 mark.
As well as this, other Asian...
Yesterday, the US Federal Reserve announced extensive new measures in order to help the US economy. This included a new asset purchase program, which included the purchasing of corporate bonds for the first time since the 2008 financial crisis.
These announcements were able to stop most of the day’s losses, but the US stock indices still managed to finish the...
Crude Oil has rebounded back to above $25 per barrel, with a 25% gain for the day. This is one of the biggest single day gains in oil’s history. This rebound comes after WTI had seemingly hit rock bottom, reaching $20/barrel just a day earlier.
Similarly, Brent oil also recovered from a near 17 year low, back up to $27 a barrel.
WTI had been consolidating at the...
The US Dollar has been making sharp moves as the only market trading in the green in the current economic crisis. On the US Dollar Index (DXY), the greenback has been living up to its name by making steady gains since the 9th of March, rising from below 95 points to above 101, the highest it has been since 2017.
This gain in the USD has been due to the fact that...
The British Pound fell to its lowest level since September 2019, hitting 1.20150 against the US Dollar, but managed to recover above the 1.2100 threshold after a new package was announced by the UK government.
In one of his first moves since becoming Chancellor of the Exchequer, Rishi Sunak announced that the UK government would be giving away £330 billion of...
Yesterday, the US Federal Reserve cut rates by a full 100 basis points, bringing the interest rate down to almost 0%. The interest rate for the US Dollar is now officially 0.25%, but is effectively zero.
In addition to this, the Fed also announced a $700 billion quantitative easing program. This is comprised of at least $500 billion in US Treasury securities, as...
For the 4th day in a row, the British Pound has been on the downside. Following the pattern of practically every market, including stocks, currencies, and commodities, the GBP slid down to fresh lows, dropping all the way down to $1.2518 against the US Dollar.
Interestingly enough, the USD has actually strengthened, as one of the few markets going up in current...
Australia Consumer Confidence has slid down to a 5-year low, dropping down to 91.9 from the previous month of 95.5. Officially called the Westpac-Melbourne Institute Index of Consumer Sentiment, it fell 3.8%, and in its March report Westpac cited the coronavirus and the effect that it has had on the financial markets as the cause of this 5-year low. It is also the...
As the US market opened, everyone knew that the only direction to go was down. The only question was how far.
However, no one could have predicted that the Dow Jones Industrial Average would drop 2,014 points over the course of the trading day, a one day drop of almost 8%. It was a drop so bad that it called markets to be halted for 15 minutes, stopping trading...
