By Ole S. Hansen Since the U.S. election this Tuesday, nearly all assets including most commodities have enjoyed a strong surge. The everything up and U.S. dollar down narrative unfolded despite the prospect of at least two years of political gridlock in Washington preventing U.S. fiscal stimulus from flowing into a Covid-19 hit economy, while also putting the brakes on the reflation trade. Commodities nevertheless rallied hard […]
Shouldn’t you be more concerned with those electronic machines with no paper backup? Because THOSE can be rigged. But of course, those are in Republican states where rigging is the plan. Or maybe you should be concerned with all those armed “poll watchers” called upon to intimidate voters. But no, go ahead and waste our time with one of the proven safest voting methods because it doesn’t […]
By James M. Dorsey A Turkish-US business council is projecting Turkey as a trading alternative to China with the help of influential US Republican Senator Lindsey Graham, a close associate of President Donald J. Trump. The Turkish effort comes two weeks after President Recep Tayyip Erdogan heralded a new era in long-strained relations with Washington. Mr. Graham’s agreement to participate in a webinar organized by the Turkey American Business […]
By James M. Dorsey A decision by the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) and non-OPEC producers like Russia to temporarily end a price war and cut production amounts to a time-out rather than an end to what is likely to erupt at some point in the future as a tripartite war. More immediately, the decision averts a significant deterioration in relations between the United States and […]
By Matein Khalid The US dollar is the traditional safe haven currency during times of geopolitical or financial stress even when the cause of a risk aversion spasm is ultimately American, such as the failure of Lehman Brothers in 2008, Obama’s epic budget battles with the Republicans in 2011 and the Trump White House’s drone hit on Iran’s most revered Revolutionary Guard commander on 3 January 2020. […]
|By James M. Dorsey| A series of Gulf and Middle East-related developments suggest that resolving some of the Middle East’s most debilitating and devastating crises while ensuring that efforts to pressure Iran do not perpetuate the mayhem may be easier said than done. They also suggest that the same is true for keeping US and Saudi interests aligned. Optimists garner hope from the fact that the US Senate may […]
|By John Hardy| Just ahead of the US jobs data on Friday, the People’s Bank of China hiked reserve requirements on CNY forwards (for onshore institutions) a move clearly aimed at stemming the one-way CNY depreciation ahead of the 7.00 level in USDCNY and as the CFETS-defined RMB basket reached the bottom of its range from a year ago. The requirements went into effect today and haven’t triggered additional […]
|By Matein Khalid| US and global equities surged on news of the US House of Representatives pass the tax reform bill, Cisco and Walmart posted blowout earnings and a potential bidding war emerged for Fox’s media assets. The rally on Thursday followed a week of carnage in the US high yield debt markets, flattening of the US Treasury yield curve and losses in the major stock market indices worldwide. […]
|By Matein Khalid| Trump’s post Charlottesville remarks, the Barcelona terrorist attacks and Cisco’s results unnerved the US stock market bulls last week. Friday was a surreal moment in the history of Wall Street. It was entirely rational for traders on the New York Stock Exchange floor to cheers and the Dow Jones Index rise 150 points when news broke that Trump had fired his alt-right, white nationalist chief strategist […]
Many veteran journalists, but not only these, surely noticed that we are all of a sudden bombarded again from all-over with mentions of Watergate. Books like George Orwell’s 1984 are on display at bookstores and an air of danger to freedom of speech and freedom of the press is spreading slowly like a dark cloud over the Western Hemisphere, raising old fears. When an American serving president […]
By Pete Schroeder | WASHINGTON WASHINGTON U.S. Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin told lawmakers Thursday that the Trump administration does not actually support separating investment and commercial banks. The administration has previously expressed support for some return of the Glass-Steagall Act, which established a firewall between investment and commercial banking. But Mnuchin was explicit before the Senate Banking Committee that that vision did not include breaking up large […]
DUBAI, United Arab Emirates: Donald Trump Jr. traveled to Dubai and met a billionaire business partner in the city-state, discussing “new ideas” as the Emirati’s real estate firm still lists possible plans for future joint projects while Trump’s father is in the White House.The Trump Organization has said it won’t make new foreign deals while Donald Trump serves as America’s 45th president. That didn’t affect the Trump […]
By Arshad Mohammed and Yeganeh Torbati | WASHINGTON WASHINGTON U.S. President Donald Trump on Wednesday extended wide sanctions relief for Iran called for under a 2015 international nuclear deal even as he imposed narrow penalties on Iranian and Chinese figures for supporting Iran’s ballistic missile programme. The dual actions, announced by the Departments of State and Treasury, appeared intended to signal a tough stance on Iran even […]
By Shinichi Saoshiro | TOKYO TOKYO Asian stocks fell on Thursday and the dollar was stuck near six-month lows against a basket of currencies as uncertainty mounted over U.S. President Donald Trump’s future following reports that he tried to interfere with a federal investigation. MSCI’s broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan dropped 0.4 percent. Japan’s Nikkei shed 1.5 percent, Australian shares lost 1.2 percent and South […]
By Mark Hosenball and Lawrence Hurley | WASHINGTON WASHINGTON Former FBI director and prosecutor Robert Mueller, known for his independence in high profile government investigations, is taking on a new challenge in the midst of a crisis that threatens the presidency of the United States. Mueller, 72, was named on Wednesday by the Justice Department to probe alleged Russian efforts to sway November’s presidential election in favor […]
Call it the Trump fade? The so-called Trump trade captivated Wall Street after the surprise election of Donald Trump last November. After years of stagnant economic growth in the wake of the financial crisis, the prospect of Mr Trump’s pro-business agenda, combined with Republican control of both executive and legislative branches of the US government, breathed new life into the ageing equity rally, sent the dollar to […]
By Joel Schectman | WASHINGTON WASHINGTON A bill proposed in Congress on Wednesday would require the U.S. National Security Agency to inform representatives of other government agencies about security holes it finds in software like the one that allowed last week’s “ransomware” attacks. Under former President Barack Obama, the government created a similar inter-agency review, but it was not required by law and was administered by the […]
By Lisa Lambert | WASHINGTON WASHINGTON The U.S. Senate could soon approve a major overhaul of the federal bureaucracy and make lasting changes to regulation of the environment, education, banks and other areas. On Wednesday a Senate committee sent a bill on to the full chamber that, supporters say, will make regulators more accountable to lawmakers and provide greater understanding of how rules affect the economy. The […]
