Bank of England's stimulus package has bought the chancellor some time

on , from theguardian.com

The satirist Peter Cook had a famous skit in which he played a second world war RAF officer sending a pilot on a suicide mission to Germany. “I want you to lay down your life, Perkins,” Cook’s character says. “We need a futile gesture at this stage. It will raise the whole tone of the war. Get up in a crate, Perkins, pop over to Bremen, take a shufti, don’t come back.” There are some among Mark Carney’s critics who think the actions taken by the Bank of England last week fall into the “futile gesture” category. They dispute the governor’s assertion that the package of stimulus measures agreed by the monetary policy committee was ... (Read the full story)

Economic data due from Asia today (BOJ focus)

on , from forexlive.com

At 2350GMT we get the 'Summary of Opinions' from the Bank of Japan for the July meeting (28-29th) That meeting was where the bank decided to increase its easing efforts, but only a little, by increasing ETF purchases. The 'Summary of opinions' is a new tool introduced by the BOJ this year. It comes out quite soon after each meeting and well ahead of the full minutes. Its gives us some idea of how decisions are reached. Ahead of the July meeting expectations were very high that the BOJ would do more, but the actual decision fell short of expectations. Today's summary will be pored over for reasoning. Other data today: • 2350GMT - ... (Read the full story)

EUR/USD Weekly Outlook August 8-12

on , from economiccalendar.com

After strong gains in the last week of July, EUR/USD pulled back in the prior week on the back of a strong US Dollar. The currency pair breached above resistance at 1.1188 following above expected unemployment change numbers from Spain in the early week. Stronger PMI figures released out of the euro area shortly after, failed to sustain the rally, as the pair turned lower and broke back below the level following an above expectation print in ADP non-farm employment change numbers. The market mover in the past week was the NFP release on Friday, an above-expected rise of 225,000 in the figure sent the currency pair over 200 points lower ... (Read the full story)

Light Economic Calendar Week Allows New Thinking on Macro

on , from marctomarket.com

The drip-feed of high frequency economic data from the major economies slows in the week ahead. The data that is reported is unlikely to have much impact on the expectations of policy going forward. The state of play is fairly straightforward. The Federal Reserve is finding it difficult to take the next step in the normalization of monetary policy. According to Bloomberg calculations, the Fed funds futures strip does not show greater than a 42% chance of a rate hike at any meeting through the end of next year. The BOJ and the ECB have signaled a review of their respective monetary stances next month. Neither the BOJ's ... (Read the full story)

China's July forex reserves fall to $3.20 trillion

on , from reuters.com

China's foreign exchange reserves fell to $3.20 trillion in July, central bank data showed on Sunday, in line with analyst expectations. Economists polled by Reuters had predicted reserves would fall to $3.20 trillion from $3.21 trillion at the end of June. China's reserves, the largest in the world, fell by $4.10 billion in July. The reserves rose $13.4 billion in June, rebounding from a 5-year low in May. China's gold reserves rose to $78.89 billion at the end of July, up from $77.43 billion at end-June, data published on the People's Bank of China website showed. Net foreign exchange sales by the People's Bank of China ... (Read the full story)