St. Louis Federal Reserve President James Bullard was one of three voting members of the Federal Open Market Committee that voted against the Fed's quarter-point rate cut on Wednesday, preferring a more substantial rate cut than his colleagues. Bullard explained his preference for a 50 basis point rate cut in a statement on Friday, citing signs that U.S. economic growth is expected to slow.
India's government on Friday announced a reduction in the corporate tax rate to boost a weaker economy that grew at the slowest pace in six years in the June quarter and prompted several companies to shed jobs massively.
The tax on income of domestic companies was lowered to 22 percent from 30 percent, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman said.
Producer price data from Germany is due on Friday, headlining a light day for the European economic news. At 1.00 am ET, current account figures from Finland and producer prices data from Estonia are due. At 2.00 am ET, Destatis publishes Germany's producer prices for August. Producer price inflation is forecast to ease to 0.6 percent from 1.1 percent in July.
China's central bank reduced its one-year loan prime rate marginally but retained five-year lending rate on Friday. The People's Bank of China set the one-year lending rate at 4.20 percent compared to 4.25 percent in August. The five-year lending rate was maintained at 4.85 percent. Julian Evans-Pritchard, an economist at Capital Economics, said this is another small step towards lower rates.
The U.S. dollar exhibited weakness against most major currencies on Thursday, as traders reacted to a slew of global economic data and the monetary policy statements from the Federal Reserve, the Bank of England, Bank of Japan and the Swiss National Bank.
The Conference Board released a report on Thursday showing its reading on leading U.S. economic indicators came in unchanged in the month of August.
Citing falling mortgage rates, the National Association of Realtors released a report on Thursday showing an unexpected jump in U.S. existing home sales in the month of August. NAR said existing home sales surged up by 1.3 percent to an annual rate of 5.49 million in August after spiking by 2.5 percent to a rate of 5.42 million in July.
Norway's central bank raised its key interest rate in September, while it was expected to leave it unchanged after policymakers pointed to growing uncertainty in August due to the worsening global risk outlook. After the Executive Board of the Norges Bank raised the key interest rate by 25 basis points to 1.50 percent on Thursday, the bank signaled that there are unlikely to be more hikes in the
A report released by the Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia on Thursday showed a modest slowdown in the pace of growth in regional manufacturing activity in the month of September. The Philly Fed said its diffusion index for current general activity fell to 12.0 in September from 16.8 in August, although a positive reading still indicates growth in regional manufacturing activity.
The pound was defensive against its key counterparts in the European session on Thursday, after the Bank of England decided to maintain its interest rate and quantitative easing and warned that continued Brexit uncertainty would dampen economic growth.
The Monetary Policy Committee, led by Governor...
After reporting a much bigger than expected drop in first-time claims for U.S. unemployment benefits in the previous week, the Labor Department released a report on Thursday showing a modest rebound in initial jobless claims in the week ended September 14th. The report said initial jobless claims inched up to 208,000, an increase of 2,000 from the previous week's revised level of 206,000.
The Bank of England left its monetary policy unchanged amid the heightened uncertainty as the October 31 deadline for the UK's exit from the European Union looms, and warned that the global slowdown and a no-deal Brexit would hurt the economy severely. The Monetary Policy Committee, led by Governor Mark Carney, on Thursday, unanimously decided to hold the bank rate at 0.75 percent.
The Swiss franc spiked up against its key counterparts in the European session on Thursday, after the Swiss National Bank kept its key policy rate and expansionary monetary policy intact, and tweaked rules for calculating negative interest rates on sight deposits to support banking system.
In the...
The Swiss National Bank on Thursday decided to leave its key interest rates unchanged on Thursday, but adjusted the basis for calculating negative rate on sight deposits. The central bank kept its new SNB policy rate and interest on sight deposits at the central bank at -0.75 percent. The bank reiterated that it is willing to intervene in the foreign exchange market as necessary.
Indonesia's central bank slashed its key interest rate in September for a third consecutive policy session, as it expects low inflation and weaker growth in the coming months, due to risks from trade tensions and global economic slowdown. The Board of Governors, led by Governor Perry Warjiyo, decided to reduce the 7-day reverse repo rate by 25 basis points to 5.25 percent.