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Showing 181 - 190 of 1108 results for "US Fed"

Three down one to go, then another three in 2019

BENJAMIN ONG  |  THURSDAY, 27 SEP 2018
And so it came to pass. As expected, the US Federal Reserve lifted the fed funds rate target range by 25 basis points to 2.0%-2.25% following its two-day FOMC meeting on the 25th and 26th of September. US equities rallied immediately after the Fed's ...

Chief economist update: Surplus here we come

BENJAMIN ONG  |  WEDNESDAY, 26 SEP 2018
The US Federal Reserve is poised to announce another 25 basis point taking the fed funds rate to 2%-2.25% when it concludes its September FOMC meeting later today. That wouldn't be a surprise. Another 25 basis point hike in December also wouldn't ...

Chief economist update: Famous last words

BENJAMIN ONG  |  TUESDAY, 28 AUG 2018
The S&P 500 index closed at 2896.74 points at the end of last night's trading activity on Wall Street. Yes, Virginia, it's a new record high! Yippee-kay-yay and hallelujah! This is good for stock markets around the world, including Australia. ...

Chief economist update: Submerging markets

BENJAMIN ONG  |  MONDAY, 20 AUG 2018
Emerging markets had been rallying even before 2017 turned into 2018, outperforming developed markets - 27.8% versus 16.3% - at the end of last year. Those were the days of synchronised growth upswing, given more oomph by Trump's declared corporate ...

Chief economist update: Don't mind the gap

BENJAMIN ONG  |  FRIDAY, 17 AUG 2018
Hear ye, hear ye... the unemployment gap has closed! The loss of 3900 workers (versus expectations for a 15,000 addition) may have made for sobering reading on the Australian labour market but this was a small give from the 58,200 additional workers ...

Chief economist update: Do nothing RBA

BENJAMIN ONG  |  TUESDAY, 7 AUG 2018
If all goes according to expectations, today's Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA) Board meeting will mark one-month and two years (25 months) that the country's cash rate had been stuck at a record low 1.50%, and the longest stretch of unchanged ...

Chief economist update: Boom in the USA

BENJAMIN ONG  |  MONDAY, 30 JUL 2018
Boom! That's the sound of the US economy popping up to an annualised rate of 4.1% in the second quarter of 2018, up from an upwardly revised 2.2% (from 2%) expansion in the first quarter. While this is in line with market expectations, it's ...

Chief economist update: No sweat says BOC on Trump tariffs

BENJAMIN ONG  |  MONDAY, 23 JUL 2018
US President Donald Trump has again upped the rhetoric against China (which of course, brought back trepidation over an escalation of the trade war) and most recently he went on attack against his own central bank - the US Federal Reserve. Apparently ...

Chief economist update: What goes around is starting to get around

BENJAMIN ONG  |  THURSDAY, 19 JUL 2018
Some would call it karma, for many it's just the plain and simple truism that a trade war is a lose-lose proposition. In his quest to "make America great again" and under the guise of "national security", US President Donald Trump kicked off with ...

Chief economist update: The Goldilocks rate of interest

BENJAMIN ONG  |  WEDNESDAY, 18 JUL 2018
The neutral interest rate is the Goldilocks level of the fed funds rate - not too cold that it would continue stimulating growth (and lift inflation) and not too hot that it would cause economic activity to slow. Ho-hum. US Federal Reserve Chairman ...