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Showing 361 - 370 of 2991 results for Benjamin Ong

Chief economist update: Moving target

BENJAMIN ONG  |  WEDNESDAY, 8 JAN 2020
What's a central bank to do if after so many years of policy accommodation it still couldn't hit its target? Move the goalpost, of course. The US Federal Reserve has cut interest rates three times (by 75 basis points) last year from 2.5% to ...

Chief economist update: Missing the burning forests for the surplus tree

BENJAMIN ONG  |  TUESDAY, 7 JAN 2020
"From a practical perspective, big, impactful and very novel disasters will, hopefully, lead to stronger action to both mitigate emissions and also plan for impacts..." This was Ketan Joshi's - University of Sydney science graduate and international ...

Chief economist update: Australia burns

BENJAMIN ONG  |  MONDAY, 6 JAN 2020
What could have been a good start to the New Year for financial markets - the US and China are set to sign the "phase one" trade deal agreement on January 15 and Brexit has become less uncertain - marred by renewed war (the real war) tensions between ...

Chief economist update: More jobs dull rate cut bets

BENJAMIN ONG  |  FRIDAY, 20 DEC 2019
'twas a good present for the Australian economy (and just in time to bring Christmas cheer) but the equity market didn't like it. The S&P/ASX 200 index closed 0.3% lower after the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) released the latest update ...

Chief economist update: Stock rally heralds 2020 cheer

BENJAMIN ONG  |  THURSDAY, 19 DEC 2019
The stock market is considered a forward-looking mechanism. That is, stock prices peak ahead of a reversal in economic growth. They start ascending before the economy starts to expand. If so, the rally in most equity markets around the world we've ...

Chief economist update: Oil's well that ends 2019 well

BENJAMIN ONG  |  WEDNESDAY, 18 DEC 2019
It may not seem like it, but crude oil prices appear on track to finish 2019 around 30% higher. This year to date, WTI oil has risen by 33.4% to US$60.21 per barrel while the price of Brent oil has rallied by 29.2%. To be sure, new production cuts that ...

Chief economist update: War is over

BENJAMIN ONG  |  TUESDAY, 17 DEC 2019
"And so happy Christmas (War is over) For black and for white (If you want it) For yellow and red ones (War is over)..." - John Lennon Well, the trade war's not completely over, but the financial markets' rally on news that a phase one deal ...

Chief economist update: Three cheers for Christmas

BENJAMIN ONG  |  MONDAY, 16 DEC 2019
"Christmas, Christmas time is near, Time for toys and time for cheer..." - Alvin & the Chipmunks I can almost hear those little chipmunk voices singing this Christmas song as I browsed through last week's news of good tidings... and they came in ...

Chief economist update: Changing to Lagarde

BENJAMIN ONG  |  FRIDAY, 13 DEC 2019
As expected, the European Central Bank (ECB) kept monetary policy settings unchanged at its 12 December Governing Council meeting. "...the interest rate on the main refinancing operations and the interest rates on the marginal lending facility and the ...

Chief economist update: Has the Fed conquered the yield curve?

BENJAMIN ONG  |  THURSDAY, 12 DEC 2019
Mission accomplished! This appears to be the Fed's latest missive at the conclusion of its 10-11 December FOMC meeting - after three 25 bps cuts - in July, September and October - that took the fed funds rate from 2.5% to 1.75%. Fed chair Jerome ...