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Showing 451 - 460 of 2991 results for Benjamin Ong

Chief economist update: Race to the bottom redux

BENJAMIN ONG  |  THURSDAY, 8 AUG 2019
It's a hat trick! Three central bank meetings, all three cut interest rates, all three policy decisions a surprise. The Reserve Bank of New Zealand (RBNZ) cut the official cash rate by 50 bps to a new record low of 1% at its August meeting. This ...

Chief economist update: RBA heading to zero

BENJAMIN ONG  |  WEDNESDAY, 7 AUG 2019
Trump's latest tat (branding Beijing a currency manipulator) for China's tit (allowing the yuan to fall below the psychological threshold of CNY7.0/US$1) highlights just how determined the US president is to win the trade war. Yes Virginia ...

Chief economist update: Look out below

BENJAMIN ONG  |  TUESDAY, 6 AUG 2019
"If your opponent is temperamental, seek to irritate him." - Sun Tzu, The Art of War China's just implemented one of its greatest son's prescriptions and, for sure and for certain, it's gonna irritate Trump. Financial markets were shell-shocked ...

Chief economist update: Fed cut and Trump's war

BENJAMIN ONG  |  MONDAY, 5 AUG 2019
The US Federal Reserve gave markets exactly what they were expecting - a 25 basis point reduction in the Fed funds rate at the conclusion of its July FOMC meeting - but instead of revving up the risk on trade, it was risk off. Equity markets fell. The ...

Chief economist update: Don't buy a Big Mac in America

BENJAMIN ONG  |  FRIDAY, 12 JUL 2019
The Bloomberg US Dollar Spot index was trading at 96.7680 on the day Trump tweeted the below: "China and Europe playing big currency manipulation game and pumping money into their system in order to compete with USA. We should MATCH, or continue being ...

Chief economist update: A case for optimism

BENJAMIN ONG  |  THURSDAY, 11 JUL 2019
With a buoyant stock market, tax cuts, lower interest rates and a recovering housing market, one would think all Australians should have every reason to dance on the streets. Australians, all, should be dancing on the streets to Jimmy Cliff's classic ...

Chief economist update: Hard target

BENJAMIN ONG  |  WEDNESDAY, 10 JUL 2019
With business conditions and confidence like it is, the Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA)'s full employment target just got a little harder to meet. Recall that in his speech at the RBA board dinner with the business community on June 4 - the night ...

Chief economist update: Australia needs a cheaper A$

BENJAMIN ONG  |  TUESDAY, 9 JUL 2019
If it were posted on Facebook, Wall Street would have "unliked" the strong US non-farm payrolls report for June - up a bigger-than-expected 224,000 from 72,000 in May. Meanwhile, the unemployment rate ticked up to 3.7% from 3.6% in May, remains near ...

Chief economist update: BOE flips tightening bias to easing

BENJAMIN ONG  |  MONDAY, 8 JUL 2019
The strong US non-farm payrolls report - employment grew by 224,000 in June, beating expectations for a 160,000 gain and a sharp rebound from the 72,000 added in the previous month - failed to remove or even reduce the odds for a Fed rate cut this month. ...

Chief economist update: The turn in Australia's cycle from vicious to virtuous

BENJAMIN ONG  |  FRIDAY, 5 JUL 2019
"Such a feelin's comin' over me There is wonder in most everything I see..." - Karen Carpenter Not long now - just less than a percentage away (0.8% to be exact) - and the All Ordinaries index would top the all-time high of 6,853.57 points it ...