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Showing 471 - 480 of 2991 results for Benjamin Ong

Chief economist update: Fed plans for Trump contingency

BENJAMIN ONG  |  THURSDAY, 20 JUN 2019
The Fed's decision to maintain current policy settings at the conclusion of last night's FOMC meeting doesn't make for much except for self-congratulations and back-patting. What matters more is the forward guidance implicit in the FOMC ...

Chief economist update: Cash is King

BENJAMIN ONG  |  WEDNESDAY, 19 JUN 2019
Maybe not at this month's Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) meeting but consensus expect the US Federal Reserve to serve Christmas in July with a 25 basis point reduction in the fed funds rate from 2.25%-2.5% to 2%-2.25%. The CME FedWatch Tool ...

Chief economist update: Expect more of the same from the BOJ

BENJAMIN ONG  |  TUESDAY, 18 JUN 2019
Speculation may be mounting over one or two Fed rate cuts (one, two or three for the RBA) going forward, but there are no such similar expectations for the Bank of Japan (BOJ). With the BOJ's policy rate currently at negative 0.1% and its "yield ...

Chief economist update: Another RBA rate cut should be enough

BENJAMIN ONG  |  MONDAY, 17 JUN 2019
The Aussie dollar is down. Repeat, the Aussie dollar is down! The A$/US$ exchange rate closed at US$0.6879 - down 2.3% this year to date its lowest level in three years - at the end of last week's trading. The local currency is down 1.8% (year-to-date) ...

Chief economist update: Another rate cut on the cards

BENJAMIN ONG  |  FRIDAY, 14 JUN 2019
What do we want! More rate cuts! The depreciation in the A$/US$ exchange rate to as low as US$0.6902 immediately after the Australian Bureau of Statistics' (ABS) - from US$0.6949 a day earlier - released its 'Labour Force' report for May ...

Chief economist update: Australian bull market here we come

BENJAMIN ONG  |  THURSDAY, 13 JUN 2019
Just a weetle more, a weetle more... a little more push higher and sooner than soon, the All Ordinaries index would satisfy the technical definition of a bull market - a 20% rally from its nearest low - and onwards towards topping its record high of ...

Chief economist update: BOE going the wrong way?

BENJAMIN ONG  |  TUESDAY, 11 JUN 2019
Mexico (and the world) is breathing a sigh of relief after Trump's tweet "indefinitely" suspending his tariff threat against America's southern neighbour. But POTUS being Trump, he's exploited this "win" to issue fresh tariff threats versus ...

Chief economist update: Oil market slides from bull to bear

BENJAMIN ONG  |  FRIDAY, 7 JUN 2019
Crude oil prices have dropped, turning this year's bull market into a bear market. Oil prices rallied nearly 50% from January to April this year on the back of the Fed's pause; China's stimulus measures and expectations of continued easy ...

Chief economist update: The Budget surplus can wait

BENJAMIN ONG  |  THURSDAY, 6 JUN 2019
"Anything that could go wrong will go wrong." - Murphy's law. It seems like it for us, Australians all. The latest (although dated) GDP growth figures showed that domestic economic growth slowed to its slowest pace in a decade (in the midst of the ...

Chief economist update: The path of monetary policy according to Lowe

BENJAMIN ONG  |  WEDNESDAY, 5 JUN 2019
"Toto, we're not in Kansas anymore." The Reserve Bank of Australia's (RBA) decision to cut the official cash rate to a fresh record low of 1.25% takes the country's monetary policy into uncharted waters. More uncharted it would be if JP ...