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Showing 971 - 980 of 3072 results for "Benjamin"

Moody's downgraded and upgraded China's ratings

BENJAMIN ONG  |  FRIDAY, 26 MAY 2017
"Frankly my dear, I don't give a damn." This is one of the immortal quotes from the 1939 classic movie, "Gone With the Wind" and, it appears, the same words China's financial markets gave to Moody's Investors Service when it downgraded China's long-term ...

Fed trumps Trump

BENJAMIN ONG  |  THURSDAY, 25 MAY 2017
The S&P 500 index notched another fresh record high overnight - up by 0.3% to 2,404.39 points - and the VIX index dropped to a reading of 10.02 - the market has never been this fearless in more than 23 years (January 1994 when the index read 9.94) - ...

Eurozone ascending

BENJAMIN ONG  |  WEDNESDAY, 24 MAY 2017
If Monsieur Benoit Coeure's - member of the executive board of the European Central Bank (ECB) - recent comments are any indication, don't expect any changes in ECB monetary policy settings anytime soon. Coure told his audience at a conference at the ...

A one-handed clap for ScoMo's Budget

BENJAMIN ONG  |  TUESDAY, 23 MAY 2017
Australian Federal Treasurer Scott Morrison must be beaming when the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) released the latest update on the country's labour market that showed the unemployment rate dropped from 5.9% in March to 5.7% in April - better ...

Housing is cooling

BENJAMIN ONG  |  TUESDAY, 16 MAY 2017
There's not much indication from the Australian Bureau of Statistics' (ABS) latest update on property financing. While the number of total dwelling finance commitments continued to decline - down 0.5% in March after a 0.8% fall in February - their value ...

Three steps and yields stumble

BENJAMIN ONG  |  MONDAY, 15 MAY 2017
"Three steps and a stumble" is an old market adage that foretells of a drop in the US equity market after the Fed's third interest rate hike. This is turning out to be a doozy so far - the Fed already completed rate hike number three on 15 March 2016 ...

No 'Plan B' for Brexit "twist and turns"

BENJAMIN ONG  |  FRIDAY, 12 MAY 2017
There were no surprises at the Bank of England's (BOE) 11 May decision to keep the Bank Rate where it was since August 2016, when it was lowered from 0.5% to 0.25% to contain the fallout from the 'Brexit' vote of the previous month - a decision that's ...

Japan rides the virtuous cycle

BENJAMIN ONG  |  THURSDAY, 11 MAY 2017
No news, it appears, is good news for Japan. The country's stock market and the yen have been heading in the right direction ever since the nuclear threat tit-for-tat between the US and North Korea was taken off the headlines. The Nikkei-225 index has ...

Another Budget, another promised surplus

BENJAMIN ONG  |  WEDNESDAY, 10 MAY 2017
A Budget here, and a Budget there, Budget, Budget, everywhere a Budget. Yes Virginia, it's Budget overload, there's wall to wall coverage of the Australian Federal government's 2017/18 Budget - before, during and after - its big reveal on the evening ...

Australian economy proceeding according to projections

BENJAMIN ONG  |  TUESDAY, 9 MAY 2017
Australian economic and survey data released over the past 24 hours provide further credence to the Reserve Bank of Australia's (RBA) optimism over the economic outlook and at the same time afford federal treasurer ScoMo the right to give Moody's recent ...