currencies

Sweden reported stronger business and manufacturing confidence numbers earlier this week, but the Feb retail sales report was a more significant catalyst. There are four new developments from Norway today. Individually and collectively,…

The focus now ahead of the weekend is three-fold. First, Spain is set to unveil its 2012 budget. Full details will not be available until it is presented to parliament next Tuesday. However, the overall savings is what investors are most…

Bill Gross is out with his monthly commentary. Because his points are central to the discussion of policy and markets right now, I am going to write this weekly newsletter commentary outside the paywall. The major question is about how to…

Judging from the press coverage, we suspect many observers have misunderstood Federal Reserve Chairman Bernanke's comments yesterday. They need to be placed in the context of what went before: namely several hawkish regional presidents…

I missed this one from Omid Malekan a few weeks back but it's a good primer on gas/petrol prices for those of you who are interested.

There are several developments that warn of future problems in the euro zone and these make us suspicious about the euro's ability to sustain the upside break.

The market lacks conviction after shrugging off the disappointing European flash PMIs last week. Even though Italian and Spanish bonds are firmer today, outperforming Germany, we detect a deterioration of conditions in Europe and are…

In an interview with Louis James, the inimitable Doug Casey throws cold water on those celebrating the economic recovery.

The market has shrugged off the disappointing euro zone PMI to take the euro to a marginal new high for the week, and again mapping transversing the range of about $1.3140-$1.3500. Sterling too rose through yesterday's highs, albeit…

The theme of the day is one of economic weakness. New Zealand GDP (0.3% q/q vs. 0.7% prev), HSBC China PMI (48.1 vs. 49.6 prev), euro zone PMI composite (48.7 vs. 49.3 prev), and UK retail sales (-0.8% m/m vs. 0.6% prev ex-auto fuel) all…