Blogs

<p>Over the weekend the area was hit by a massive quake:</p><ul><li><a href="https://www.forexlive.com/news/magnitude-76-earthquake-hits-japan-20240101/" target="_blank" rel="follow" data-article-link="true">Magnitude 7.6 earthquake hits Japan</a></li></ul><p

<p>Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese spoke at a press conference, saying he has instructed "Treasury and Finance … to give consideration to what are the measures that can take pressure off families on cost-of-living without putting pressure on inflation".</p><ul><li>"That's the key issue he

<p>The Wall Street Journal is gated, but if you can access it this is an interesting read on demographic trends, well, one big one, in China:</p><ul><li>With <a href="https://www.wsj.com/articles/china-population-births-decline-womens-rights-5af9937b" target="_blank" rel="nofollow">the num

<p>This info was published overnight, popping it up now ICYMI. Ugly stuff:</p><ul><li>China's average daily home sales during the three-day New Year holiday in 40 cities, based on floor area, fell 26% compared with the same period last year,</li><li>Sales fell the most in smaller cities, dropping 50% during

<p>A survey by the UK's Institute of Directors' (IoD), its confidence index, dropped to -28 in December</p><ul><li>from -21 in November</li><li>it had been rising from June into November </li><li>this index plots the gap between business leaders who are optimistic about the economy and those

<p>The ISM manufacturing index has been in contraction the last 13 months</p><ul><li>the consensus expected today is 47.1</li><li>it came in weaker than expected in November at 46.7</li></ul><p>Its due at 10am US Eastern time. Note the Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) minutes are due later i

<p>UBS are looking for stronger-than-expected jobs growth in Friday's nonfarm payroll report, due at 8.30 am US Eastern time:</p><p>More broadly UBS sees the main economic focus for the coming year as the ongoing slowdown in inflation rates, but point out that central banks can claim only a small part of the credit for bringi

<p>Headlines:</p><ul><li><a href="https://www.forexlive.com/news/usdjpy-stays-underpinned-by-higher-bond-yields-so-far-on-the-week-20240103/">USD/JPY stays underpinned by higher bond yields so far on the week</a></li><li><a href="https://www.forexlive.com/news/risk-trades-getting-squ

<p>It's a rough start to the new year for gold as it is down 0.8% in the last two days, not really setting itself up for the usual January seasonal tailwind. There were some doubts already considering that we are at a technical top but the latest dip today now sees gold also fall below […]

<ul><li>Prior -1.5%</li><li>Market index 173.5 vs 191.6 prior</li><li>Purchase index 140.7 vs 148.7 prior</li><li>Refinance index 358.2 vs 437.6 prior</li><li>30-year mortgage rate 6.76% vs 6.83% prior</li></ul><p>That's a big plunge in mortgage applications in the p