US homebuilding continues on modestly positive course
Mar 17, 2016 06:09 am UTC| Commentary Economy Real Estate
US housing starts in February increased 58k units to 1,178k, surpassing expectations of a moderate increase to 1,150k. Data for the previous two months have been revised to add 37k units to the overall tally. The...
Guide to today’s important data and events
Mar 17, 2016 05:45 am UTC| Commentary
Lots of economic dockets scheduled for today and some with high risks associated. Data released so far Australia Unemployment rate ticked down sharply to 5.8%. Participation edged down to 64.9% from 65.1% prior....
US dollar strength to temporarily suppress core inflation figures in 2016
Mar 17, 2016 05:21 am UTC| Commentary
US consumer prices, after rising surprisingly in January, dropped 0.2% in February, on par with consensus. Core prices, excluding energy and food, increased 0.3%, slightly more than consensus forecast of 0.2%. On a...
Asian markets rally after FOMC, Gold back above $1250
Mar 17, 2016 03:16 am UTC| Commentary
All the Asian markets are trading on a higher note on Thursday after FOMC kept interest rate unchanged at 0.5% but cuts GDP forecast. Central bank cuts its estimate of GDP growth in 2016 to 2.2% from 2.4%. In addition,...
US Oil futures rises more than 2 pct in early trading
Mar 17, 2016 01:07 am UTC| Commentary
Oil price rise as Oil producers firmed up plans to hold talks next month to discuss freezing output according to OPEC sources on Wednesday. U.S. crude was up 76 cents at $39.22 a barrel at 0136 GMT and earlier traded as...
Narrowing NZ current account deficit doesn’t reflect strength of the domestic economy
Mar 16, 2016 16:57 pm UTC| Commentary Economy
Data released earlier on Wednesday showed that New Zealands current account deficit remains remarkably well contained narrowing to 3.1% of GDP in the year to December 2015, against market expectations that it would hold...
NZ dairy index back to negative territory after slight rise at the beginning of March
Mar 16, 2016 15:36 pm UTC| Commentary
The benchmark New Zealand dairy index returned to negative territory at this weeks auction after recording a slight lift at the beginning of March. At Tuesdays GDT auction, the index fell by 2.9% with an average product...