Why the Fed didn't let HY market problems prevent a hike
Dec 19, 2015 07:59 am UTC| Commentary Central Banks
One of the reasons offered as reason for the Federal Reserve not to hike was the High yield market developments,but it did anyway. It made the right decision in our view. Scotiabank offers several reasons: Much of...
‘Post the first hike’ era begins
Dec 18, 2015 18:45 pm UTC| Commentary Central Banks
In the US, the post the first hike-era is set to begin. As expected, the FOMC and Janet Yellen reiterated that the hiking cycle will be gradual and data dependent. There are many important data releases over the next three...
Norway's unemployment increase, but very moderately
Dec 18, 2015 18:20 pm UTC| Commentary
Unemployment is increasing very modestly, in line with Norges Banks view. The increase was less than economists had expected. Norges Bank will cut in March, as clearly signaled yesterday, and again in September. Norges...
Ukraine to default $3 billion bond payment
Dec 18, 2015 18:15 pm UTC| Commentary
Ukraine to default $3 billion bond payment due to Russia. December 20 is the deadline for Ukraine to pay the debt. Legal action is inevitable. Ukrainian Prime Minister Yatsenyuk said on Friday December 18 his country...

Bank of Japan fine tunes the QQE programme
Dec 18, 2015 17:53 pm UTC| Commentary Central Banks
As anticipated there were no changes to the QQE programme at the last meeting of the year. However, the BoJ fine-tuned the QQE programme with three changes: to purchase longer maturity bonds, to buy more ETFs that...

Currency snapshot (commodity pairs)
Dec 18, 2015 16:50 pm UTC| Commentary
Dollar index trading at 98.83 (-0.22%) Strength meter (today so far) - Aussie +0.92%, Kiwi +0.72%, Loonie +0.58%. Strength meter (since last week) - Aussie +0.15%, Kiwi +0.61%, Loonie -0.84%. AUD/USD - Trading...

Dec 18, 2015 16:13 pm UTC| Commentary
Energy pack is up today. Weekly performance at a glance in chart table. Oil (WTI) - WTI recovered some ground to end the week after selloff yesterday Todays range $35.5-34.4 WTI is currently trading at...