Bank of Israel on hold, worried about ILS strength, deflation, and tepid growth

Oct 26, 2015 16:27 pm UTC| Commentary Central Banks

The Bank of Israel (BoI) kept its 0.10% base rate on hold, as expected. It is believed that, BoI has no appetite to loosen monetary policy under the current circumstance even though it remains concerned about the very low...

FOMC Preview: Still waiting for the green light

Oct 26, 2015 16:22 pm UTC| Commentary

The FOMC meeting this week is unlikely to provide us with much new information. Economists expect to receive a statement but no updated projections or press conference. Along with consensus, and expect no change in policy...

Diverging Fed views

Oct 26, 2015 16:17 pm UTC| Commentary Central Banks

For the October FOMC meeting, markets and the Fed are reasonably well aligned: markets do not appear to expect the Fed to hike, and economists view the Fed will stand pat. However, market pricing diverges sharply from Fed...

Mexico's GDP outlook improves at the margin

Oct 26, 2015 16:09 pm UTC| Commentary

Mexicos GDP proxy (IGAE index) increased 0.5% m/m sa in August, better than expected (Barclays: 0.1%), as a result of a very strong expansion in the primary and tertiary (services) sector. After this report, economists...

Speculative net long positions in WTI still comparably high despite drop

Oct 26, 2015 11:32 am UTC| Commentary

The front end of the WTI forward curve is in a correspondingly marked state of contango. The December contract for US light oil is trading around 90 US cents lower than the January contract. The only thing that is...

Weather concerns prevent stronger fall of agricultural prices

Oct 26, 2015 11:30 am UTC| Commentary

A firmer U.S. dollar put pressure on agriculturals at the end of last week, though concerns about the weather prevented any more major price falls. It is for example too dry in the winter wheat growing areas in the US...

Gold hardly profit from strong increase of speculative net long positions

Oct 26, 2015 11:07 am UTC| Commentary

Gold reacted only briefly to the Chinese rate cut on Friday. An increase in price to $1,180 per troy ounce was followed by a $20 fall, driving gold to a ten-day low. Gold is trading only slightly above $1,160 per troy...