Significantly higher Swiss gold exports to China and Hong Kong in September

Oct 20, 2015 09:08 am UTC| Commentary

The gold price is finding it impossible to entirely ignore the weakness among cyclical commodities and is trading some of the time this morning at below $1,170 per troy ounce. Switzerland exported 141.5 tons of gold in...

Brent oil price drops by almost 4%

Oct 20, 2015 09:05 am UTC| Commentary

Oil prices were under considerable selling pressure yesterday. Brent shed nearly 4% and closed trading well below $49 per barrel. WTI fell by 3% to just shy of $46 per barrel. There was no real trigger for yesterdays price...

U.S. GDP growth: down but not out

Oct 20, 2015 08:55 am UTC| Commentary

The latest ISM indices are consistent with a 3%+ trend in the U.S. GDP growth as the strong non-manufacturing sector continues to offset weakness in manufacturing. After all, the manufacturing sector of the economy makes...

Is tight labor market limiting U.S. job growth?

Oct 20, 2015 08:48 am UTC| Commentary

The slowdown in payrolls growth in August and September might delay the first Fed rate hike until early 2016, unless the weakness is reversed in the two remaining job reports ahead of the 15-16 December FOMC meeting....

MAS reduces SGD NEER policy band slope slightly

Oct 20, 2015 08:03 am UTC| Commentary Central Banks

The Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) reduced the slope of its SGD NEER policy band slightly on 14 October - to 1% from our previous assumption of 1.5%. All other policy parameters (width of the policy band, level of...

Early guidance on banking business scope expansion possible in China

Oct 20, 2015 07:56 am UTC| Commentary

In the past five years, China banks have reduced their reliance on credit business, as demonstrated by the non-interest income contribution to total revenue for the overall sector rising to 24.6% in 2Q15 from 20.8% in...

China's domestic financial reforms deepening

Oct 20, 2015 07:46 am UTC| Commentary

On Chinas domestic financial reforms, interest rate liberalisation is likely to proceed with the removal of the cap on all deposit rates. In parallel with this change, the PBoC is aiming to transform its monetary policy...