Existing home sales start to show early signs of a Spring thaw

Mar 23, 2015 15:35 pm UTC| Commentary

U.S. existing home sales rose by 1.2% to 4.88 million units in February. The number came in just shy of expectations, which called for a slightly stronger increase to 4.90 million.The median price of homes accelerated to...

Norway inflation likely to fall short of Norges Bank’s forecast

Mar 23, 2015 15:27 pm UTC| Commentary

Norges Bank foecasts end 2016 core inflation, CPI ATE, will be at 2.2%. The NOK weakening through last fall is now starting to feed into inflation figures, but in 2016 this effect will disappear.Domestic inflation will...

More rate cuts from Norges Bank in the pipeline

Mar 23, 2015 14:40 pm UTC| Commentary

Norges Bank kept rates on hold at 1,25% at the March meeting, but signalled that rates will be cut by 25bp before the summer given no big surprises.Nordea Research notes ..... Currently we think Norges Bank will leave...

Slower inflation likely in Japan, moderate retail sales increase in February

Mar 23, 2015 08:39 am UTC| Commentary

Japan will release February inflation, retail sales and jobs data on 27 March.Standard Chartered notes... We expect core inflation (excluding fresh food) to have slowed to 2.1% y/y from 2.2% in January. Excluding the...

Central Bank Strategy: Standard Chartered

Mar 23, 2015 08:36 am UTC| Commentary

From a G4 rates perspective, we believe that central banks should be rebuilding their USD exposuredue to the significant pick-up offered by US rates, as well as the strong USD. Meanwhile, with around 10% of 2Y-10Y fixed...

Commodity Outlook: Standard Chartered

Mar 23, 2015 08:35 am UTC| Commentary

Oil faces further short-term downside risks, but we expect a rapid removal of the surplus and a pricerecovery from H2. Across base metals, constrained supply dynamics are further pressured by lower prices, and we expect...

Rates Outlook: Standard Chartered

Mar 23, 2015 08:34 am UTC| Commentary

Medium-term, we see limited upside for the Fed policy rate and UST yields from a historical perspective. We expect the 10Y UST yield to be capped at 2.60%. In Asia, central banks continue to battle disinflation. We have...