Author: support

MAY INFLATION SETS ANOTHER 40-YEAR RECORD  The U.S. annual inflation rate in May edged up to 8.6 percent from 8.5 in April, squelching some analysts’ predictions that inflation had peaked. The pace of rising prices was the greatest since December 1981. Grocery prices climbed 11.9 percent year over year last month, their largest annual gain...

On 8 June, Credit Suisse warned that it expects to post a loss for this quarter, as its investment banking division delivered weak results due to market volatility sparked by the Ukraine war, the end of COVID-era government stimulus programs, and central banks tightening monetary policies. In January, the company said it would report a...

The Turkish government has announced a new “revenue-indexed” savings bond in an attempt to salvage the value of the lira, its failing national currency. (See “Turkey’s Economy Weakens Further Under Erdogan’s Policy” in this issue.) Officials have given few details about the new bond, other than to say that it will offer a guaranteed minimum...

For more than a year, Turkey’s banks have spent billions of dollars and other foreign currencies to buy lira and shore up the value of its weakening currency. However, that strategy seems to have run out of power as the lira continues to lose value, The Wall Street Journal reported. On 13 June, the lira...

On 13 June, India’s rupee fell to a record low 78.285 against the dollar and the benchmark S&P BSE Sensex stock index dropped 2.7 percent as investors dumped riskier holdings on the chance that the U.S. Federal Reserve will raise interest rates this week more than the half-point that has been expected, Bloomberg reported.   Investors...

On 13 June, Japan’s yen slumped to ¥135.19 per dollar, breaking down through the historic low of ¥135.15 reached during Japan’s 2002 banking crisis and settling at its weakest value since 1998. It was the yen’s sixth consecutive day of losses, with the yen down 16 percent in value so far this year, making it...

Investors are placing short bets against Britain’s pound sterling currency amid rampant inflation and slowing economic growth, the Financial Times reported. The number of futures contracts wagering on a less-valuable pound is at its highest in three years, according to the Commodity Futures Trading Commission. So far this year, the pound is down 7 percent...

When the European Central Bank (ECB) ends its bond-buying program that it has conducted since the COVID War broke out, there will be a “void” in demand for corporate debt, investors have warned, making it harder for large businesses to borrow money. The central bank has said it will stop buying bonds in this year’s...

Faced with decades-high inflation, the European Central Bank (ECB) has indicated it will raise its key interest rate from the -0.50 percent, where it has remained for eight years to a positive 0.25 percent this September. However, investors have overestimated the bank’s ability to raise rates aggressively enough to pull inflation back to its 2-percent...

Attempting to counter complaints that the European Central Bank (ECB) is doing nothing to address inflation, bank president Christine Lagarde last week said the bank is likely to raise its key rate a quarter-point next month and another half-point in September. The decision to announce the raises now was unanimous among the bank’s governing council,...