The Fed gone all hawkish and brushed off the latest weak inflation data in its decision in the previous week. Despite the rhetoric, the markets haven’t budged and still estimate less than 50% chance of another hike by the end…
The recent FOMC meeting concluded, as expected, with another rate hike of 25 basis points; the rate was pushed up to the 1%-1.25% range. This decision came on the heels of the latest CPI report, in which both core and…
Precious metals prices have continued to slow recovery especially following the latest NFP report, which showed a gain of only 138K jobs and another month of only 2.5% wage growth. This report, however, didn’t change the market expectations about the…
We start with the US labor market which is slowing down and may not be enough for a rate hike. We then cross the Atlantic to the UK’s June 8th elections, where the Labour Party made a surprising comeback. We…
Gold and silver gained a bit more momentum as the political unease playing in the background and some economic data from the U.S. aren’t too impressive. The markets, however still place a high chance – around 80% — of a…
Market volatility made a very quick and short comeback last week on Wednesday following the political unrest in the U.S. This time, it was followed by the Comey memos about his meetings with President Trump that raised market concerns over…
The recent economic data pouring out of the U.S. including CPI and retail sales were soft enough to pause the downfall of bullion as the markets reassess the chances of a Fed rate hike in June. Nonetheless, both gold and…
The latest NFP report showed strong growth in jobs (211K vs. exp. of 194K) and modest decline in unemployment rate to a new low and yet wages are not picking up at a faster pace. This news, however, was still…
What’s going on in the US economy? There is still slack but the Fed judges it in a sanguine manner. We begin with all the moving parts in America before moving to a less optimistic picture for oil prices before reviewing the…
The U.S. non-farm payroll report was a mixed bag: 211K in jobs growth vs an estimated growth of 194K (The ADP estimated a gain of 177K jobs) in April; but the problem was that wage growth came at 2.5% in…