Financial News & Insights

HIGHLIGHTS OF THE WEEK Between the midterm elections and a Fed rate decision there was plenty of news this week. But after the dust settled there was very little new information. In the midterm elections, Democrats gained a majority in the House of Representatives, and Republicans tig

HIGHLIGHTS OF THE WEEK The U.S. labor market continues to impress – churning out jobs like nobody’s business (+250k), keeping the unemployment rate near record lows (3.7%), drawing people into the labor force (participation rate up +0.2 percentage points), and pushing up wages to boot

HIGHLIGHTS OF THE WEEK It was a sea of red in equity markets this week as risk off sentiment set in. As it stands, downturn in October has erased all the stock market gains from the start of the year. International developments didn’t help to lift investors’ spirits. The U.S. – China

HIGHLIGHTS OF THE WEEK Equity markets stopped hemorrhaging and partially recovered from last week’s downturn. Domestic data was predominantly underwhelming, but did little to change the status quo of a solidly-growing U.S. economy. Retail sales, existing home sales and housing starts

HIGHLIGHTS OF THE WEEK The S&P500 has seen its biggest five-day loss since February this week. Much like then, higher bond yields have led to a repricing of stocks. There are few signs the U.S. economy is cooling. September consumer price inflation data showed that inflation press

HIGHLIGHTS OF THE WEEK Fed hiked rates by 25 bps this week as widely expected. But, the communiqué dropped the reference to policy remaining “accommodative”. Interpretations regarding this change led to volatility in bond yields and equities. The debate on textual changes in the Fed s

HIGHLIGHTS OF THE WEEK U.S. equity markets were unbowed by escalating trade actions between the U.S. and China this week. The S&P500 reached new highs bolstered by healthy earnings reports and growth in share buybacks. Equity market optimism is backed up by an economy set to grow

HIGHLIGHTS OF THE WEEK Concerns about emerging markets continued to weigh on investor sentiment this week, with the selloff in EM assets and currencies spreading beyond Turkey and Argentina. Meanwhile, domestic data remained positive. ISM indices for both manufacturing and services se

HIGHLIGHTS OF THE WEEK Markets reacted positively to developments that the U.S. and Mexico had reached a trade deal. Details still need to be finalized, including Canada’s position. A revised, trilateral agreement looks unlikely to be achieved today. Data was broadly positive this wee

HIGHLIGHTS OF THE WEEK  Financial markets jitters have eased somewhat this week as concerns about emerging countries have temporarily subsided, helped in part by a lower U.S. dollar. Economic data was mixed. U.S. business investment remained upbeat in July, with new orders of capital