Financial News & Insights

HIGHLIGHTS OF THE WEEK Our updated economic forecast anticipates a slowdown in global growth to 3.2% in 2019, roughly at trend. A weak handoff from 2018 and start to 2019 motivates much of the downgrades in advanced economies, while growth in emerging markets is anticipated to perk up

HIGHLIGHTS OF THE WEEK This week started off on an upbeat note. An uptick in the ISM non-manufacturing index got the ball rolling, with the headline rising by 3.0 points to 59.7 in February. In a nice twist to the recent doom and gloom, housing data was also encouraging. Sales of new

HIGHLIGHTS OF THE WEEK The U.S. economy grew a robust 2.9% in 2018, the best performance since 2015, but growth moderated at the end of the year and at the start of 2019.  The government shutdown and soft consumer spending in December are expected to translate into near 1% growth this

HIGHLIGHTS OF THE WEEK The barrage of negative U.S. data continued this week, with weakness in December durable goods orders and a decline in existing home sales in January. Still, markets were hopeful that progress would be made in the China-U.S. trade talks, which could help remove

HIGHLIGHTS OF THE WEEK December retail sales came in significantly weaker than expected, falling 1.2% m/m, with the decline being broad-based. Consumption in Q4 is now tracking around 2.6% annualized – softer than expected, but still a pretty good showing. The retail sales report prov

HIGHLIGHTS OF THE WEEK Global central banks have followed the cue set by the Fed, as they too take a break from tighter monetary policy to assess mounting risks to global growth. Activity in the U.S. services sector cooled a bit in January as government-funding uncertainty and trade t

HIGHLIGHTS OF THE WEEK Financial markets extended their gains this week. The re-opening of the U.S. government, the dovish FOMC statement, progress in the U.S.-China trade talks and a strong January payroll report all helped to boost sentiment. Global growth concerns persisted this we

HIGHLIGHTS OF THE WEEK Global equity markets are up on the week, despite some negative economic news, and continued dysfunction in Washington. The ECB characterized the economic risks as to the downside, and will be more cautious removing stimulus. Amidst the U.S. partial government s

HIGHLIGHTS OF THE WEEK The government shutdown extended to its 28th day, making it the longest on record with no clear end in sight. The White House upped its estimate of the impact of the government shutdown to a 0.5ppt drag on 19Q1 growth after four weeks.This is much higher than pr

HIGHLIGHTS OF THE WEEK U.S. equity markets built on last Friday’s gains, firming up for the second consecutive week. Seemingly-fruitful trade negotiations between the U.S. and China offered notable support. With respect to data, both the ISM non-manufacturing index and small business