Topic
Central Banks
Monetary policy and the decisions of the Fed, ECB, BoJ, BoE and their peers.
- Paraguay Banking fact Nov 8, 2026Paraguay Ex-President Peña Held in Pretrial DetentionA judge ordered Santiago Peña held after he was charged over an alleged banking role.
- Paraguay Politics fact Nov 7, 2026Paraguay Senate Removes Peña; Alliana Takes OfficeThe unanimous Senate vote installs the vice president as criminal investigations into officials and the former president continue.
- Federal Reserve fact Oct 31, 2026Fed Presidents Press Case for More Tightening After HoldMusalem and Logan argued separately for further rate increases after the Fed kept its target range at 3.75%-4.00%.
- Central Banks fact Oct 30, 2026Bank of Japan Holds Rate While Raising Planned ETF SalesThe central bank kept its overnight call-rate target around 1.25% in an 8–1 vote and set a faster annual ETF-disposal pace from January.
- Central Banks fact Oct 29, 2026Bank of Canada Lifts Its Policy Rate to 2.5%Canada’s central bank made its first rate increase since 2023, citing persistent inflation pressures.
- Rupee forecast Oct 10, 2026Indian Oil, HPCL and BPCL are a 64% shot to be reported off onshore dollar bidsIndia's RBI will sell Indian Oil, HPCL and BPCL their dollars from 12 October. 64% a named report has them off onshore bids by 16:00 UTC 13 October.
- Household survey fact Oct 9, 2026Japan's Real Household Spending Falls 3.1% for a Ninth MonthReal August spending by Japan's two-or-more-person households fell 3.1% year on year, a ninth consecutive decline, in Friday's official survey.
- Rates forecast Oct 7, 2026India's RBI is a 62% shot to leave the repo at 5.50% on December 2-4India's RBI raised the repo to 5.50% and took cuts off the table. 62% it holds at the December 2-4 MPC if a decision is posted by December 4.
- Offshore won inference Sep 21, 2026Four Korean banks first, overseas houses after JanuaryNewsPim named KB Kookmin, Shinhan, Woori and Hana for a September trial; Yonhap later put full launch in January, with overseas banks after that.
- France inference Sep 11, 2026Bank of France Puts Debt-Cancellation Plan on a Legal ClockEmmanuel Moulin's intervention narrows Jean-Luc Melenchon's proposal to treaty authority, default treatment and the budget assumptions France still has to publish.
- Domestic drag inference Aug 17, 2026Japan’s Quarter Runs on Net ExportsJapan’s economy grew 0.3% in the second quarter, but net exports supplied 0.5 percentage point while domestic demand subtracted 0.2. Consumption was flat and business investment fell 1.2%.
- Shrinking labor force fact Aug 7, 2026July Unemployment Rate Falls to 4.1%Payrolls fell 23,000 as the civilian labor force contracted 264,000 and participation slipped to 61.4%. Household employment also fell, so the lower jobless rate came with a smaller pool of people counted in the labor market.
- One Hike, Then Wait inference Jul 23, 2026The SARB keeps 7% in the chamberSouth Africa’s central bank paused after May’s rate rise even as inflation reached 5%. Its own scenarios leave another hike waiting on fuel costs and expectations.
- The Other Lever inference Jul 22, 2026Jakarta holds the rate and moves the plumbingBank Indonesia kept its policy rate at 5.75% after two increases and widened hedging incentives for foreign investors. Currency support is moving through the market’s pipes as well as its headline rate.
- Energy Meets Compute inference Jul 19, 2026Oil advances as semiconductors de-rateTraders have bid crude on persistent Hormuz risk while investors sold the chip complex despite record results. The Federal Reserve remains on hold and the Bank of Korea has just hiked. Price action splits between an inflationary supply shock and a reappraisal of AI-capex durability.
- Compute reaches policy inference Jul 18, 2026Bank of Korea hikes on chip strengthThe board tied stronger growth to semiconductor exports and investment while confronting a weak won and persistent inflation. The same decision arrived as chip shares endured a violent sell-off, leaving policy and markets reading the same AI cycle differently.
- War Premium inference Jul 14, 2026Soft CPI Wins the SessionA soft June price print pulled buyers toward duration even as Hormuz lifted crude. IBM supplied the warning beneath the rally: AI hardware bills are starting to eat software budgets.
- The Tape inference Jul 13, 2026Oil Reprices Monday’s MarketCrude’s weekend gap pushed yields and the dollar higher, pulled gold lower and split the equity tape. Tech weakened while the Dow held, leaving a rotation toward energy and value as the session’s first clean read.
- The Tape inference Jul 12, 2026SK Hynix Lands at $170 on Its US DebutThe memory maker's US shares closed 13% above their $149 offer, a raise above $26 billion for direct AI-memory exposure. The rest of the tape is frozen at Friday's close while the Hormuz strikes run live into Sunday's reopen.
- Hawks Reclaim Ground forecast Jul 8, 2026Fed Minutes Revive September Hike BetsInflation risks tilted upward in the June FOMC record released on 8 July, and futures pushed September hike odds to 65.7%. A firmer dollar and a Gulf oil spike added hawkish fuel as cross-asset markets treated the day's shocks as cost-push pressure.
- Minutes Eve forecast Jul 7, 2026Semiconductor Rally Outruns BreadthMonday’s session lifted the PHLX Semiconductor Index 2.17% and the Nasdaq 1.12% while S&P decliners still outnumbered gainers, a chip-led bounce that nearly scored a false FX miss on a misdated yen high. Wednesday’s June FOMC minutes land with September hike odds near 58% against services inflation still running hot.
- First-Hour Tape forecast Jul 6, 2026Chip Reopen Sorts Winners MondayEquity futures pointed higher into the first US cash session since Thursday’s chip rout, with dispersion across semiconductor names setting the tone. Rotation inside the AI trade, a coin-flip September hike path, and oil’s split crude-versus-products story frame a mid-session tape that carries no full-day closes yet.
- Labor over geopolitics forecast Jul 5, 2026Jobs miss rewires Fed and chip tapeNonfarm payrolls added 57,000 in June with revisions lower and unemployment at 4.2%, pivoting out of the war-and-inflation tail toward a softer Fed path. Chip valuations slid in an AI-capacity scare; the yen recovered from four-decade lows as rate gaps repriced. US cash markets reopen Monday; Thursday’s closes are the last read.
- FX Coordination forecast Jul 4, 2026Yen Defence Turns to WashingtonFinance Minister Katayama said Tokyo stands ready to respond to excessive yen moves and is in contact with US authorities, the clearest signal this cycle that intervention could be coordinated. USD/JPY pulled back from a four-decade low near 162.84 toward 161 after soft June payrolls. The house assigns a 0.40 probability that the pair retests 162.50 before the 10 July Tokyo close.
- July ceiling forecast Jul 3, 2026Yen Reprieve Faces Rate-Gap TestUSD/JPY pulled back toward 161 after June's soft payrolls cut near-term Fed-hike odds, yet Tokyo disclosed zero intervention through late June and the US–Japan rate gap remains wide. Probability sits at 0.45 that the pair prints above 162.66, a fresh four-decade yen low, before 31 July 2026.
- Silent Strikes forecast Jul 2, 2026Japan Shifts to Ambush Yen DefenceOfficials are abandoning telegraphed level defence for surprise operations against crowded yen shorts, even as the Ministry of Finance ledger shows zero disclosed intervention through late June and the US-Japan rate gap keeps pulling USD/JPY toward four-decade highs.
- Intervention watch fact Jul 1, 2026Yen hits 40-year low at 162.84 vs dollarThe Japanese yen fell to its weakest level against the dollar in roughly four decades on 1 July, with Reuters citing USD/JPY at 162.84 before a modest rebound. Rate differentials, a firmer dollar and rising U.S. yields in thin holiday liquidity drove the move, while Tokyo kept its intervention posture alive without confirming fresh action.
- The Fed Warsh opens inference Jun 19, 2026The Hawkish Hold Warsh Makes the Fed Harder to ReadKevin Warsh’s first meeting as Fed chair did not move rates, but it moved the regime. The committee held steady while stripping back the map markets had been using to trade the next turn.
- Rates inference Jun 13, 2026Three central banks decide what kind of shock this wasUS inflation in May looked scary — 4.2%. But almost all the scary part was energy, which is really a Hormuz story. Next week the Bank of Japan, the Fed, and the Bank of England decide in three days whether to believe the number — and the Fed's call may rest on an oil chokepoint no central banker controls.