U.S. Fed's factory surveys to reveal slower pace of expansion in August

Aug 17, 2015 04:25 am UTC| Commentary

U.S. Empire State Manufacturing Survey to release manufacturing today. Societe Generale expects the headline figure to dip by 1.5 points to 2.4% in August and a touch below the mean year-to-date reading of...

Westpac Sees RBA on hold despite dovish market pricing

Aug 17, 2015 04:10 am UTC| Commentary Central Banks

Westpac chief economist Bill Evans sees the Reserve Bank of Australia keeping interest rates on hold well into next year, even as the market prices in a high chance of a cut by November. Westpac chief economist Bill Evans...

Asian markets gain with Japan ahead after GDP beats forecasts

Aug 17, 2015 03:53 am UTC| Commentary

Stocks in Asia were trading broadly higher on Monday after Wall Street closed with gains in the previous trading session and Chinese authorities left the Yuan reference rate little changed on Monday. Data out of Japan...

IMF involvement will require a large debt re-structuring for Greece

Aug 17, 2015 03:45 am UTC| Commentary

The Eurogroup confirmed that the IMF has not yet committed to any funding and will take its decision in October, once Greeces pension reform is specified. Hence, should the IMF not be involved, the ESM would have to...

Mexico's retail sales growing at an impressive pace despite rise in unemployment rate

Aug 17, 2015 02:02 am UTC| Commentary

Despite the growth weakness in H1 and the visible effect of the slowdown in the labour market, retail sales on average have continued to trend up this year - in part due to the low base effect in H1 2014 and partly due to...

Brazil's labour market deterioration continues as unemployment rate to hit 7%

Aug 17, 2015 01:16 am UTC| Commentary

The non-seasonally adjusted data shows the unemployment rate falling to 4.3% in December 2014 and rising to 6.9% through June 2015. A one-tick rise is expected in the non-adjusted unemployment rate to 7.0% in July as...

Japan reaching trade balance on a sustainable basis will take some time

Aug 17, 2015 00:50 am UTC| Commentary

Japans July trade balance is likely to have reached a balance (0). This would mark a significant improvement from the 967bn deficit seen in July 2014. As oil prices have fallen rapidly, the terms of trade are improving,...