Economic News

LONDON (AFX) - European government bonds drifted lower in quiet early trades as equities around the world bounced back further. Developments on the world's stock markets over the last couple of weeks have dominated trading across a whole range of assets, with bonds seemingly doing the opposite of equities. As equities have taken a battering in the wake of concerns about the US housing market and ...

LONDON (AFX) - The euro edged lower on profit-taking after hitting three-month highs against the dollar on Friday, with trade quiet amid a dearth of economic data today and focus centred on the upcoming US Federal Reserve interest rate decision on Wednesday. The dollar fell sharply last week as the market brushed off stronger-than-expected US inflation and industrial production data and worries o ...

TOKYO (XFN-ASIA) - The Bank of Japan's policy board has begun a two-day meeting to decide on interest rates, but economists said no change was expected this month. Economists said Bank of Japan governor Toshihiko Fukui was likely to reiterate tomorrow what he said last month: that the central bank would continue to raise interest rates only gradually, in light of economic developments. "Sin ...

HONG KONG (XFN-ASIA) - Share prices finished the morning session sharply higher led by China Mobile and some other blue chips on expectations that they will announce strong 2006 results this week, dealers said. Fresh talk of A-share listings on the mainland by some Hong Kong-listed firms also helped sentiment, they said. China's interest rate hike announcement over the weekend had a muted impact ...

HONG KONG (XFN-ASIA) - Share prices finished the morning session sharply higher led by China Mobile and some other blue chips on expectations that they will announce strong 2006 results this week, dealers said. Fresh talk of A-share listings on the mainland by some Hong Kong-listed firms, including China Mobile and Bank of Communications, also helped sentiment, they said. China's interest rate h ...

SYDNEY (XFN-ASIA) - The People's Bank of China's (PBoC) decision to hike its key interest rate by 27 basis points is unlikely to have any significant impact on demand for commodities with exports seen continuing to grow strongly, economists here said. The PBoC at the weekend raised its key lending rate by 0.27 percentage points to 6.39 pct, while also raising the deposit rate by the same amount t ...

SYDNEY (XFN-ASIA) - The dollar was stronger against the yen and euro in mid-afternoon trade with much market interest in the weekend interest rate hike by the People's Bank of China, dealers said. At 2.00 pm (0300 GMT), the dollar was at 116.98 yen, up from 116.30 in morning trade while the euro was at 1.3313 usd compared to 1.3318 earlier. Credit Suisse analyst Dong Tao noted that China's decis ...