Fed Chair Powell maintains the “pause not a peak” mantra and the RBA’s decision to increase the policy rate was “finely balanced”

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In his semi-annual report to Congress Federal Reserve Chair Powell reiterated the main themes from his press conference last week following the Federal Reserve’s decision to “pause” the policy rate... Read more continue reading

A Fed “pause but not a “peak”? Median “dot plot” sees policy rate at 5.6 per cent by end-2023, dropping to 4.6 per cent by end-2024 

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At its meeting concluding overnight, the US Federal Reserve’s (Fed) Federal Open Markets Committee (FOMC) opted to “pause” in hiking the policy rate hike. However, the Fed indicated that more... Read more continue reading

A very hawkish pause

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At yesterday’s meeting, for the first time since March 2022, the Federal Reserve (Fed) chose not to raise policy rates, instead keeping the benchmark rate at 5.00%-5.25%. However, the Fed... Read more continue reading

Weekly economic and market update, week ending 2 June, 2023

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Investment markets and key developments Global share markets were mixed over the last week with US shares up helped by the debt ceiling deal and Fed signalling of a pause... Read more continue reading

Latest round of BT Panorama enhancements uplift advice teams’ efficiency

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BT has updated BT Panorama with a range of enhancements centred on improving the user experience for the most frequent users of the platform, advice practices’ support staff. Based on... Read more continue reading

Sell in May and go away? The worry list for shares (and the good news!)

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Key points Shares are vulnerable to a pull back in the months ahead reflecting the rising risk of recession on the back of central bank tightening and weak seasonal influences.... Read more continue reading

Add banking stress to rising rates and recession may be baked in

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Economists have been forecasting a US recession would happen since the Federal Reserve (Fed) started raising interest rates back in March 2022. The federal funds rate has risen almost 500... Read more continue reading

Weekly economic and market update – week ending 26 May, 2023

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Investment markets and key developments Global share markets fell over the last week as uncertainty about the US debt ceiling and interest rates weighed along with worries about the Chinese... Read more continue reading

RBNZ breaks on through to the other side: A template for others?

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In something of a surprise move the Reserve Bank of New Zealand (RBNZ) increased the policy rate by “only” 25 basis points (bp) to 5.5 per cent. Moreover, the RBNZ... Read more continue reading

Technical recession not on the cards for Australia

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Cost of living pressures are on the rise, with many Australian consumers changing their buying behaviour, but according to Ron Sargeant, portfolio specialist at Touchstone Asset Management, a technical recession... Read more continue reading