Market Overview

The much anticipated June payroll figures have been excellent, with a gain of 195,000 jobs in June and a revision of April and May jobs to 199,000 and 196,000 respectively. Suddenly, the US employment...

The June labour market report is a broadly positive one, with private non-farm payrolls up by more than 200,000 for the second month in a row. As labour market conditions improved, previously...

Manufacturing orders decreased 1.3% m/m in May after already contracting 2.2% the previous month. Figures for manufacturing orders are nonetheless volatile and they have probably been impacted by the...

At its July’s meeting, the ECB left key policy rates unchanged. However, the Governing Council introduced a downward bias in its monetary policy stance. For the first time the Bank adopted a...

The central banks of the world have now aligned. The Bank of England has launched a "forward guidance" approach and committed itself to very low short-term interest rates for an extended period of...

I’ve taken some criticism — particularly from advocates of modern monetary theory and sectoral balances and all that — for using total debt rather than just private debt in my work....

It’s a long-standing practice of this column to write shortened holiday editions of MarketWeek for the major holidays, and so this week will have a commentary shorter than usual. However, I can...

The Fed Funds futures curve steepened again on Friday, bringing forward the implied date of the first rate hike by the Fed.The date is now closer to October of 2014 as opposed to May of 2015 discussed...

The majority of Americans may be financially and economically illiterate. Many have nothing, and likely will never have anything. Over 65% of American adults have a net worth under $100,000. In...

Asset returns were all over the map in the first half of 2013. Stocks outperformed bonds. But within equities, developed markets pummelled emerging markets, with the U.S. and Japan leading the way. A...

Friday’s payrolls report for June looked quite good—for several reasons. First, the private sector created a net 202,000 jobs last month, well above expectations. Second, payrolls...

I can’t say this often enough: the eurozone debt crisis is here to stay for a long time. The key stock indices might have given investors false hope, but we are still standing at square one of...

On the surface, today’s jobs market report looks good.195,000 jobs were created in the U.S. economy during the month of June, with the “official” unemployment rate for the month...

The U.S. labor market continued to strengthen in June, according to the latest data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics. Strong June data and upward revisions for April and May put payroll job gains...