Pound Falls After Weak U.K. Retail Boosts Prospect of Rate Cut

By Ritu, Capital Sands The pound slipped after U.K. retail sales data unexpectedly fell in December, increasing the chances that the Bank of England may cut a key interest rate this month. Sterling dropped 0.2% to $1.3049 and declined against all its Group-of-10 peers as the volume of goods sold in stores and online fell 0.6% in December, confounding […]

BJP’s OBC meet to begin in Patna today, all eyes on Mahagathbandhan vote bank

By Ritu, Capital Sands   After wooing upper caste voters by bringing a law to provide 10 per cent reservation to economically weaker section amongst the forward caste, the Bharatiya Janata Party is now eyeing to make inroads into the OBC vote bank of the Mahagathbandhan ahead of the crucial 2019 Lok Sabha elections. The […]

Bank of England’s Saunders sticks to rate cut view

By Ritu, Capital Sands Bank of England interest-rate setter Michael Saunders said on Wednesday he was sticking to his view that borrowing costs should be cut because of weakness in Britain’s labor market and its broader economy. “It probably will be appropriate to maintain an expansionary monetary policy stance and possibly to cut rates further, […]

Michael Patra appointed deputy governor of RBI for a three-year term

By Ritu, Capital Sands Michael Debabrata Patra, 59, has been appointed the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) deputy governor for three years. The post fell vacant after Viral Acharya resigned on July 23 last year. Patra, as executive director of the central bank, was the principal advisor to the Monetary Policy Department since July 2012. […]

Pound on Longest Losing Streak Since May on BOE Easing Talk

By Ritu, Capital Sands The pound extended its decline to the longest run in eight months as speculation of an imminent Bank of England interest-rate cut increased. Sterling fell as much as 0.3% against the dollar to $1.2955. Credit Agricole SA pointed out that more than half of the members of the bank’s Monetary Policy Committee are […]

Sterling Slips vs Dollar, Euro as Vlieghe Fuels Rate Hopes

By Ritu, Capital Sands The dollar opened the week stronger against the pound sterling and the Japanese yen, but weaker against the euro, with markets still unsettled by the weak labor market report on Friday. The dollar index, which measures the greenback against a basket of currencies, was effectively unchanged at 97.130. However, that masked a 0.5% rise for […]

China’s Vice Premier Liu to sign U.S. trade deal in Washington next week

By Ritu, Capital Sands China’s Vice Premier Liu He, head of the country’s negotiation team in Sino-U.S. trade talks, will sign a “Phase 1” deal in Washington next week, the commerce ministry said on Thursday. Liu will visit Washington on Jan. 13-15, said Gao Feng, spokesman at the commerce ministry. Negotiating teams from both sides […]

European shares falter as year-end rally fades

By Ritu, Capital Sands European shares looked set to end the decade with a whimper on Tuesday as investors locked in gains after a record rally that was fueled by optimism around trade and easing fears of a global recession. In a shortened session ahead of the New Year’s Eve celebrations, the pan-European STOXX 600 […]

Yuan hits multi-month highs as economy shows signs of stabilization

By Ritu, Capital Sands The Chinese yuan hit almost five-month highs and the USD continued to retreat on the last day of the year in Asia. The U.S. dollar index was down 0.06% to 96.69 by 8:45 PM ET, continuing a multi-day slide. The People’s Bank of China (PBOC) set the reference rate for the yuan at 6.9762, […]