Federal Reserve meeting update. The Federal Reserve on Wednesday (20/09/17) announced it will start reducing the size of its balance sheet. At something like $4.5 trillion it will now, after nine years finally start reducing the balance in October 2017 on a monthly basis. US interest rates were held at …

FTSE 100 falls Pound jumps The FTSE 100 falls back to close at: 7295 down 84 points. Perceived hawkish comments from the Bank of England helped the pound to rise on early rather than later interest rate rises. Higher inflation and UK growth are also adding to the Bank of …

UK interest rate held at 0.25% The Bank of England (BoE) has held UK interest rates at 0.25% Interest rates could rise faster than expected after 7-2 vote to hold. Sterling The pound jumped against the dollar ($1.3280) FTSE 100 fell on the news sharply to 7316 – a fall …

Bank of England interest rate announcement due. At midday today (14/09/17) the Bank of England will announce its latest interest rate decision. The minutes from the Monetary Policy Committee meeting will also be published. Hawks or Doves to win? I will update the interest rate decision later.    

Bank failure – 10 years ago today. It was exactly ten years ago today on the 14th September 2007 that Northern Rock succumbed to the banking crisis. The Bank of England propped the lender up leading to the first run on a British bank in more than a century. We …

European Central Bank (ECB) September 2017 meeting Summary European Central Bank (ECB) leaves rates and bond-buying programme unchanged. Mario Draghi said Eurozone interest rates will remain at current levels for an extended period of time and well past the horizon of net asset purchases. It appears that now is not …

US data reduces chance of early rate rise Recent data released from the Commerce Department shows US consumer spending rose less than expected in July. Inflation increased at its slowest rate since 2015. Investors expectations are that the Federal Reserve may delay raising interest rates until December 2017. Will they, …

Interest rates, consumer spending and debt What is the relationship between interest rates, consumer spending & debt? If personal debt levels are rising to abnormal levels again and if the UK recovery is relying on the consumer to spend more – surely the UK’s low interest rate policy is simply …

UK Interest rate on hold at 0.25% The Bank of England (BOE) holds UK interest rate at 0.25%. Growth forecast cut as economy predicted to remain ‘sluggish’.

Super Thursday At midday today the Bank of England (BOE) will announce its interest rate decision, latest inflation report and release minutes of the monetary policy meeting. I don’t intend to guess the outcome – I’ll leave that to the clever guys, you know – the analysts who never get …