UK unemployment has dropped to the lowest level in more than 44 years despite mounting fears over Brexit, as employers across the country ramped up hiring at the fastest rate in more than three years.
Economics
China Lowers Growth Target and Cuts Taxes as Economy Slows
China lowered its goal for economic growth and announced a major tax cut, as policymakers seek to pull off a gradual deceleration while grappling with a debt legacy and the trade standoff with the U.S.
Gold Is One Wealth Fund’s Escape From Geopolitics, Credit Risk
Known as Sofaz, the fund is looking to almost double its holdings of the precious metal in 2019 to 100 tons after resuming purchases in 2018 following a five-year break.
Fed Raises Rates, Turns More Cautious on Outlook for 2019 Hikes
Following the decision, stocks erased gains, 10-year Treasury yields fell and the dollar bounced off its lows of the day. Investors may have been swayed by the Fed’s generally upbeat analysis and expectation of more rate increases than markets anticipate.
What Economists Are Saying Before the November U.S. Jobs Report
“Strong growth earlier this year should ensure the economy creates jobs at a robust pace into year-end,” economists wrote in a note. “The composition of job gains will provide clues on which sectors will drive hiring in 2019. As the Fed continues to tighten policy, the housing and auto sectors will likely get hit by rising interest rates.”
China Adds to Stimulus Drip-Feed as Markets Stumble Again
China is responding to the slump in its stock markets and the slowdown in the economy with a trickle of stimulus to stabilize, rather than rejuvenate, investor sentiment. The central bank plans to give 10 billion yuan ($1.4 billion) to China Bond Insurance Co. to provide credit support for debt sales by private enterprises
Stabilising virtues of central banks haircuts: (Re)matching bank liquidity
During the euro area sovereign debt crisis, the ECB implemented several adjustments to its collateral and haircut policies as part of its whole set of non-standard monetary policy measures. While haircut grids may sound like an obscure, merely technical aspect of monetary policy implementation, they turn out to be a key translator of monetary policy loosening with a direct impact on bank balance sheets, the shadow value of their assets and how encumbered they are. Changing haircuts immediately affects the quantity of liquidity that banks can claim against their collateral in open market operations (OMOs).