A Bottom For Commodities – The Reserve Bank of Australia Says No; Fortescue Says Yes

(This is an excerpt from an article I originally published on Seeking Alpha on November 19, 2015. Click here to read the entire piece.) “…the changing nature of China’s development implies that the potential for commodity prices to rise from here is somewhat limited.” – Christopher Kent, Assistant Governor, Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA) at … Read more

The Reserve Bank of Australia Sets the Stage for the Next Rate Cut(s)

The Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA) announced its November decision for monetary policy with a very familiar template. The most important part of the statement came at the end where the RBA made it clear rate cuts are on its collective mind (emphasis mine): “At today’s meeting the Board judged that the prospects for an … Read more

The Australian Dollar Should Face Increased Pressure from Policy Divergence

Australia’s persistently weak inflation data has now convinced the market that the Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA) is much more likely than not to cut interest rates at its November 3, 2015 meeting on monetary policy. Source: The ASX RBA Rate Indicator Combine this flip in market sentiment with the mirror image of the market … Read more

Australian Dollar Healthcheck: An Extended Period of Weakness Remains Ahead

(This is an excerpt from an article I originally published on Seeking Alpha on October 1, 2015. Click here to read the entire piece.) {snip} RBA Governor Glenn Stevens found a clever way to imply that the decline in the Australian dollar (FXA) still has a ways to go. First, he implied that the terms … Read more

The Reserve Bank of Australia Is Content to Wait for the U.S. Federal Reserve

(This is an excerpt from an article I originally published on Seeking Alpha on September 1, 2015. Click here to read the entire piece.) The Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA) delivered another plain vanilla decision on monetary policy. The RBA barely even acknowledged the stomach-churning volatility of the past two weeks or so. {snip} Markets … Read more