Bonds/Interest Rates

The Dow fell 140 as the financial sector spell was broken and reality brought Wall Street back to earth.

The Aussie dollar has been slammed in recent weeks, but Westpac expects a recovery against the US dollar into 2009.

The RBA quarterly statement by no means suggests a 50 point cut is forthcoming. In fact, it doesn’t even suggest 25 is coming soon.

The US dollar soared on Friday, sending oil and all commodities crashing, and the Dow up 300 points.

The market had begun pricing in a September rate cut but July jobs data makes such an outcome unlikely according to economists.

This feature updates the views expressed in a previous feature, “Australia’s Unavoidable Recession”, published in 2006.

The Dow fell 224 last night as several component stocks were hit with various pieces of bad news.

TD Waterhouse sees a flood of rate cuts in both New Zealand and Australia in the year ahead.

Freddie Mac posted a loss three times bigger than expected last night, and the Dow closed up 40.

Following yesterday’s RBA statement, the rush is on amongst economists to completely rethink their interest rate forecasts.