The labor market has been one of the hardest hits sectors of the real economy during the credit crisis, with the same trend being seen in most of the developed economies. The history of labor reporting indicates that employment is a lagging indicator of economic health, where the slack in…

The US dollar index (USDX) is an important analytical tool for traders in just about any market. The USDX is actually a futures contract which means that if you have a futures trading account you could trade this instrument like corn, oil, gold or currency futures contracts. However rather than…

So it indeed has been. As this short quote from the Executive Summary of our 2009 Annual Outlook (published in December 2008) neatly summarized, the economic recovery faces a number of secular challenges that will alter the pace and composition of growth. For many decision-makers, the outlook for 2010 suggests…

The tide has turned for the global economy with U.S. real GDP posting a stronger-than-expected increase in the third quarter, the Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA) citing Australia’s good economic performance as a reason for raising the policy rate and China recording a breathtaking 8.9% increase in third-quarter output. Canada,…

Foreign exchange rate volatility remained fairly intense last month. Interest rates were calmer but here too tensions have increased, as financial markets give more thought to when some of the extraordinary loosening of monetary policy seen over the last year will start to be reversed. On the foreign currency front,…