fxmatters

• 27 August 1923 – the French Premier announces that German repatriations must continue; the Deutsche mark leaps to 7 million marks per USD.
• 30 August 1930 – Warren Buffet—of ‘I made US$102m out of the kiwi dollar’ fame, and ‘other’ investments—is born.
• 2 September 1998 – LTCM’s John Meriwether contacts all existing investors for more and comes up with zilch.

The waves of panic have stopped and the NZD is trending back upwards – or is it? … Read Picking up the pieces

• 18 August 2005 – KfW issue NZ$1430m Uridashi, to mature 20 Aug 2007.
• 25 August 1987 – DJIA hits a record 2722 high and then proceeds to slide by 37% over the next three months.
• 25 August 2003 – Business Week survey finds too much debt to be the main reason for business failure (28%), followed by inadequate leadership (17%).

Wow, what a week. That is volatility. After moves like that and with the inevitable bad stories within the financial industry still to emerge, anything could happen next. It is a time for special care, and hedging, even if the global authorities are addressing the problem … Read Now that the cavalry have arrived

• 14 August 1951 – US basketball player Vernon Law quipped “experience is a hard teacher because she gives the test first, the lesson afterwards” – very applicable to fx markets.
• 15 August 1795 – The French franc is re-introduced in decimal form, the term franc initially being applied in 1360 to a coin and then used informally after 1641 even though the coin ceased to exist.

The credit risk reappraisal has turned into a liquidity squeeze and central banks are working hard to contain the damage. But it should be contained. It is more a matter of when markets including the NZD rebound, and from where … Read Positioning for a rebound

• 6 August 1945 – Bomb dropped on Hiroshima.
• 8 August 1857 – The 1857 US panic starts “the Western Blizzard” once credit dries up following a debt-induced financial boom (sound familiar?).
• 8 August 1786 – US adopts silver coin and decimal system of money.

The US markets finished another week weakly. The USD is shaping up to weaken further in the near-term. The combination of carry-trade unwind and weak USD makes for mixed NZ exchange rates … Read USD faces more pressure