Highlights

SGH reports are highly valued for helping clients understand and stay ahead of the news cycle on central banks and macro policy events that drive the global economies and financial markets.

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2025
October 19, 2025
SGH Insight
Bottom Line: We see very thin tails for this next FOMC meeting; between Powell and Waller it’s clear the Fed will cut rates 25bp. We assess the odds of an October cut 0/25/50 at 2.5%/95%/2.5%. The ongoing government shutdown and its potential impacts on the labor market leads us to skew the probabilities of a December cut slightly more toward the risk of 50bp with odds of 0/25/50 at 10%/75%/15%.
Market Validation
Bloomberg 10/24/25
Treasuries gained after a delayed report on inflation showed consumer prices rose less than expected, reinforcing bets the Federal Reserve will cut interest rates next week.
Yields on two-year notes — which are most sensitive to changes in monetary policy — dipped as much as five basis points. Yields on benchmark 10-year notes fell back below 4% after the reading, approaching their lowest levels since April.
Interest-rate swaps signaled traders all but fully priced in a quarter-point rate cut at the Fed’s meeting next week, followed by another reduction in December.
Read Full Report
October 16, 2025
SGH Insight
Most ECB officials support keeping the policy rate at 2% over the coming meetings. They think disinflation depends now on the most volatile components, energy and food, while service inflation has been over 3% for more than three years. The GC unanimously supported holding rates in September despite the sharp Q2 slowdown. Scant margin for a downside surprise in Q3 raises the bar for a December cut, especially because the projections expect growth to pick up from Q4.
Market Validation
Bloomberg 10/30/25
The European Central Bank left interest rates unchanged for a third meeting, with inflation in check and the economy continuing to grow.
“The robust labor market, solid private sector balance sheets and the Governing Council’s past interest-rate cuts remain important sources of resilience,” the ECB said in a statement. “However, the outlook is still uncertain, owing particularly to ongoing global trade disputes and geopolitical tensions.”
Officials have been vocal of late in signaling that there’s little reason to add to the eight reductions in borrowing costs they’ve made to date. Their confidence stems from inflation that’s been hovering around the 2% goal for months and indications that the economic damage from Donald Trump’s trade measures has been relatively contained.
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October 16, 2025
SGH Insight
Bottom line: Sanae Takaichi is on the brink of becoming Japan’s first woman Prime Minister, with Ishin no Kai poised to deliver the votes the LDP needs to reclaim a governing majority. A coalition deal, aided by strategic policy overlap and made more urgent by Trump’s upcoming visit, is likely within days — positioning Takaichi as both Japan’s new reformer and a lightning rod for renewed US-Japan alignment.
Market Validation
Bloomberg 10/20/25
Japan’s ruling Liberal Democratic Party
signed a coalition deal with the Japan Innovation Party, setting
up Sanae Takaichi to become the country’s first female prime
minister.
LDP President Takaichi and Hirofumi Yoshimura, co-leader of
the JIP, known as Ishin, signed the coalition agreement on
Monday evening.
Read Full Report
October 13, 2025
SGH Insight
1. We believe the Fed is very likely to follow through with the September SEP and cut rates 25bp at each of the October and December FOMC meetings.

2. The risks to the October and December meetings are more likely toward a larger-than-expected cut.
Market Validation
Bloomberg 10/16/25
Treasuries extend gains and futures push to fresh highs of the day led by the front-end of the curve, steepening 2s10s spread out to fresh session wides. Into the move, 2-year yields drop to lowest since Sept. 2022 to around 3.425% and richer by almost 7bp on the day.
Treasuries bull steepen with yields 7bp to 2bp lower across the curve; Fed-dated OIS shifts to fully price in two 25bp rate cuts over the remaining two meetings this year
Read Full Report
October 10, 2025
SGH Insight
This week Beijing tightened restrictions around exports of its rare earth minerals and magnets with no official explanation, eliciting an angry outburst today by Trump who threatened to respond with tariffs in kind.

Beijing’s move is a direct, deliberate, and in our view highly ill-conceived threat to Washington to remove the fentanyl tariffs after what was to be a conciliatory, albeit frosty, meeting between Trump and Chinese Communist Party leader Xi Jinping on the sidelines of the APEC meeting in South Korea on October 31 – November 1.

The intent, and threat, from Beijing is clear, and as we wrote above, we believe extremely ill-advised, as we do not share Beijing’s presumption that President Trump will be so quick to accede to Beijing’s tariff demands under deliberate attacks on US markets, and industry.
Market Validation
Bloomberg 10/14/25
US President Donald Trump said he would
impose an additional 100% tariff on China and export controls on
“any and all critical software” beginning November 1, hours
after threatening to cancel an upcoming meeting with the
country’s leader, Xi Jinping.
“It has just been learned that China has taken an
extraordinarily aggressive position on Trade in sending an
extremely hostile letter to the World, stating that they were
going to, effective November 1st, 2025, impose large scale
Export Controls on virtually every product they make, and some
not even made by them,” Trump said in a social media post.
Read Full Report
October 06, 2025
SGH Insight
The BOJ’s path to 0.75% remains intact, but the timeline is slipping. Takaichi’s camp is steering expectations toward December, and the BOJ is unlikely to defy that signal with an October move and it lacks the conviction to push back.
Market Validation
BBG 10/30/25
Bank of Japan Governor
Kazuo Ueda mixed hawkish and dovish tones, keeping flexibility
to raise rates in either December or January after the central
bank left policy unchanged Thursday. He said confidence in the
BOJ’s outlook is increasing — a precondition for tightening —
hinting a December move is possible. He also stressed the
central bank makes its decisions independently of politics.
Read Full Report
September 21, 2025
SGH Insight
Powell provides an economic outlook this week and we see little reason for him to deviate substantially from his August speech or post-FOMC press conference comments.
Market Validation
Bloomberg 9/23/25
Powell’s remarks hewed closely to those he made in a press conference on Sept. 17 after Fed policymakers lowered the central bank’s benchmark interest rate to a range of 4%-4.25%, the first reduction of 2025. Powell at the press conference described the move as a “risk-management cut” aimed at responding to growing warning signs in the labor market.
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September 14, 2025
SGH Insight
The Fed is set to return to rate cuts this week now that Powell sees the risk of higher inflation is equal to the risk of rising unemployment. The Fed will view upcoming rate cuts as a “recalibration” of policy as it feels its way to the neutral rate. The data has yet to make a case for below neutral rates; the labor market needs to exhibit a more dramatic deterioration to get there.

We assume that both Federal Reserve Governor Lisa Cook and nominee Stephen Miran will attend the meeting and submit forecasts. The Senate is scheduled to vote on Miran’s confirmation Monday, allowing him to attend the FOMC meeting that begins on Tuesday. There is a risk that Miran dissents in favor of a 50bp cut while Kansas City Federal Reserve President Jeffrey Schmid dissents in favor of holding rates steady. We don’t expect Waller or Bowman to dissent; they said their peace at the last FOMC meeting.


The Fed will cut interest rates 25bps this week and signal at least one more rate cut for 2025. Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell signaled this week’s policy move at August’s Jackson Hole conference by highlighting the risk to the employment mandate while declaring tariff-induced inflation should be considered transitory until proven persistent. We expect FOMC participants will project two cuts this year in the September SEP, and with only three meetings left, those two cuts are virtually guaranteed. The Fed will want to retain the option of a third rate cut this year, and it can only retain that option by cutting rates again in October.
Market Validation
Dow Jones 9/17/25
Fed governor Stephen Miran has been on the job barely over 24 hours, yet he is starting his tenure with a splash. Miran is the lone dissenter against the Fed's quarter-point rate cut in September, voting instead in favor of a larger 50-basis-point cut. Analysts had speculated that Trump-appointed governors Michelle Bowman and Christopher Waller were other possible dissenters in favor of a larger cut, but both chose to back the majority's quarter-point move. And despite voicing skepticism of cuts in recent months, hawkish Kansas City Fed president Jeffrey Schmid also raised his hand in favor of the quarter-point rate reduction. (matt.grossman@wsj.com; @mattgrossman)

Wall Street Journal 10/29/25
The Federal Reserve lowered interest rates at its second consecutive meeting on Wednesday, extending an effort to prevent a recent slowdown in hiring from turning into something more serious.
The latest quarter-point cut will reduce the Fed's benchmark short-term interest rate to a range between 3.75% and 4%, the lowest setting in three years and down from a peak of around 5.4% that the central bank maintained for much of last year.
Read Full Report
September 02, 2025
SGH Insight
The ECB will hold interest rates unchanged at its policy meeting on September 11. On-target inflation, and trend growth are coming in line with the June macroeconomic projections, reinforcing the hawkish narrative that interest rates are “in a good place.”US tariffs and weak economic sentiment risk pushing inflation below the central bank’s projections. This uncertain environment will keep the possibility of a rate cut alive in the coming months. However, for that to happen inflation and growth need to come in below the ECB’s projections.
Market Validation
Bloomberg 9/11/25
German bonds are paring losses across the curve after the European Central Bank retained key language from its guidance but raised its inflation forecast for this year and the next in what is a carefully balanced report.

Here’s the relevant part from its statement:
“It will follow a data-dependent and meeting-by-meeting approach to determining the appropriate monetary policy stance...The Governing Council is not pre-committing to a particular rate path.”

That is virtually a repeat of what it had said in July. The message, clearly, is that the governing council is reluctant to surrender the optionality of cutting rates further should the euro-zone economy weaken.
Read Full Report
September 01, 2025
SGH Insight
The Federal Reserve is set to deliver a 25bp rate cut at the September FOMC meeting. By putting his thumb on the scale at Jackson Hole and framing the decision as forecast-dependent rather than data-dependent, Chair Jerome Powell has effectively locked in that outcome. The labor market is the focus now that Powell has decided to treat any elevated inflation as transitory until proven as persistent. While stronger than expected employment and inflation reports may cause market participants to call into question the Fed’s commitment to a September rate cut, we think the die is already cast for that meeting. Incoming data will have little bearing on the outcome of the September meeting and instead will shape expectations for the policy path for October and December as the FOMC releases a fresh SEP that will serve as de facto calendar guidance for the remainder of 2025. The Fed is on course to ease policy toward neutral, with our baseline calling for a quarterly pace of rate cuts, at least until the data provide a clearer signal otherwise. A weak employment report would help shift the narrative toward greater concern the Fed has fallen behind the curve and increase speculation that it would need to take rates below neutral to limit damage to the labor market.
Market Validation
Bloomberg 9/5/25
US Treasuries rallied as a weaker-than-expected jobs report prompted traders to fully price an interest-rate cut by the Federal Reserve this month.
Yields on two-year notes, which are most sensitive to changes in monetary policy, fell as much as 8 basis points to 3.5%,
Interest-rate swaps showed traders priced in a 98% probability of a quarter-point cut by the Fed at the Sept. 17 meeting. A total of 142 basis points of easing were expected over the next 12 months.
Nonfarm payrolls increased 22,000 in August after a combined 21,000 downward revision to the prior months, according to a Bureau of Labor Statistics report out Friday. The jobless rate ticked up to 4.3%, the highest level since late 2021.
Read Full Report
August 25, 2025
SGH Insight
Finally, one official’s comments after last night’s CNY fixing:

“As the US is going to enter a rate-cutting cycle, the exchange rate of the RMB against the USD would show an orderly and moderate appreciation trend. The central parity rate of the RMB against the USD is expected to rebound to the 7.0 level by the end of this year.”
Market Validation
Bloomberg 8/29/25
China’s central bank is nudging the yuan
higher, stoking speculation of a subtle shift in strategy toward
favoring a stronger exchange rate after strong exports
brightened the nation’s growth outlook.
The People’s Bank of China raised its daily reference rate
for the yuan by the most in nearly a year this week even as the
dollar was largely unchanged. This may signal authorities are
not only comfortable with a stronger currency but looking to
engineer a gradual appreciation, according to some market
watchers.

Bloomberg 12/31/25
China handed yuan bulls a New Year’s gift
with tacit consent for more appreciation, while carefully pacing
the currency’s gains to avoid hurting exporters and accelerating
hot-money inflows.
The People’s Bank of China set the yuan’s daily reference
rate on Wednesday at a fresh high since September 2024, a day
after it allowed the currency to pierce through the key 7-per-
dollar level in the more tightly controlled onshore market. That
followed the yuan’s breach of the threshold in largely
unrestricted offshore trading last week.
Read Full Report
August 22, 2025
SGH Insight
Bottom Line: Positive inflation in June and July, matching the SNB’s June macroeconomic projections, offer the central bank a path to hold rates in September. Since another cut would mean the return of negative interest rates, the bar for such a move is relatively high.
Market Validation
Bloomberg 9/25/25
President Martin Schlegel and his two colleagues kept their benchmark at zero, acknowledging that the 39% levy imposed by Donald Trump — the highest for any advanced economy — will cause pain, while insisting that the fallout isn’t yet widespread enough to justify a cut.
“The bar to go into negative territory with interest rates is certainly higher than just a normal rate cut,” Schlegel said. “We are aware that this negative interest rates could be a challenge for many actors in the economy. At the same time if it’s really necessary to fulfill our mandate we are ready to use all the tools that are available — also negative interest rates.”
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August 22, 2025
SGH Insight
Canada’s continued disappointing growth, coupled with sentiment dampened by trade uncertainty and the Bank of Canada’s (BOC) view that its preferred core inflation measures may be overstating price pressures, has reiterated our view that the Bank could resume its easing cycle next month.

Though the Bank held its policy rate at 2.75% last month, its communications shifted dovishly with Governor Tiff Macklem making clear in the opening statement of his press conference that the council members are not convinced the recent run-up in core inflation pressures will persist.
Market Validation
Bloomberg 9/5/25
The Canadian economy surprisingly shed jobs for a second consecutive month as the unemployment rate jumped, increasing the likelihood of an interest rate cut from the Bank of Canada this month.
Employment fell by 65,500 positions in August, driven by decreases in part-time work. The jobless rate rose to 7.1%, Statistics Canada data showed Friday. The number of job losses surpassed even the most pessimistic projection in a Bloomberg survey of economists — the median forecast was for 5,000 jobs to be created.
Losses were led by self-employment and service-related industries — transportation, professional services and education sectors all shed jobs. Employment fell by more than 19,000 positions in the manufacturing sector.
The yield on benchmark two-year Canada government bonds fell about 6 basis points to 2.554%, while the loonie fluctuated to trade at C$1.38 per US dollar as of 8:40 a.m. in Ottawa. Traders boosted bets that the Bank of Canada would lower rates at its next meeting Sept. 17, pricing in about an 80% chance of a cut.

Dow Jones - Ottawa 9/17/25
The Bank of Canada cut on Wednesday its benchmark interest rate by a quarter-point to 2.5%, citing a weaker job market and waning momentum in underlying inflation.
This marks a resumption of rate cuts for Canada's central bank, after a six-month pause as officials worried about upward pressure on inflation from tariffs. Gov. Tiff Macklem said data suggest that upward momentum in core inflation -- which strips out volatile items like food and energy -- has "dissipated," and Canada's decision to abandon most retaliatory tariffs on U.S. products "will mean less pressure on the prices of these goods going forward."
Read Full Report
August 13, 2025
SGH Insight
Watch Out for Risks to Current Pricing

US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent’s market-moving push for a jumbo-sized rate cut will only reinforce an appearance Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell has ceded control of monetary policy to the sitting “Shadow Chair.” Watch out for the risk that neither the data nor the real Chair validates the recent move in rates.
Be aware of immediate risks to the current direction of travel in markets:

· PPI. The PPI report could push core-PCE estimates higher on the back of faster services inflation.
Market Validation
Bloomberg 8/14/25
Treasury futures on lows of the day after July PPI data prints well above estimate across both headline and core readings.
US yields flip to cheaper on the day by around 3bp across front-end of the curve while in long-end yields rise back to unchanged on the day
Fed-dated OIS sees rate cut premium fade over coming months with 22bp of cuts priced for the September meeting vs. 25bp priced Wednesday close and a combined 58bp of cuts for the year vs. 63bp prior
Read Full Report
August 11, 2025
SGH Insight
This period ranks among the most complicated setups for navigating the Fed that we have ever seen. Market participants are balancing multiple issues with contradictory outcomes for monetary policy:
The Fed is possibly heading in a direction that will require market participants to rethink how the Fed will behave. Fed watching could become a bean-counting exercise like the Bank of England, something likely to yield more volatile policy outcomes.
Market Validation
"Divided US Fed backs second quarter-point rate cut of 2025"
AFP 10/29/25
The US Federal Reserve on Wednesday announced its second consecutive quarter-point rate cut to bolster the flagging labor market, unveiling a decision that highlighted the growing division in its ranks.
Policymakers voted 10-2 in favor of lowering the bank's key lending rate to between 3.75 percent and 4.00 percent, the Fed said in a statement.
Opposed to the action were Fed governor Stephen Miran, who backed a bigger half-point cut, and Kansas City Fed president Jeff Schmid, who "preferred no change to the target range for the federal funds rate at this meeting," the Fed said.
Read Full Report
August 05, 2025
SGH Insight
The Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA) is set to cut its cash rate 25 basis points next week to 3.6%. Our expectation is for a pause at the September 29-30 meeting, followed by a second cut on November 4 that will likely mark the end of moves this year.
Market Validation
Bloomberg 8/12/25
Australia’s central bank chief signaled a
“couple more” interest-rate cuts will be required to achieve its
latest forecasts after the policy board eased as anticipated on
Tuesday.
The Reserve Bank cut its key rate to 3.6% in a unanimous
decision and has now delivered 75 basis points of easing in the
current campaign.
Read Full Report
July 30, 2025
SGH Insight
The Federal Reserve left interest rates unchanged at this week’s FOMC meeting. As expected, Vice Chair for Supervision Michelle Bowman and Governor Chris Waller both dissented in favor of cutting rate. Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell struck a defiant tone in response to pressure from the White House and gave no hint that the Fed was leaning toward a September cut although he didn’t exclude that option. For now, we retain a 60% chance of a rate cut in September. It’s still very much a data dependent exercise.

Powell is not seeing enough in the labor market or inflation data yet to warrant a rate cut. Powell didn’t give any ground for a return to the “recalibration” path that proceeded Trump’s tariff policy. Still, we thought it was premature for Powell to give any clear direction on September. There is plenty of time and data between now and September for the Fed to build a case for or against a rate cut.
Market Validation
New York Times 8/1/25
The Federal Reserve held rates steady in July but two governors dissented, saying they had concerns about labor market fragility.
The strength of the labor market has been one of the main reasons that Federal Reserve policymakers have felt comfortable waiting to cut interest rates in recent months.
The surprisingly weak jobs report on Friday is likely to change that equation.
Jerome H. Powell, the Fed chair, described the labor market as “solid” as recently as Wednesday, pointing to the low unemployment rate and solid job gains to justify the central bank’s decision to hold interest rates steady for the fifth consecutive meeting.
But the data on Friday called that assessment into question. The unemployment rate ticked up only slightly, to 4.2 percent. But large downward revisions to job growth in May and June suggested that the labor market has not been as strong in recent months as policymakers believed.
Read Full Report
July 29, 2025
SGH Insight
After two months on hold, the Bank of England (BOE) looks set to resume monetary easing with a 25 basis-point cut in rates to 4 percent next week amid contracting UK growth and a weakening labor market.

Three Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) voters dissented from June’s decision to hold, advocating a cut amid committee momentum toward more easing, and on July 1, even Governor Andrew Bailey told a panel, “we’ll see” when he was asked if the Bank would cut rates on August 7.

Inflation is still well above target following the surprise increase in June to 3.6%. So this time around it’s possible the MPC’s vote split could shift to reflect concern by the likes of chief economist Huw Pill who does not yet have sufficient confidence that inflation will slow to target in a timely manner.

If Pill dissents, he may be joined by external member Catherine Mann though her protest would depend on whether she views overall conditions as sufficiently constraining to see inflation back to target in the Bank’s projection timeframe. The Bank has said inflation will peak around 3.7% this quarter before it eases back to target early next year.
Market Validation
Bloomberg 8/7/25
The Bank of England cut interest rates to
the lowest in over two years in a closer-than-expected decision
that pitted the prospect of inflation hitting 4% against a
weakening jobs market.
Five members of the Monetary Policy Committee voted for the
quarter-point reduction to 4%, while four backed no change. That
followed an earlier three-way split that failed to reach a
majority. It was the first time in the 28-year history of the
panel that two rounds of voting were needed to reach a
presentable outcome on rates.
Deputy Governor Clare Lombardelli, Chief Economist Huw Pill
along with externals Catherine Mann and Megan Greene were those
who opposed another cut.
Read Full Report
July 27, 2025
SGH Insight
Despite enormous pressure from the White House, the Fed will not cut policy rates at the end of this week’s FOMC meeting. While there will be a discussion about rate cuts given that Governor Chris Waller will argue that point, the consensus supports holding rates steady as the Fed considers incoming inflation data. We expect Fed Chair Jay Powell will leave a September rate cut on the table and add that the Fed will produce a fresh SEP at that time. Any comment beyond that on September’s meeting two months out would only raise President Trump’s ire even more; there is plenty of time between now and September, including the August Jackson Hole conference, for the data and Fedspeak to guide market participants to the policy outcome.
Market Validation
New York Times 7/30/25
The Federal Reserve held interest rates steady on Wednesday for a fifth meeting in a row, despite officials splintering over the right time to restart cuts after an extended pause.
In standing pat, the central bank kept interest rates at a range of 4.25 percent to 4.5 percent, a level reached in December after a series of reductions at the end of last year. Two members of the powerful Board of Governors dissenting. Christopher J. Waller, a governor, and Michelle W. Bowman, vice chair for supervision — both of whom were appointed by President Trump — supported the Fed lowering interest rates by a quarter of a percentage point.
Here’s what to know about the decision:
The decision to hold interest rates steady was widely anticipated but it also was one of the most contentious decisions in decades, with two members of the board dissenting. The last time policymakers of that stature opposed a vote on monetary policy was back in 1993.
Fed Chair Jerome H. Powell was repeatedly asked about the prospects of a September rate cut. He did not take a reduction at that time off the table but made clear that the central bank had not yet made a decision about what to do. He stressed that economic data to be released between now and the mid-September meeting would be crucial.
Read Full Report
July 25, 2025
SGH Insight
With Japan’s upper house elections concluded and a critical trade agreement with the US secured, the Bank of Japan (BOJ) is clear to resume its gradual monetary policy normalization and as we have been expecting is likely eyeing October to lift rates to 0.75%.

The upcoming July 30-31 meeting will hint at a cautious shift by the BOJ to accelerate internal discussions about rate hike timing, which also will be reflected in more sanguine updated economic projections relative to the Bank’s May 1 forecast round.

The BOJ will shift its forward guidance to a more flexible policy stance in the second half of the year, as it prepares for more rate increases through next year.

We maintain that the skittish BOJ might view the September 18–19 meeting as too soon to raise rates to 0.75%, but that the October 29-30 forecast round looks opportune for a hike.
Market Validation
TOKYO Reuters 7/31/25
The Bank of Japan revised up its inflation forecasts on Thursday and offered a less gloomy outlook on the economy than three months ago, keeping alive the possibility of a resumption in interest rate hikes this year.

The central bank also cited persistent rises in food costs as a potential driver of public perceptions around inflation and underlying price pressures.
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