Market Brief, North America

Tis’ the season to be jolly. Traders are in an ebullient mood after yesterday’s data showed consumer prices rising in November at the slowest 12-month pace since December 2021. Although equity markets have largely retraced their steps, ten-year Treasury yields are holding below the 3.5-percent threshold, the dollar is weaker, and risk appetite looks robust across the currency markets. It might seem like investors are decking the halls with boughs of folly, but there are good reasons to think inflation is stabilizing at lower levels. Cheaper energy prices are gradually reducing upward pressure on headline indices, and seem unlikely to...

The dollar is softer, Treasury yields are slumping, and implied volatility levels are creeping higher as an action-packed week begins in financial markets. Equity futures are pointing to a slightly stronger open after Friday’s selloff, and risk-sensitive currencies are edging upward. The pound is slightly stronger after the Office for National Statistics said the economy grew by 0.5 percent in October after shrinking 0.6 percent in September. This beat consensus forecasts for a 0.4-percent expansion, and helped show that a surge in the “moron risk premium” (to borrow Dario Perkin’s term) during the Truss government’s brief time in power has...