The big picture
The Fed's new chair abandoned forward guidance in his debut, acknowledging 65 months of elevated inflation and shifting to a data-dependent stance. This removes the explicit rate path investors had relied on, potentially increasing volatility. Meanwhile, the BOJ's August CPI shows core inflation firming, supporting further normalization and pressuring JGB yields. Both central banks are moving away from predictable policy frameworks, a theme echoed in the ECB-BIS debate on stablecoins versus tokenized reserves.
On the watchlist
- 2026-09-01: Euro-area flash CPI for August — a print above the ECB's target could reinforce the case for a September rate hike.
- 2026-09-15: BOJ policy decision — any hawkish shift would accelerate JGB yield increases.
- 2026-09-30: EU implementation notice on WTO DS622 — a commitment to recalculate duties would impact Indonesian fatty acid trade.
- 2026-10-01: EIA quarterly uranium update — a sustained price rise would confirm the output trend.
- 2026-10-15: Danmarks Nationalbank portfolio statistics — watch if Danish Asian share holdings remain elevated.
Top stories
Why it matters With PCE inflation at 3.7% and the six-month annualized rate at 4.1%, Warsh's data-dependent stance removes the Fed's forward guidance, forcing markets to reprice rate expectations without a clear path.
He acknowledged the Fed's responsibility for 65 months of elevated inflation, with PCE inflation at 3.7% year-over-year and 4.1% on a six-month annualized basis, while unemployment sits at 4.1%. Warsh's shift away from forward guidance signals a more data-dependent Fed, potentially increasing market volatility as investors lose the central bank's explicit rate path, while his emphasis on productivity and AI could reshape the Fed's policy framework.
- Business capital expenditures growth, y/y 9%
- S&P 500 profit growth, y/y 20%
- PCE components with price increases above 3%, 6-month annual 49%
- Months of sustained elevated inflation 65 months
- Real consumer spending growth, 4-quarter change 2%
- Private domestic final purchases growth, ytd 3%
Why it matters Extending mortgage terms to 40 years could boost housing demand and stabilize prices, but it also lengthens banks' credit risk exposure, affecting their balance sheets and bond yields.
The PBOC and NFRA jointly issued new rules on real estate credit, establishing a main bank system for development loans and extending loan terms. Development loans for pre-sale projects can now run up to 5 years, while completed sales and commercial real estate projects can reach 7 years. This policy shift aims to support the property sector, potentially boosting mortgage demand and stabilizing the housing market, with implications for bank credit risk and bond yields.
Why it matters The BIS-ECB split on stablecoins versus tokenized reserves will shape the future of digital money, with implications for cross-border payments and the demand for traditional bank deposits.
At Jackson Hole, BIS General Manager Pablo Hernández de Cos argued that stablecoins in their current form fail to uphold money's foundational properties—singleness, interoperability, and integrity—due to fragmentation and pseudonymity, while tokenised deposits preserve the two-tier system and offer a more promising path. ECB's Isabel Schnabel countered that central banks should issue tokenized reserves on-chain, as stablecoins cannot elastically expand liquidity, citing projects like Appia and Pontes. The divergence highlights a key policy debate: whether to accommodate private stablecoins or shift to central bank digital infrastructure. For bond markets, widespread stablecoin adoption could raise bank funding costs and reduce demand for government bills, as reserves held in short-dated bills would be sold, while tokenised deposits could shorten deposit durations and increase demand for high-quality liquid assets.
Why it matters With core inflation at 2%, the BOJ's normalization path is reinforced, supporting the yen but pressuring JGB yields as markets price in further rate hikes.
Energy prices fell −2%, dragging headline, but the sustained rise in services and food costs suggests underlying inflation is firming. This strengthens the case for the BOJ to continue normalizing monetary policy, potentially supporting the yen and pressuring JGB yields higher as markets price in further rate hikes.
- CPI, m/m (SA) 0.2% (2026-07 0.4%)
- CPI index (2025=100) 102.4
- Fresh food prices, y/y 5.6% (2026-07 5.5%)
Why it matters A softening German labor market could ease wage pressures, potentially delaying the ECB's rate normalization and affecting euro-area bond yields.
This marks a deviation from the prior stability and could signal a softening labor market, potentially easing wage pressures and affecting the ECB's policy path.
Also today
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Gains are driven by AI infrastructure suppliers TSMC, SK Hynix, and Samsung. The data, from Danmarks Nationalbank, is buried in its portfolio statistics; the next quarterly release will show whether the concentration persists.
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The WTO Dispute Settlement Body adopted the panel report in DS622, finding the EU's anti-dumping duties on Indonesian fatty acid exceeded the dumping margin because the EU failed to use the exchange rate on the date of sale when converting euro transactions. Indonesia welcomed the ruling; the EU disagreed with the narrow issue and has 30 days to state implementation intentions. The report, adopted without public attention, could force the EU to recalculate duties; the EU's implementation notice within 30 days will settle the impact.
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The EIA data, tucked in its annual uranium report, signals rising domestic supply; the next EIA quarterly update will show if the price trend holds.
Deep dives
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The Bank of England paper develops a replicable framework that combines high-frequency administrative and survey microdata with a pre-registered shift-share design to estimate multi-margin firm responses to economic shocks in real time. Applied to the 2021–23 UK energy price shock, it finds energy-intensive firms pass on cost increases, build cash reserves, and shift towards homeworking. The authors report little evidence of aggregate employment losses or firm exits. The resulting coefficient vectors are read as first-order perturbations of firms' optimal-response functions, which is what lets the estimates stand in for behavioural parameters without a fully specified structural model.
The design is pre-registered, which protects the exercise from specification search when the data arrive in real time. Combining administrative and survey microdata lets the authors track the same firms along several margins at once, so adjustment patterns are directly comparable. The responses are highly heterogeneous across firms, and the distribution matters for how the shock propagates. One caveat is that the perturbation interpretation brackets the analysis to shocks that are not too large relative to the firms' current optimum, and the shift-share identification rests on the exogeneity of the exposure shares.
For public finance, the practical payoff is a real-time calibration tool for energy support schemes and environmental taxes. The split between cost pass-through, cash hoarding, and homeworking determines how much of an energy price shock lands on consumers, on wages, or on fiscal accounts through compensation. A carbon price is an energy price shock by another name, so the framework tells policymakers which margins will adjust first. The lack of aggregate employment losses in the 2021–23 episode points to adjustment through prices and balance sheets rather than headcount, which keeps the fiscal cost concentrated in price-linked support rather than unemployment benefits. As the next energy or commodity shock hits, the same template can produce estimates while the shock is still unfolding, rather than months later.
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The Foreign Exchange Subcommittee reviewed IMF scenarios that put global growth at 3.1% in 2026 and 3.2% in 2027, with inflation at 4.4% and 3.7% respectively. The IMF's severe scenario, where rare earth substitution fails, implies a GDP downside of 1.75% of GDP for Japan and 1.5% of GDP for the US. This quantifies a direct hit to Japan's fiscal revenues and could weigh on JGB demand if investors price in weaker growth.
The World Bank's IDA has secured $70m for a Pacific payment system, and defense equipment accounts for about 1% of Japan's imports.
Committee members questioned the IMF's extreme elasticity assumptions, noting reality likely lies in between. The G7's ability to influence China was also doubted. The cost-recovery principle for the Pacific payment system may deter usage, and disclosure of recommendations could be limited. Attaching documents at the notification stage may overburden investors, suggesting a risk-based approach is needed.
The inward investment target, if met, would boost capital inflows and support demand for yen assets, partially offsetting the shock.
- Average oil price $82
- Global GDP growth 3.1%
- Global GDP growth 3.2%
- Global inflation 4.4%
- Global inflation 3.7%
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The Central Bank of Armenia has cut its policy rate in four consecutive steps, from 9.75% in September 2025 to 8.25% after the June 2026 decision, with intermediate reductions to 9.25% in December 2025 and 8.75% in March 2026. The cumulative easing of roughly one and a half percentage points reflects a deliberate gradual approach rather than a single aggressive move. However, the easing path is now colliding with rising underlying price pressures: normal inflation, the central bank's preferred core measure, reached 4.9% in June 2026, up from 3.5% a year earlier and above the central bank's target. The report attributes the overshoot to food and service prices, which have proven stickier than the headline trend suggested.
The monetary policy program for Q3 2025–Q2 2026 is based on official statistics from the central bank and the National Statistical Service, analyzing consumer price index components alongside each rate decision. The report shows that the central bank front-loaded cuts when inflation was benign, then slowed the pace as underlying inflation climbed. The gap between the policy rate and core inflation has narrowed, leaving less room for further easing without risking a de-anchoring of expectations. If the June reading persists, the board may pause or even reverse course, which would lift short-term government bond yields and raise the cost of fiscal financing for Armenia's public debt.
For investors in Armenian government paper, the key mechanism is the policy rate's direct pass-through to short-term yields. With the rate now at 8.25% and core inflation at 4.9%, the real policy rate has turned negative, a condition that typically pressures the dram and complicates the central bank's inflation fight. The report offers no explicit forward guidance, but the trajectory of underlying inflation will determine whether the easing cycle resumes or stalls.
In brief
Rates & Bonds 28 items
Across twenty-eight releases, central banks and statistical offices published a mix of monetary and real-economy data, with several showing divergent trends. The RBI auctioned state government securities at ₹27,000 crore, while the Bundesbank set its September issue volume at €1.6bn. Inflation signals were mixed: Austria's PPI rose 3.3% year-on-year, while Pakistan's Sensitive Price Indicator stood at 361.07. Financial conditions varied, with Fiji's 3-month Treasury bill yield at 0.25% and the Bank of Finland reporting an average housing loan repayment period of 25 years months. The BoE's rate rise was 200bp, and the Central Bank of West African States injected 6.600,0 local ccy bn in liquidity. Meanwhile, Japan's Finance Minister commented on yen weakness, and the BoJ expanded hedonic quality adjustments in its CGPI.
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Equities & Sectors 4 items
These four items span regulatory approvals and sectoral data. BaFin approved a merger in the insurance sector, while Kenya's CMA licensed a new intermediary platform. Eurostat reported total commercial flights of 6.9 million for 2025, and South Korea's ministry released construction performance metrics, though without specific figures.
Commodities & Energy 2 items
Two statistical offices published energy-related data: Bulgaria's production of propane-butane mixtures changed by 14.3% month-on-month, and Denmark's firewood consumption for 2025 was 12,4 GJ mn.
FX & Emerging Markets 5 items
Across five items, emerging market data and policy actions were featured. Angola's GDP grew 8.74% year-on-year, while Fiji's total imports reached 906,086 FJD 000. Kazakhstan's National Fund held $65.5bn in foreign currency assets, and Jamaica's central bank conducted a standard FX sale operation. Cuba's foreign minister denounced the US blockade extension.
Regulation & Structure 22 items
Across twenty-two regulatory and structural items, authorities worldwide focused on enforcement, transparency, and fintech cooperation. The OCC and FDIC issued a final rule on unsafe or unsound practices, while the SEC proposed amendments to include EU debt obligations. The Bahamas' standard application processing time was 21 business days, and the SEC's days to file answer was 10 days. Angola initiated 15 sanctioning processes, and the Bahamas' maximum fine for non-compliance was $250k. The UK's plastic packaging tax exemption threshold was 30%, and the Netherlands' cost of regulatory compliance was €16.8bn. Kenya received an AfDB grant of $9m for EAC-CAMPSI, and the SEC charged 38 entities. Argentina approved 160 general resolutions.
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Other market topics 2 items
Two central bank releases: Greece's PPI rose 11.8% year-on-year, and the SNB's yield at marginal rate was 0.02%.
No direct market impact 36 items
Across thirty-six items, the releases were largely statistical or administrative without market-moving data. Notable figures include the BoE's credit union adult membership of 2.17 million, Bulgaria's business climate at 16.6%, and Greece's building permits at 2,695. Italy saw February overnight visitors growth of 11.1% and Jubilee travelers of 1,376. Estonia's construction volume grew 3.8% year-on-year, and the US GAO reported 15,000 days lost operational days. Botswana's tourist arrivals were 1,533,011, and Finland's working-day adjusted output rose 1.4%. Austria had 16,031 new employer enterprises, Croatia's retail trade turnover grew 3.6%, and the ILO reported an employment rate of 35% for mothers. Botswana's total imports were 7,280.5 BWP mn, and the RBI's deposit insurance ceiling was ₹500k. The UK's fixed settlement amount was £600k, and the SEC's days to file answer was 10 days. The US Federal Register had 116 views views while on public inspection, and the HKMA had 35 participants.