As was widely anticipated, the Feds have dropped the Fed Funds Rate to 1%. Rate cuts, coupled with other measures, seem to be gaining some traction at lowering LIBOR rates to which more than $360 trillion of financial products are tied.
Continuing the wild ride of the past few weeks, SOR began the week at 1%, soaring to 2.11% mid-week and finishing the week at 1.63%. SIBOR was slightly less volatile, ranging between 1.38% and 1.63%.
The Federal Reserve cut the Fed Funds Rate from 2% to 1.5% ahead of the FOMC meeting at the end of the month in a coordinated effort with the European Central Bank, the Bank of England and central banks in Canada, Switzerland and Sweden. This was to ease the economic effects of the worst financial crisis since the Great Depression.
The past few days have been the most volatile on all financial fronts, be it equities, exchange rate or interest rates. In Singapore, the 3 months SIBOR spiked to 2.23% due to “spillover from the US funding freeze and also the increase in risk aversion in the local interbank market”. The Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) had increased liquidity in the local money market in their effort to keep SIBOR in check.
There has been a lot of volatility in the SOR and SIBOR the past few days, reacting to the jump in LIBOR as people are “afraid to lend to one another”. The 3 month SOR has broken through the previous high of 1.63 to hit 1.7, since i started tracking it in April.
The 3 month fixing SOR has gone up 0.10% for 2 consecutive days. This is probably attributed to the rising US dollar (falling Singapore dollar). According to interest-rate parity theory, the interest rate has to rise to make up for a fall in the currency so that it maintains parity with another currency.
It’s hard to write about this subject, but bonds is something that cannot be left out of the equation. i have been pondering for some time what part bonds play in interest rate movements. Does the bond yield lead or trail interest rates? Lets explore that.
The Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) has kept the federal funds rate at 2.0% – news that is not news since it was widely anticipated. What is more important to note perhaps, is that “in its statement, the Fed gave no sign that it plans to change policy in the foreseeable future.”
Excerpts from news sources
Found another article explaining Interbank Interest Rate Determination in Singapore. Published in 1999 by the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS), it stipulates that
Only changes in US interest rates or market expectations of future movements in the exchange rate have a significant impact on the domestic interbank rate.