Monday, October 1, 2001
International Perspective will be on vacation next week.
The next weekly letter will be available on October 11.
Equities markets followed here staged a sharp mini-rally that lasted all week. Stocks in Hong Kong, for example, gained 11.3 percent on the week. In Europe, stocks posted their biggest weekly gains in more than a decade. The Frankfurt DAX climbed 13.7 percent, the Paris CAC 11.4 percent and the London FTSE 10.5 percent. Despite the rebounds, strategists say it is too soon to tell if investors have shrugged off the financial effects of September 11. But perhaps some investors are starting to place their bets that a global economic recovery will emerge some time next year. Typically, stock markets will rise for months before economies show concrete evidence of a turnaround.
As expected, the European Central Bank left their policymaking interest rate unchanged at 3.75 percent following its surprise 50 basis point rate cut on September 17. That cut, in reaction to the terrorists' attacks, came only hours after the Federal Reserve cut rates 50 basis points.
The Swiss National Bank lowered its policy making interest rate 50 basis points early Monday morning for a second time in seven days to stave off further appreciation of the safe-haven Swiss franc after a strong run up the prior week. The Bank is trying to halt a Swiss franc surge against the U.S. dollar, the euro and British sterling. The target range for the three month Swiss franc Libor, a market rate the SNB uses as its benchmark, is set between 1.75 and 2.75 percent. The governors try to steer the rate to the middle of the range.
The Bank of Japan intervened four out of five days last week in an attempt to lower the value of the yen against both the dollar and euro before the end of their fiscal half year on September 30. At times, both the ECB and Fed acted as agents for the Bank of Japan.
![[Econoday]](../../../../images/econoday_logo_slim.gif){kind=logo}
Glad to see third quarter end
