Iceland Cuts Key Interest Rate For Fourth Straight Time

Iceland's central bank raised its key interest rate sharply at its May meeting on Wednesday to contain the risk of a wage-price spiral in the face of strong demand pressures, and the policy board hinted that further rate hikes would bring inflation back to the target range and thereby ensure a better balanced economy.

Iceland's central bank raised its key interest rate sharply on Wednesday to contain the risk of wage-price spiral in the face of strong demand pressures and the upcoming wage negotiations. The Monetary Policy Committee of the Central Bank of Iceland decided to raise the benchmark interest rate, which is the rate on seven-day term deposits, by 100 basis points to 7.50 percent.

Iceland's central bank lifted its key interest rate for the fourth time this year and signaled further hikes to tame inflation. The Monetary Policy Committee of the Central Bank of Iceland decided to raise the key seven-day term deposit rate by 75 basis points to 5.50 percent. A similar higher rate was last seen in May 2017.

The South Korea stock market has alternated between positive and negative finishes through the last four trading days since the end of the 11-day winning streak in which it had surged more than 300 points or 9.6 percent. Now at a fresh record closing high, the KOSPI sits just beneath the 3,470-point plateau and it may tick higher again on Tuesday. The global forecast for the Asian markets continued to be mildly positive on optimism over the outlook for interest rates. The European markets were mixed and the U.S. bourses were up and the Asian markets figure to split the difference. The KOSPI finished modestly higher on Monday following gains from the automobile producers and mixed performances from the financial shares, chemicals and technology stocks. For the day, the index added 23.41 points or 0.68 percent to finish at 3,468.65 after trading between 3,458.87 and 3,482.25. Volume was 280.84 million shares worth 11.84 trillion won. There were 545 decliners and 332 gainers. Among the actives, Shinhan Financial fell 0.43 percent, while KB Financial collected 0.34 percent, Hana Financial dipped 0.33 percent, Samsung Electronics surged 4.77 percent, Samsung SDI rallied 2.82 percent, LG Electronics improved 0.76 percent, SK Hynix shed 0.57 percent, Naver sank 0.85 percent, LG Chem jumped 1.69 percent, Lotte Chemical lost 0.76 percent, SK Innovation perked 0.19 percent, POSCO Holdings dropped 0.88 percent, SK Telecom slumped 0.72 percent, KEPCO advanced 0.98 percent, Hyundai Mobis strengthened 1.46 percent, Hyundai Motor accelerated 1.87 percent and Kia Motors rose 0.30 percent.

The U.S. dollar weakened against its major counterparts in the New York session on Monday, amid growing expectations of future rate cuts from the Federal Reserve.

Singapore will on Tuesday release August numbers for consumer prices, highlighting a modest day for Asia-Pacific economic activity. In July, overall inflation was down 0.5 percent on month and up 0.6 percent on year, while core CPI rose an annual 0.5 percent,

The Switzerland market ended marginally up on Monday, despite struggling a bit early on in the session, and then for a few minutes in the final hour.

European stocks closed mostly weak on Monday amid geopolitical tensions, and the Trump administration's announcement of sweeping changes to the H-1B visa regime. Profit warnings by a few major auto companies weighed as well.