Updated Dec 14, 2012 2:00:00 PM
The ECB President Mario Draghi might be feeling rather content with himself after he received the FT person of the year award for 2012 on Friday. He took a risk when he said back in July that the ECB would do everything within its power to save the euro. That was a defining moment in FX markets. Since he said those words EURUSD has climbed nearly 10% and Spanish borrowing costs have slumped, 10-year yields [...] Continue Reading ...
Updated Dec 7, 2012 12:00:00 AM
The headline figures from the November US labour market report may look good on paper, but if you dig deeper then the picture looks less rosy. The drop in the unemployment rate to 7.7%, the lowest level since the start of 2009, was down to a drop in the participation rate of the workforce, which fell to 63.6% from 63.8%. Thus, the unemployment rate is not falling because there are more employed people, but instead [...] Continue Reading ...
Updated Nov 30, 2012 12:00:00 PM
EURUSD closed the weekly London session above 1.30 on Friday for the first time since mid-October. This is a very bullish development for this cross, however, the question to ask now is can the euro extend these gains into the end of the year? To answer this we need to look at both the technical and fundamental factors impacting the single currency. From a technical perspective the bulls are still in control. EURUSD broke [...] Continue Reading ...
Updated Nov 23, 2012 12:00:00 PM
With a reported 150 million Americans shopping on Black Friday retailers will hope they can turn around their fortunes this holiday season. At the time of writing the extent of sales was not known, but retailers will be hoping for a bounce in sales after a 0.3% decline in October, reversing an increase in sales growth in Q3. While TV reports show people camping overnight and heading to the shops on Thanksgiving evening on [...] Continue Reading ...
Updated Nov 16, 2012 12:00:00 AM
Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke said this week that weak housing is “a powerful headwind to recovery” and that the Fed will do what it can to back the housing recovery. The comments support the most recent round of QE undertaken by the Fed which targets the housing market with monthly purchases of $40B in mortgage-backed securities (MBS). In the week ahead, key October housing indicators will be released such as existing home sales, housing [...] Continue Reading ...
Updated Nov 9, 2012 12:00:00 PM
Another ECB meeting has passed and the Bank’s latest monetary policy stimulus programme has still not been activated. ECB President Draghi was very clear that there will be no bond purchases through the OMT programme without conditionality. He mentioned that the ECB stands ready to start making purchases; however the ball is in Spain’s court. The problem is that Spain remains extremely unlikely to apply for financial assistance and expose the economy to more [...] Continue Reading ...
Updated Nov 2, 2012 12:00:00 AM
On Tuesday November 6th the US heads to the polls to vote for the next President of the USA. The latest polls data put President Obama slightly ahead of his Republican rival Mitt Romney. The latest poll from Gallup found that the majority of Americans believed that Obama would win re-election over Romney. However, due to the disruption caused to polling from super-storm Sandy and with many people on the East Coast still without power, [...] Continue Reading ...
Updated Oct 26, 2012 1:00:00 PM
Stock markets declined last week, commodities fell and Spanish bond yields rose last week as sentiment drained from the market. The key drivers of lower markets were weak economic data out of Europe, strong data out of the US which threatens to cut QE3 short and weak Q3 corporate earnings. The S&P 500 has seen 30% of companies that have reported so far miss earnings estimates. The sales miss has been worse, with only [...] Continue Reading ...
Updated Oct 19, 2012 12:00:00 PM
At the time of writing the EU summit was coming to an end in Brussels and there had been no showpiece event like an aid request for Spain. The chief outcome has been an agreement with Europe’s leaders that the ECB will eventually be the single body responsible for all banking supervision in the Eurozone. There is no concrete time table to bring in this uber-banking regulator and there was no commitment to finalise either [...] Continue Reading ...
Updated Oct 12, 2012 1:30:00 PM
This past week, the dollar traded in a relatively tight range with no significant catalysts and few major economic releases out of the US. Sentiment fell moderately with US treasury yields and equities moving lower on the week to test key technical levels. The 10-year treasury yield is currently testing the 100-day simple moving average (SMA) and the S&P 500 is approaching the 55-day SMA around the 1424 zone. The dollar drifted higher but continues [...] Continue Reading ...
<< Previous 1 2 3 4 Next >>
