Daily FX: Analyst picks August 5, 2013 CURRENCY STRATEGIST CHRIS VECCHIO My pick: Closed (half) short Aussie dollar-dollar Expertise: Fundamental and technical analysis Average time frame of trades: A few hours to a few weeks The swaps market suggests a 91 per cent chance of a 0.25 per cent rate cut; so focus is on the policy statement. Reserve Bank of Australia [...]
Fed’s Fisher says QE taper should begin this Autumn August 5, 2013 Head of the Dallas Federal Reserve Bank has said that the Fed is nearly ready to begin tapering off its quantitative easing programme, and that he believes this should begin this autumn. In prepared remarks at a conference of pension fund administrators, Fisher was highly critical of the quantitative easing policy for doing little on [...]
IMF urges France to slow pace of spending reduction amid weak growth forecasts August 5, 2013 The International Monetary Fund (IMF) has urged the French government to ease the pace of fiscal adjustment next year and find efficiency savings in order to support a recovery. The IMF sees the French economy contracting by 0.2 per cent this year before returning to 0.8 per cent growth in 2014. Unemployment is forecast to [...]
EU signs off $11bn US airline merger conditional on efforts to boost competition August 5, 2013 The EU has approved an $11bn (£7bn) merger between US Airways and AMR Corporation (including its American Airlines subsidiary) conditional on a number of key concessions. To avert a monopoly on the London-Philadelphia route, the commercial airliners would need to give up a daily slot pair at London Heathrow airport, the European Commission said today. [...]
Lib Dems propose sticking with existing university fees system and bringing back mansion tax August 5, 2013 The agenda has been released for the Lib Dem's autumn conference in Glasgow. Compared to the other party conferences it at least pretends to involve ordinary members, as loyal Lib Dems are given endless opportunities to vote on potential policies. Some conference motions are politically unrealistic pet projects of members (eg legalising cannabis) but others [...]
BP will defend against fines of £18.9m over alleged market manipulation August 5, 2013 BP has denied allegations made by US regulators of natural gas market manipulation, and has said that it will "vigorously defend against" them. US regulators – the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) and US Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) – are currently investigating several BP entitites. The FERC bases its allegations on a recorded two-minute [...]
BMW pulls the plug on 140,000 cars in China August 5, 2013 BMW’s joint venture in China has recalled 143,215 cars after it emerged defective plugs in the electric power steering system could prove hazardous, the country’s quality watchdog has said. China’s General Administration of Quality Supervision, Inspection and Quarantine announced that BMW Brilliance will be recalling some of the 5-series cars made between 2009 and 2012. [...]
US services growth is faster than expected in July August 5, 2013 The US services sector is expanding more quickly, according to the ISM non-manufacturing purchasing manager's index. It rose from 52.2 to 56.0 in July, ahead of economist forecasts of a rise to 53.0. That's still well behind the growth that Markit reported for the UK this morning, where services PMI is at a 2006 high [...]
French oil giant Total to relocate corporate treasury department to London August 5, 2013 French oil and gas giant Total has said it is planning to move its corporate treasury department to London to boost its image and get closer to analysts. A spokesman told Reuters the move would help it “get closer to… the oil trading and financial centre of Europe to allow the group to improve its [...]
UK output is growing at its fastest pace since records began August 5, 2013 (Source: Markit) Following very strong service sector figures this morning, economic activity is now growing at its fastest pace since records began in 1998. Markit's survey data – the purchasing manager's index – is at a high of 59.48 for all sectors. Any number above 50 implies an expansion. Employment expansion also climbed in July [...]