Muted market reaction to the ending of QE2 July 5, 2011 AFTER months of speculation surrounding the end of the Federal Reserve’s second round of quantitative easing (QE2), Fed chairman Ben Bernanke finally announced a fortnight ago that the US central bank’s program of buying Treasuries on a massive scale was going to draw to a close. But, despite the forex markets being overshadowed by the [...]
THE TIPSTER July 5, 2011 THE Canadian loonie has come off a 3 per cent gain on the US dollar, as the suspicion from traders is that the currency has become overbought. Another factor is that the loonie isn’t exactly a safe haven currency, and after comments from rating agency S&P about Greek default, traders fled to the safer US [...]
FOREX ANALYST PICKS July 5, 2011 FOREX STRATEGIST JOHN KICKLIGHTER My pick: Remain short sterling-dollar and dollar-Swiss franc Expertise: Fundamental analysis with risk management Average time frame of trades: 1 day to 1 week My mix of trades from last week have whittled down. The short kiwi dollar-dollar was stopped and offset by the long Canadian dollar-yen from ¥83. I’m still [...]
Buoyant integrated oil stocks power FTSE past 6,000 mark July 4, 2011 INTEGRATED oil and property stocks helped Britain’s top shares end higher yesterday, when gains were limited by weaker banks after Standard & Poor’s warned a potential Greek debt deal would amount to a default. The FTSE 100 index rose for a seventh straight day, adding 27.78 points, or 0.5 per cent, to 6,017.54, closing above [...]
Global shares up after Greek deal July 4, 2011 World stocks hit a 4-1/2 week high yesterday as investors grew confident over global economic prospects after Greece avoided an early debt default and data pointed to a moderate slowdown in China’s growth. Shanghai stocks hit a six-week high after data last week showed Chinese manufacturing growth moderated in June, raising expectations that the economy [...]
Looking at off-the-shelf CFD trading strategies July 4, 2011 STARING at a blank page, chewing on your pencil and trying to work out a trading strategy can be a daunting task. There are plenty of guide books out there to aid you, of course. But is there any merit in taking an off-the-shelf trading strategy devised by an experienced trader and using it yourself [...]
AT HALF-TIME GOLD NEEDS A PEP TALK July 4, 2011 THE first half of the year came to a close last Thursday. Events in the final few days of June helped to lift equity markets and temper earlier losses. The FTSE 100 ended the month virtually unchanged, while the Dax finished in positive territory rallying over 5 per cent from its low-point. In the US, [...]
FTSE expected to open down on profit taking July 3, 2011 WITH many US markets closed today due to the Independence Day holiday, European stocks could be presented with the ideal opportunity to cash in some of the substantial gains generated last week. GFT quotes two-way prices on stock indices around the clock, even when the underlying markets are closed. The FTSE 100 index is called [...]
WALL STREET WEEK AHEAD July 3, 2011 A PULLBACK could be on the table this week for US stocks after their best weekly performance in two years, especially if a raft of data headlined by the June jobs report doesn’t bolster the argument of a strengthening economy. Stocks rose for five straight days as the fog of the Greek debt crisis appeared [...]
Adventures tailor-made for City boy weekends July 3, 2011 IT’S the perennial Monday morning question: “What did you do over the weekend?” And in most offices: “Erm, not much,” just doesn’t cut it week after week. Especially in the City, where even the most passive of activities can be made competitive. Three men – Alastair Poulain, a former venture capitalist, Nick Newbury who worked [...]