Stopping the rot: Eurozone contagion May 24, 2011 GLOBAL REACH PTNRS MARK THOMPSON The resurgence of Eurozone sovereign debt fears has driven the euro to two month lows against the dollar in the last two trading sessions and looks likely to keep the common currency under pressure in the days to come. Investors are right to be anxious about the implications of further [...]
FOREX ANALYST PICKS May 24, 2011 FOREX STRATEGIST JOHN KICKLIGHTER My pick: Short euro-dollar; Short Australian dollar-dollar Expertise: Fundamental and Technical Analysis with Risk Management Average time frame of trades: 1 day to 1 week The long dollar-Swissie position above SFr0.88 has been slow to gain ground; but clear bearish breaks for euro-dollar below $1.4000 (with a 175 point stop and [...]
Mapping out the direction of this year’s Mifid review May 24, 2011 IT’S simple really. The outcome of Mifid II will include: more stringent regulation of best execution obligations, a move towards the introduction of a consolidated tape, an increased push for transparency, a higher number of trades at a higher speed, lower fees, tighter spreads, the introduction of a single passport to give improved access to [...]
DATA ANALYSIS KEY TO THE STRUCTURED FINANCE RECOVERY May 24, 2011 ABSXCHANGE EMEA COMMERCIAL MANAGER STANDARD & POOR’S VALUATION & RISK STRATEGIES IN the past decade, the European structured finance market has undergone radical change. The global economic downturn was the most severe stress test for securitisations in decades. Indeed, the fallout from the collapse of US residential mortgage backed securities (RMBS) and collateralised debt obligations [...]
The original Mifid directive May 24, 2011 THE original Markets in Financial Instruments Directive (Mifid) was drafted in 2004 and implemented 4 years ago. The directive is up for review. So what were the shortcomings of the original European Commission directive? One of the core tenets of the original review was to shore up protection for clients that were classed as sophisticated, [...]
Fresh Eurozone debt fears see FTSE plunge to two-month low May 23, 2011 RENEWED concerns about the Eurozone debt crisis triggered a steep sell-off of Britain’s top shares yesterday, led by commodity stocks, with some analysts and investors seeing little on the horizon to tempt investors back into the market. The FTSE 100 index ended at its lowest closing level since 23 March, off 112.60 points, or 1.9 [...]
Doubts over factory growth hit Wall St May 23, 2011 US stocks closed at their lowest levels in a month yesterday in a sign of increasing doubt that equity markets can weather recent weakness in global manufacturing and demand. Industrial, energy and technology stocks, closely related to growth, were among the day’s top decliners. Poor manufacturing figures from Germany and China were a surprise and [...]
Don’t get taken for a ride on Elliott’s Waves May 23, 2011 IN 1938, the former accountant Ralph Nelson Elliott wrote The Wave Principle. A year later, the magazine Financial World commissioned a series of articles, which spread his message to a wider audience. It was an idea with huge implications for predicting market movements, based on the premise that “because man is subject to rhythmical procedure, [...]
DEJA VU ALL OVER AGAIN AS QE2 ENDS May 23, 2011 A LITTLE over a year ago, Greece was in the headlines as the parlous state of its public finances became apparent. At the same time, the US Federal Reserve was planning an exit strategy from its first round of quantitative easing (QE), and there was a major volcanic eruption in Iceland. As the speculation grew [...]
QE2: one is not amused by the potential for US equity downturn May 23, 2011 THE sheer size of the numbers involved in the Federal Reserve’s quantitative easing program (QE2) can be difficult to comprehend. By comparison, Queen Elizabeth II receives a paltry £7.9m per annum from the Civil List. This is nothing compared to the $600bn of US Treasuries bought by the Federal Reserve during this cycle of quantitative [...]