US stocks climb on hiked price targets January 18, 2011 US stocks gained yesterday, overcoming weak Citigroup results and concerns circling Apple after Chief Executive Steve Jobs’ medical leave. Investors focused instead on increased price targets for Google, which reports later this week, and Dow component Caterpillar, whose results are due next week. Shares of Apple slipped 2.3 per cent to $340.65 ahead of its [...]
Inflated expectations are driving up sterling January 18, 2011 INFLATION is the curious way in which, over time, the same amount of money buys progressively less stuff. So it was strange to see yesterday that, as a result of higher than expected inflation in Britain, the value of sterling hit its highest level in two months. Against the dollar, the pound rose by about [...]
POLITICIANS ARE DRIVING EURO-DOLLAR January 18, 2011 DIRECTOR OF CURRENCY RESEARCH, GFT THE euro/dollar found itself on a decidedly more shaky ground at the start of this week’s trade after Germany’s Finance Minister stated that the EU’s largest and most important economy had no intention of adding more capital to the EFSF fund. Wolfgang Schauble told German media he does not support [...]
Aussie’s upstream adventures could be over for now January 18, 2011 AUSSIE traders might feel a little like the 19-year-old Australian (pictured right) who tried to use a blow up doll to work his way through the floodwaters last week. It wasn’t so long ago that the Aussie dollar looked certain to be travelling upstream; the Reserve Bank of Australia was sure to raise rates. But [...]
THE TIPSTER January 18, 2011 THE sovereign debt woes that were strangling the euro last week may have been diminished after the successful bond issues, and further upside has been delivered from agreement amongst finance ministers to increase the size of the bailout fund. However both the psychological level of $1.3500 and the fact that further draws on the stability [...]
FOREX ANALYST PICKS January 18, 2011 FOREX STRATEGIST JOEL KRUGER My pick: Buy US dollar-Canadian dollar at Ca$0.9800 Expertise: Technical analysis Average time frame of trades: 1 to 6 weeks The market has been under some intense pressure and, after managing to match the lows of last April on the final day of the year, has now extended declines to fresh [...]
6,000 could be the FTSE’s magic number January 17, 2011 PLATO said: “A good decision is based on knowledge and not on numbers,” yet we are forever hearing about psychological barriers in financial markets. One of the worst offenders is the 6,000 number on the FTSE 100. Friday saw the index close above it, so almost inevitably the City spent yesterday speculating on whether or [...]
INVESTORS GIVEN CAUSE TO CHEER January 17, 2011 CFD MARKET STRATEGIST, GFT EUROZONE investors had cause to cheer last week as bond auctions in Portugal, Spain and Italy went better than expected. As the auctions approached, their success looked pretty much guaranteed thanks to the efforts of the European Central Bank (ECB), along with promises of support from China and even chronically-indebted Japan. [...]
Running out of time to deal with Spain’s banks’ losses January 17, 2011 AS THE one-time American defence secretary Donald Rumsfeld once so famously observed, it is not enough to say that we don’t know everything. In fact, we can break down the things we don’t know into categories. Some things we know we don’t know: known unknowns. Others, we don’t know we don’t know: unknown unknowns. From [...]
THE TIPSTER January 17, 2011 INDUSTRIAL giant General Electric reports its fourth quarter earnings on Friday. The company is often seen as something of a barometer for the global economy as a whole but the share price still remains somewhat depressed from the highs of 2007. Demand from emerging economies will continue to lend support to sectors such as its [...]