Further upside to come for the Swedish krona June 15, 2010 EVENTS in the Eurozone periphery have unsurprisingly continued to grab traders’ attention over the past couple of months. But while foreign exchange investors are concentrating on the southern and eastern fringes of the single currency area, opportunities are opening up on the northern edge. The balance sheets of the eastern European and Club Med states [...]
RELIEF RALLY IN THE EURO IS TENUOUS June 15, 2010 DIRECTOR OF CURRENCY RESEARCH, GFT WITH so much negative sentiment aligned against it, the euro unsurprisingly started the week with a strong relief rally. The latest positioning data from the CFTC released last Friday revealed that speculators added 18,620 fresh new shorts, resulting in total short exposure of 111,945 contracts – the second highest reading [...]
The euro has been left treading air June 15, 2010 WITH Moody’s downgrade putting Greek government debt on a par with that of Romania and Latvia, analysts are starting to ask if this is end for the Eurozone. At a press briefing this week Theodora Zemek of AXA Investment Managers even commented that the next two years could see the wholesale break-up of the euro. [...]
THE TIPSTER June 15, 2010 THE Aussie dollar was extremely volatile in the past month as markets suffered from a bout of volatility. Sterling-Aussie was particularly volatile, and after a break out above A$1.7000, the pound kept getting stronger until it hit the A$1.8000 mark. At this point the pound faltered and headed back toward A$1.7000. However, the Aussie hasn’t [...]
Obama’s new act will prove costly for City firms June 15, 2010 PARTNER, WITHERS LLP ON 18 March 2010 President Obama signed the Hiring Incentives to Restore Employment (HIRE) Act, creating far-reaching client identification and disclosure requirements for every City bank, financial institution, brokerage house and fund structure. While the act is intended to boost US employment through tax breaks for US businesses, it also contains revenue-raising [...]
OFT should look at anticompetitive activity June 15, 2010 PARTNER, JONES DAY LLP EARLIER this year the Office of Fair Trading (OFT) published a report looking at the competition implications of firms taking minority interests in their competitors. Now the results are in, it looks likely that the regulator will take a closer look at this area. The report examines minority shareholdings, interlocking directorships [...]
Tesco on special offer after being oversold June 14, 2010 TESCO share prices tumbled to 397p last week after the announcement that chief executive Sir Terry Leahy was to step down after 14 years at the helm. Sales data released today is expected to be lacklustre, and combined with an expected weak consumer environment in the UK, Tesco’s margins in the near future look vulnerable [...]
TECHNICALS DRIVING THE RECENT RALLY June 14, 2010 CFD MARKET STRATEGIST, GFT WE HAVE seen a fair recovery in global equities over the past few days. Even Friday’s terrible retail sales numbers from the US weren’t considered bad enough to dampen renewed risk appetite. Traders concentrated on the modest improvement in consumer sentiment and used it as an excuse to buy stocks, giving [...]
Commodities should take off later this year June 14, 2010 MARKETS tend to react quickly to bad news. Last month, after fears that the Greek debt crisis could spread across Europe and dent the outlook for global growth, the markets traded lower as investors sold risky assets. Commodities – sensitive to the global growth outlook – were hit hard. For example, the oil price fell [...]
CFD ANALYST PICKS June 14, 2010 TECHNICAL STRATEGIST JOEL KRUGER My pick: Sell FTSE 100 at 5,300 Expertise: Technical analysis Average time frame of trades: 5-10 days The market has been very well supported on dips below 5,000 with the latest bounce now likely to open up additional gains back towards the recent range highs of 5,260 over the coming sessions. [...]