EURO HAS HIT ITS TOP, FOR NOW AT LEAST October 27, 2009 BORIS SCHLOSSBERGDIRECTOR OF CURRENCY RESEARCH, GFT LAST week, after dramatic moves and countermoves in the currency market, the euro-US dollar pair finally broke through the critical 1.50 barrier. Business media ran a series of stories about the collapse of the dollar and everyone prepared for further declines. Yet despite all the hand-wringing, the dollar remained [...]
BE WARY OF PROVISIONAL GDP FIGURES October 26, 2009 MARTIN SLANEYHEAD OF DERIVATIVES, GFT FRIDAY’S shock drop in UK gross domestic product data – and the ensuing market reactions – have left many traders confounded. How can it be that we have a dramatically worse-than-predicted number and yet the FTSE 100 index appears virtually impervious? The third quarter GDP data showed that output fell [...]
There’s no reason to be afraid of leverage October 26, 2009 LEVERAGE is often seen as a trader’s best friend but just last week, the Japanese Financial Services Agency announced a public consultation on proposals to limit leverage on contracts for difference (CFDs). The regulator has suggested that leverage would be limited to five times for shares, 10 times for equity indices and 50 times for [...]
Weak banks and miners pull FTSEdown by one per cent October 26, 2009 THE FTSE 100 share index ended 1 per cent lower yesterday, with mining and energy stocks suffering as the US dollar rose and commodity prices fell, while a sharp decline in ING put pressure on financials. The index ended down 50.83 points at 5,191.74, having risen as high as 5,281.12 earlier in the session. It [...]
Home builder fears drag on Wall Street October 26, 2009 US stocks fell for a second straight session last night as investors ditched home builders and financials on fears that a federal home buyer tax credit might be phased out, while commodity shares succumbed to pressure from the higher US dollar. Trading was choppy. Stocks initially started on firmer footing, with indexes up more than [...]
CHINA’S YUAN POLICY COMES UNDER FIRE October 25, 2009 JANE FOLEYRESEARCH DIRECTOR, FOREX.COMBY ALMOST everybody else’s standards, an annual growth rate of 8.9 per cent in the third quarter would be an opportunity to break open the champagne and put on the party hats. But expectations for Chinese expansion had been higher and this “disappointing” figure was enough to see investors lose, at least [...]
Oil and drugs dominate in UK as third quarter results begin October 25, 2009 FOCUS will turn away from economic data and bank profits this week, with the spotlight now on oil titans, who will dominate the corporate reporting this week. FTSE 100 life assurance group Friends Provident kicks the week off today with a trading update, but industry giants BP, BG Group and Shell will be the big [...]
USGDP will be the major trader focus October 25, 2009 THIRD quarter earnings season is well and truly under way, and this week we are faced with a barrage of results from both sides of the pond. In the UK we have BP reporting tomorrow, BG Group and GlaxoSmithkline on Wednesday and AstraZeneca and Royal Dutch Shell out on Thursday. ExxonMobil, Procter and Gamble and [...]
Supply trouble to keep cocoa futures on an upward trend October 25, 2009 WITH oil and gold constantly hitting the headlines, it’s all too easy for spread betters to take the (relatively) easy route and stick to trading the big commodity markets. But given how strongly some of the so-called soft commodities such as cocoa and sugar have performed over recent months, it is clear that extending your [...]
Play the Bank’s QE decision with a punt on gilts October 25, 2009 THIS year we have witnessed the Bank of England take the unprecedented step of buying billions of pounds worth of assets – mostly government bonds – in order to loosen monetary policy further than can be achieved through interest rate cuts alone. It goes without saying that this policy of quantitative easing (QE) has had [...]