The Fed has created golden opportunities October 23, 2012 MONETARY expansion has inadvertently given commodity prices a huge boost – but should traders focus on the spot commodity or gold mining equities? With the creation of QE Infinity – the open-ended quantitative easing programme unveiled last month by the US Federal Reserve – traditional monetary policy is now nothing but a speck on the [...]
Trading in yen risks losing a slice of profits October 23, 2012 THE Japanese yen has taken a smashing lately, falling by 3.5 per cent against the dollar since mid-September. Recent data shows Japan’s exports are down 10.3 per cent annually. While trade with China, its largest trading partner, is down 14.1 per cent on the back of political tensions over the Senkaku islands; trade to Western [...]
Top trader who wants to help the underdog October 22, 2012 ATRAIT common among successful traders is a thirst for knowledge. More knowledge means more trading ideas, according to Lex van Dam, who (in)famously handed eight trading novices $1m (£500,000 at the time) of his own cash to trade the markets at the end of 2009. With training from van Dam, the group outperformed professionals during [...]
Beirut funeral leads to violence October 22, 2012 The state funeral in Beirut of an assassinated Lebanese intelligence chief, Brigadier General Wissam al- Hassan, ended in violence yesterday as angry mourners broke away and tried to storm the offices of Prime Minister Najib Mikati, prompting security forces to shoot in the air and fire tear gas to repulse them. The clashes fed into [...]
Fed expected to sit on hands in October after flurry of activity October 21, 2012 THE FED will hold fire at this week’s policy setting meeting, analysts predicted over the weekend. The Federal Open Markets Committee – which sets interest rates and quantitative easing (QE) – will keep the status quo at this week’s meeting, analysts say, after a flurry of accommodative monetary policy measures at the last meeting in [...]
Plot to bomb Fed Reserve foiled October 17, 2012 THE FBI last night arrested a man after he allegedly planned to blow up the New York Federal Reserve Bank. Officers swooped on the 21-year-old Bangladeshi national following an elaborate sting operation that involved an undercover agent providing him with a fake 1000-pound bomb. The FBI say Quazi Mohammad Rezwanul Ahsan Nafis travelled to the United States in [...]
Volcker warns bank ringfence is too weak to improve market October 17, 2012 THE BANKING ringfence in the UK may fail as the investment and retail operations will still be too closely linked, former Federal Reserve chairman Paul Volcker said yesterday, arguing a full separation of entities is more appropriate. “These things tend to be permeable over time. You want to separate operations decisively? Don’t put them in [...]
Goldman joins bank revival as it swings back into the black October 16, 2012 GOLDMAN Sachs’ profits jumped in the third quarter, bouncing back from a loss over the same period of 2011 and joining the revival in banks’ fortunes also seen by the likes of JP Morgan and Wells Fargo. The investment giant made a profit of $1.51bn (£937m) in the three-month period, compared with a loss of [...]
American consumer comes to the rescue October 15, 2012 THE AMERICAN consumer sprang to life in September, boosting US retail sales and suggesting that the country’s economic recovery could be sustained. Sales were up 1.1 per cent last month, the Census Bureau said – a 5.4 per cent improvement on the same time last year. Separate data measuring the factory activity in New York [...]
Copper in need of a health check October 15, 2012 COPPER was yesterday given a short boost. Economic data coming out of China indicated that its inflation rate fell to 1.9 per cent in September, from 2 per cent the month before. However, this news was not enough to dispel worries of a Chinese hard landing, and the metal closed flat at $8,132.4 (£5,060.84) a [...]