Fitch to downgrade US if debt repayments missed June 8, 2011 AMERICA could lose its AAA credit rating if the government fails to raise its debt ceiling and subsequently misses interest payments in August, leading ratings agency Fitch warned yesterday. Some Republicans have been flirting with the notion that a brief US default might be an acceptable price to pay if it forces the White House [...]
Growth worries hit Wall St for sixth day June 8, 2011 US STOCKS extended losses for the sixth straight day yesterday as investors worried that a slowing economy could deepen the market’s retreat. The latest evidence of a slowdown came in the Federal Reserve’s Beige Book, which gives an anecdotal report on the economy. It reinforced Fed chief Ben Bernanke’s bearish assessment on growth delivered late [...]
US stocks dip after Fed’s Bernanke talks down QE3 June 7, 2011 STOCKS in the US dropped last night after Federal Reserve chief Ben Bernanke acknowledged a slowdown in the economy, but offered no suggestion of a third round of quantitative easing (dubbed QE3). The Dow Jones industrial average fell 0.16 per cent to end at 12,070.81, while the Standard & Poor’s 500 Index slipped 0.09 per [...]
Profitable carry trading from a land down under June 7, 2011 THE currency market’s attention has been focused on the announcements made by the US Federal Reserve, the Bank of England and the European Central Bank. But at the same time, there are a large number of traders taking advantage of the policies of other central banks, such as the Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA), and [...]
FED’S PLOSSER: US STILL NEEDS TO TIGHTEN June 6, 2011 AMERICAN monetary policy could be tightened by the end of the year despite weak jobs figures from last week, the Federal Reserve’s Charles Plosser said yesterday. “I’m not seeing anything fundamental has changed in my view of the medium term outlook,” the hawkish Fed official said. Asked about a further programme of quantitative easing, dubbed “QE3”, [...]
GLOOMY JUNE DATA NOT ALL DUE TO JAPAN June 6, 2011 WELL, that was a poor start to the new month. Last week saw the release of a stack of economic numbers from around the globe, the majority of which were significantly weaker than expected. The US data were particularly disappointing as the Chicago PMI, consumer confidence, S&P/Case Shiller house price index, vehicle sales, ADP employment, [...]
Weak US jobs data sparks talk of easing June 3, 2011 UK STOCKS crashed within minutes of receiving shock US employment figures showing a bigger-than-expected slowdown in job creation yesterday. The FTSE 100 fell more than 50 points to 5,820 shortly after 13:30 yesterday before recovering later as the government’s non-farm payroll data showed private sector payrolls grew just a quarter as much as anticipated in [...]
WHISKY AT MIDDAY FOR ABERDEEN’S POLAR FEAT June 2, 2011 THE WHISKY came out at noon at Aberdeen Asset Management yesterday to christen the boat the fund managers are sponsoring on its voyage into the Arctic unknown. The Old Pulteney has been designed to withstand some of the harshest conditions on earth, and her six-man crew – led by Scottish explorer Jock Wishart – will [...]
Why risk assets need another shot in the arm May 30, 2011 Equity markets have been caught in a gloomy place for much of May. Despite some gung-ho risk-on days, the overall trend for risk assets has been lower. Sean Corrigan from Diapason Commodities Management still thinks we might not be through the worst of the energy sell-off. But he says risk assets are looking for another [...]
Five key barometers that every trader of CFDs should monitor May 30, 2011 WHATEVER you plan to trade, David Morrison, CFD market strategist for GFT, suggests these five indicators to help gauge market conditions. 1. DOLLAR INDEX Since 1973, this index has tracked the strength of the dollar against a basket of other major currencies, including sterling, yen and the Swiss franc. Benchmarked initially at 100, it has [...]