Archive for February, 2010
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Monday, February 15th, 2010Today is President’s Day here in the US, which is a bank and stock market holiday. As a result, the markets are slow today with a mild risk-taking theme taking place. All eyes are on Europe for the details of the rescue plan for Greece. Later today, Euro zone finance ministers will be meeting […]
Global Risk Heats Up!
Friday, February 12th, 2010News out of the Euro zone that GDP rose only .1% for Q4 is adding insult to injury on what is already a precarious position for the region. The expectation was for .4% growth. Germany, the economic stalwart of the region reported zero growth for the quarter on reduced consumption levels.
In addition to this, China […]
It’s Official!
Thursday, February 11th, 2010Word this morning out of the Euro zone is that a deal has been brokered to help Greece get its budget deficit under control. However, the devil is in the details, as they say, and as of right now—no details of the plan have been released! So while there is an official resolution, no one […]
Snowed In!
Wednesday, February 10th, 2010Snowed In!
As major snowstorms move across the US, the forex market keeps chugging along. In what’s likely to be a low volume day today, we are seeing some mild risk-aversion this morning. Earlier, reports out of the UK show lower than expected inflation and a lower revision to GDP, as the retail sales […]
Possible Greek Bailout?
Tuesday, February 9th, 2010So much for trading sideways yesterday. What started out as a quiet start to trading ended up with a continuation of last week’s sell-offs in the stock market, as the Dow closed below 10K for the first time this year. However, both gold and oil were up slightly yesterday, showing signs that […]
Quiet Start to the Week!
Monday, February 8th, 2010This week is starting out kind of quiet, perhaps recovering from Super Bowl hangovers and the carnage from the end of last week. There’s no real earth-shattering news on tap until the end of the week, when all eyes will be on Europe. This is exactly what the markets need; a chance to rest and […]
Carnage to Continue?
Friday, February 5th, 2010In the wake of yesterday’s market carnage, all eyes were on this morning’s US Non-Farm Payrolls (NFP) report. The market was praying for a decent number to justify a move to the upside, as yesterday was the biggest one day drop we’ve seen in some time. World markets got crushed to the tune of 2.5% […]
No Recovery in Sight!
Thursday, February 4th, 2010US Initial Jobless Claims came in worse than expected this morning, rising to 480K, the highest level seen in three weeks. Analysts were expecting a slight decrease, so that makes this number “unexpected”. (As a side note, how sick and tired are you of hearing about “unexpected“economic reports as reported by media outlets?) Also to […]
Quiet Morning Reveals Mixed Bag!
Wednesday, February 3rd, 2010Quiet Morning Reveals Mixed Bag!
This morning the markets can’t seem to decide which way they want to go. News out of the Euro Zone that Greece’s debt reduction plan has been accepted caused the Euro to rise above 1.40, though it has backed off and is now trading below. The US ADP Jobs report came […]
RBA Leaves Rates Unchanged!
Tuesday, February 2nd, 2010Yesterday I pointed out that the Reserve Bank of Australia was having their interest rate policy meeting and brought up the possibility that they might not raise rates, contrary to analyst opinion. Well it happened. In a “damned if they do, damned if they don’t” scenario, the RBA chose to leave rates unchanged to wait […]
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