Archive for June, 2010

The single currency continues to be the currency market whipping boy as markets continue to adopt a risk-averse approach to currencies with sterling being one of the main beneficiaries of the Euros’ woes. Widening CDS spreads and high interbank lending rates across Europe have increased funding pressures, with interbank rates at 7 month highs....
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Equity markets have remained becalmed today, either due to depression because of England’s dreadful performance against Germany yesterday, or because of a lack of any clarity from this weekends G20 meeting. The meeting appears to have left markets none the wiser with respect to how respective governments intend to deal with their respective problems....
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Despite slightly better than expected US jobless claims and durable goods orders yesterday, economic worries in the aftermath of the FOMC’s slightly downbeat assessment of the US economy continued to weigh on risk appetite, with the US dollar sliding back, and worries over Greece still hung over the euro zone as the cost of...
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The main event in the UK yesterday was the UK budget and it was, by and large well received by the markets, despite its austere nature, with sterling benefiting across the board. Without going into detail some of the initial comment from organisations such as the OECD and ratings agency Fitch, bodes well for...
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The SNB appears to have abandoned its strategy of holding down the franc. A run of mediocre Swiss statistics saw producer and import prices rising by 1.4% in the year to May and industrial production shrinking by -7.8% in the first quarter of the year, a sharper drop than had been expected. ZEW’s survey...
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The weekend decision by the Chinese authorities to increase the flexibility of the Yuan to a managed float against the US dollar could well make an interest rate rise to cool the growing Chinese economy less likely in the very short term. This in turn should give an additional boost to risk appetite on...
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Monday’s cent-a-half cent rally gave way to an eight-cent decline that took the pound down early this morning. It opened in London off its lows but failing to exude confidence. For the Australian dollar the main upward influence came from a general appetite for risk among investors. The euro zone – the...
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In an unusually action-packed week the New Zealand economy delivered several nuggets of economic data. Of greatest importance was the Reserve Bank of New Zealand’s 25 basis point increase in its official cash rate, taking the OCR to 2.75% after 14 months at an all-time low. The move had been fully telegraphed...
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The franc suffered almost as much as the pound against the strangely-buoyant euro last week. The pound was virtually unchanged on the week when it opened in London this morning. Its range in the meantime was interesting but not spectacular. For the franc the main downward influence came from a general appetite for risk...
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UK equity markets have spent most of the day in negative territory briefly dipping below 5,000 before staging a mini revival over the lunch time session, helped by a recovery by mining stocks, before slipping back again. The majority of FTSE 100 constituents remain in the red with laggards outnumbering leaders by over three...
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