Archive for January, 2011

Equity markets around the world started the week lower amid concerns over the ongoing civil unrest in Egypt. Anti-government protests, as they enter their seventh day, have shaken equity markets around the globe and have once again highlighted the fragility of economic confidence. The recent turmoil seen on the streets of Cairo has given...
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Sterling continued the gentle upward progress versus both the Australian and the New Zealand dollar with which it began the year. When London opened this week, it was the best part of a cent higher versus the Aussie and three and a half cents up on the Kiwi, having covered a range of three...
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European markets have traded fairly mixed in today’s session with the FTSE100 higher and the DAX lower on the back of mixed news flow. Concerns about future growth prospects after yesterday’s rise in interest rates in India, and the shock fall in UK GDP had seen some risk aversion, but this appears to...
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UK fourth quarter GDP shocked investors today by posting a contraction in growth to -0.5% a full 1% worse than the market had expected and this sent the pound sterling and the FTSE 100 sharply lower. As soon as the GDP figure came in we saw investors move quickly to sell out the pound...
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European markets have traded fairly mixed in today’s day trading session with the FTSE100 higher and the DAX lower on the back of mixed news flow. The banking sector in the UK is leading the fallers after the report at the weekend by Sir John Vickers, chairman of the Independent Commission on Banking,...
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Last night’s sharp fall in US markets last night may well have been expected to weigh a little on sentiment this morning; but it was confirmation of better than expected Chinese Q4 GDP growth of 9.8%, equating to a 10.3% growth figure for 2010, and only a slight diminution of inflationary pressures to 4.6%,...
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Equity markets have rallied strongly in Europe this morning on the back of strong gains in the oil, mining and banking sector as well as positive trading updates, with the German DAX hitting its highest levels in 31 months. Mining stocks have gained on some US dollar weakness against commodities while Rio Tinto reported record...
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European Indices traded without direction on Monday as US markets took the day off for Martin Luther King day and investors treaded water in Europe keeping a watchful eye on developments from a meeting of EU Ministers. Most Indices across Europe traded mostly between small gains and losses throughout the day with little ground made...
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The Aussie suffered from greater caution among investors and continued concern about the Queensland flooding, as the Kiwi also struggled with forex traders favouring the safe havens. From last Monday’s low, the pound managed to add four cents versus the Australian dollar by the following day night and picked up a further cent on...
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By Tuesday morning last week the pound had risen by three yen from its end-of-year lows. It almost added another one but despite its efforts on Thursday and Friday could do no more than consolidate the week’s earlier gains. Against the Swissy, weak data fail to impair the pound. The Swiss franc is surprisingly...
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