Commodities Trading

Investors continue to push concerns about Europe and Greece to one side and focus on the fact that despite economic concerns, markets remain keen to focus on the positives. January manufacturing PMI data from China, Europe and the UK showed some signs of recovery and this has helped bolster these positives. As is normal...
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If today’s moves in European markets signal anything, they signal a lack of confidence in European leaders to deliver on what investors had hoped last week would be some form of progress with respect to a Greek debt deal, over the weekend. Having seen markets hold on to the gains from the previous two weeks...
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Basic resource stocks have led UK markets higher today after Chinese economic data came in above expectations, with Chinese retail sales jumping 18.2% and Q4 GDP beating expectations at 8.9%. This data has reassured spread trading markets that even though growth is slowing, it is not at a rate to warrant concern. Furthermore, it has...
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European markets initially had an altogether much more buoyant tone today, however as the afternoon has progressed they have slid back from their intraday highs, as buying interest has slowly melted away. The FTSE 100 has lagged all day despite both the European Central Bank and the Bank of England keeping their respective monetary...
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European markets were distinctly under whelming today as a risk adverse tone was adopted in light of what was a relatively quiet economic calendar day. Germany’s GDP came in as expected showing a 3% increase in 2011. However, the contraction of 0.25% in Q4 on the back of a cooling demand for exports is of...
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European spread trading markets have taken the bull by the horns today posting strong gains after Chinese trade data saw a much higher surplus for November. Consequently, this raises expectations that the People Bank of China would look at further easing of fiscal policy after last month’s cut in bank reserve requirements. The biggest gainers...
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The FTSE 100 spreads fell 2% on Wednesday as investors avoided risky asset classes such as financial and mining stocks after continued fears over rising sovereign bond yields and nerves over potential ratings downgrades for France convinced them to cut back. There has been speculation and concern over the fragility of top notch credit ratings...
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European markets have struggled for direction today ahead of tomorrow’s EU summit. Investors who were hoping for a more decisive steer from the European Central Bank were left disappointed despite a rate cut of 25bps. The refusal of the ECB to commit to buying unlimited sovereign bonds, as well as closing the door to...
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A bit of a Jekyll and Hyde day today, after opening with a fairly positive bias, European markets slid back in the afternoon session, as policymaker statements started to down-play expectations ahead of this week’s EU summit. Talk that a bigger financial bazooka was being prepared gave markets an early boost, however comments from...
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Markets started off on a predominantly soft tone this morning after the overnight downgrades of global banks by Standard and Poor’s, but central bank intervention on a co-ordinated scale saw the tide turn in a significantly positive fashion. This started with the Chinese central bank cutting its bank reserve requirement ratios by 50bps to 21%,...
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