Stock Market Trading

Ireland’s Green Party weighed on sentiment today after speculation mounted that they could potentially leave the coalition government after the budget. Discussions are believed to have been ongoing for much of the day after last night’s decision to accept EU and IMF bailout help. If the Green Party did decide to pull out of...
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European equity markets have been making new 2 year highs today after a string of positive company announcements, as well as some US dollar weakness which has seen investors indulge in fresh buying as the FTSE100 and DAX post their highest levels in 28 months. With commodity prices continuing to surge higher, the day...
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European markets have been trading in a pretty listless fashion today with little in the way of volume, as markets consolidate after the sugar rush of Fed induced volatility of recent days. The lack of any news flow hasn’t helped in this respect as markets look ahead to Wednesday’s US Trade Balance numbers and...
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The day trading markets bought heavily into equities today as a knee jerk reaction to the Federal Reserve announcing a second round of quantitative easing of $600bn, which was slightly higher than speculated by the market. Strong corporate earnings from Man Group and Unilever have also helped to supplement Index gains. The announcement from the...
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We’ve seen stocks get the month off to a nice positive start, pushing higher after Chinese manufacturing data came in much better than expected with commodity stocks and banking stocks leading the way. However upside continues to be limited as we head into a key week of central bank announcements, economic data and the...
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Equity markets have pushed lower today led by the banking sector, despite Swiss bank UBS posting a better than expected SFr.1.66bn net profit. However, the profits were helped by exceptional items in the form of a SFr.825m tax credit which doubled the profit figure, while its investment banking division posted a loss in the...
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For all the nervousness about the weekend’s G20 meeting, nothing much of consequence really came out of it with the US dollar continuing to remain under pressure, and commodities resuming their upward trajectory. As expected, the finance ministers failed to come up with anything specific about dealing with the problems of the weakening dollar,...
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European equity markets had been pretty range bound in the morning session today after yesterday’s sell-off. However the afternoon session has had a slightly more positive bias on the back of slightly better earnings announcements out of the US. This morning’s minutes of the Bank of England’s monetary policy committee unsurprisingly saw Adam Posen vote...
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Equity markets have rebounded strongly after this morning’s move by the Bank of Japan to cut its benchmark interest rate from 0.1% to a range between zero and 0.1%, moving them back towards the top end of their recent ranges. It also pledged to expand its balance sheet by 5 trillion yen in an attempt...
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Equity markets have struggled to maintain their positive bias from yesterday in the face of European sovereign debt concerns with the banking sector bearing the brunt of the selling pressure, closely followed by pharmaceuticals. Ireland remains the market’s main concern after ratings agency Standard and Poors said the price of bailing out Anglo Irish Bank...
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