Stock Market Trading

What a day! Risk was forcibly thrown on the table as indices spread trading markets interpreted what most had seen as just bare bones of a European rescue plan as reason to be cheerful,as risk assets surged throughout the European session and overnight. Leading the way was the Euro, up two cents against the...
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Euro-zone politicians already had a lot on their plate this week. Bank recapitalisations look set to happen, albeit on the lower end of the scale, but both the enlargement of the bail-out fund and the size of Greek haircuts both need to be agreed by tomorrow. Large problems to overcome by themselves, but made...
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European leaders did manage to agree on a much needed bank recapitalisation package worth €108bn over the weekend, aimed at restoring confidence on battered European lenders, but there is still no agreement on how to expand the firepower of the EFSF. Wednesday’s deadline is approaching rapidly, so German Chancellor Angela Merkel and French President...
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The FTSE 100 closed at its highest level in the last five weeks, briefly breaking back above the 5400 level in the process, as traders took confidence from the bailout of troubled Franco-Belgian bank Dexia and the pledge by Angela Merkel and Nicolas Sarkozy last night to provide sustainable solutions to the Eurozone problems...
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Mark Twain famously said “history doesn’t repeat itself, but it does rhyme”. If he is right we may be in for a very bumpy ride over the next few weeks. Today we find ourselves in a very similar position to October 2008, and we know what happened in the post Lehman financial markets. The...
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The rally following Germany’s approval of changes to the EFSF bailout fund proved to be short-lived. Even though the outcome of the vote was not particularly unexpected, political worries were reduced by the fact that Chancellor Merkel gained support from within her coalition. Spread trading markets were also helped by a bigger than expected...
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A sense of optimism looks to be filtering through markets at present. This derives from hopes that the European authorities will be able to ring fence Greece and steer clear of a much deeper and wider contagion to other Eurozone peripheral countries than has already taken place. This may involve a European version of...
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European stock markets posted a second day of consecutive gains on Wednesday as investors continued to bargain hunt in the heavyweight resources sector, whilst European banks were broadly positive, apart from the volatile French banks whose credit rating was downgraded in a widely expected move by Moody’s. The FTSE 100 rose 1% on the day,...
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European stock indices saw a strong reversal from the previous few days of losses on Tuesday, with the FTSE, DAX and CAC rallying between 3% and 3.8% as traders attempted to use the recent weakness to pick up stocks a lower levels. Whilst today’s stock price bounce is certainly welcome and encouraging, it needs to...
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European stock indices suffered yet more losses on Tuesday in a very choppy trading session with investors unwilling to hold onto risk for too long on concerns over the impact of the political discourse over the European sovereign debt crisis. The FTSE 100 did however outperform broader European trade with commodity stocks helping to...
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