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UK PMI services surprised to the downside yesterday coming in at 51.1 in August against consensus of 54. Importantly the reading still showed expansion even if the contraction was more than expected. It has also been noted that the UK riots may have been responsible for half of the fall…
Ahead of the Bank Holiday weekend on Monday, markets continue to trade quietly with all eyes watching Fed Chair Bernanke’s speech this afternoon. Although France, Italy, Spain and Belgium reaffirmed their short-selling ban on financial stocks, equity markets are still lower and we doubt that much risk will be placed…
The IFO survey, which measures the views of 7,000 executives in Germany, showed business confidence falling quicker than expected in August. However, after the significant drop in the ZEW survey the day before, the general feeling was that the reading could have been a lot worse. The survey reading of…
The Pound has plummeted across the board hammered by Bank of England’s decision to increase its Bonds purchase program to GBP 275 billion, from previous GBP 200 billion. GBP/USD has dropped almost 200 pips reaching fresh one-year lows at 1.5285, while the GBP/JPY dropped from 118.50 to 117.15, and the GBP/EUR fell…
European finance ministers last night agreed to safeguard Euro zone banks from the region’s worsening debt crisis. The assumption is that the European Financial Stability Fund (EFSF) will be used to lend funds to struggling banks. This news has led to the Euro rallying over night against both the USD…
The US ISM manufacturing index came in at 51.6 for September – a full point higher than both the August number and the consensus expectations. The data revealed that employment, production and new export orders all rose. This will help to relieve fears that the US economy is close to…
After the worst quarter since the collapse of Lehman Brothers, equity markets welcomed the fourth quarter by continuing to fall. The Nikkei fell by 1.8% despite a slightly stronger than expected Tankan survey. Even an improvement in the Chinese non-manufacturing PMI from 57.6 to 59.3 failed to help sentiment as…
Angela Merkel should have been waking up this morning to beautiful sunshine and headlines stating that she had saved the Euro. Unfortunately, that would have been the case back in July when the initial proposal for increasing the EFSF was announced, but that was before Spain and Italy were dragged…
Hope has this morning evaporated that the Euro zone is close to finding a solution to the Sovereign debt crisis. Yesterday, I commented on speculation that there would be a three pronged attack involving the ECB, EFSF and Private Bond Holders. But, each of these prongs has now been bent…
Overnight, rumours have increased that the Euro zone debt crisis will be overcome through a three pronged attack from the ECB, Greece and the European Financial Stability Fund (EFSF). ECB statements on Monday that they were keeping their options open for a rate cut, has been met with speculation that…