It may be hard to believe, but yet another week has come and gone
May 21, 2010
It may be hard to believe, but yet another week has come and gone, and once again it’s time to look over the news and reports that have been making headlines over the past week. One of the most obvious stories in the news seems to be plunging stock markets. Several markets in the United States, Asia, and Europe have all had several days with triple digit losses. The main culprit seems to be the same in all three cases: fears of an impending European debt crisis. Getting this problem solved is going to be critical in order to stabilize the worldwide economy in general.
The news is a double whammy in Britain, where for the second year in a row British Airways recorded its second consecutive record annual loss. Even worse, threats of an impending worker strike are surfacing.
In the United States, news reports talked about the most recent regulation bill to pass in the Senate. This bill is the largest regulatory bill since the Great Depression, and puts back many of the defense mechanisms that were removed in the early 2000s, and whose removal were a large part of the blame for the major economic recession of the last few years.
But there was some good news released, as well, and it’s always important to take it all in on an even keel and make an informed decision without getting too attached to any one currency pair. This is important. As loving or hating a currency pair too much means the emotion is going to hurt any trading strategy. But for now, let’s take a good open look at what’s come up in this week’s version of the week in review.
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All the markets have seen a lot of back and forth movement this week
May 14, 2010
Another week has come and gone, and as always there is plenty of movement throughout the Forex market. Anyone following the news knows there have been some major reports this week, and that the Euro has taken a major hit in some of the major currency pairs it is a part of based on debt concerns. All the markets have seen a lot of back and forth movement this week, and keeping track of the news is one of the best ways to understand the fundamental reports that are really impacting the market. Aside from the major news reports, there were plenty of major economic reports released tying to the markets, so this week let’s jump right in and see what the fundamentals look like for the past week.
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Hopefully Thursday’s Dow Jones Effect Doesn’t Overshadow the Fact That This is One of the Most Positive Weeks of Economic Reports that has Come out in Months
May 10, 2010
Whoa, Nellie! I guess when months ago we said Rome wasn’t burning, we should have mentioned Nero moved his fiddle and muse to Athens. Yikes. Thursday was definitely eventful as at one point the Dow crashed over 1,000 points in a few hours, almost 10% of the total value of the market. The first blame went to the shaky debt situation with Greece, and there was a cascade effect that caused massive selling across several markets. While Greece took the brunt of the blame at first, and there are still severe concerns about the debt situation going on in Europe, it turned out by the end of the day that new belief was a typographical error by a trader set off the cascade effect when an electronic order to sell $16 million was misread at $16 billion. There is just a wee bit of a difference there.
On the plus side, the Dow did gain back almost 650 points, so while it was certainly a bad turbulent day for the markets, it did stop short of being catastrophic, which on a day like that we’ll just call good enough. In good news, AIG has returned to profitability for the first time since the bailouts that were caused by the banking financial collapses. This stability is always a good sign, and there were some other good news reports this week across the major economic reports.
So after Thursday’s scare, let’s all take a deep breath, step back from the edge, and take a look at the fundamental reports for a more accurate read on how various economies are doing. So without any further wait, let’s jump right into this week’s installment of the week in review.
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There were several important reports this week, and some major surprises that could really have an impact on certain currencies
April 30, 2010
Another week has passed by, and there are definitely a lot of major economic reports of note, as well as some news stories that traders will definitely want to keep their eyes on. While a few weeks ago it seemed like EU intervention would help prevent Greece from collapsing and causing a domino effect, the opposite almost seems true now. Not only has Greece’s debt been downgraded to “junk,” but other fringe nations like Spain and Portugal have had their debt security level downgraded due to fear of what appears more and more to be an oncoming domino effect. This is a major concern to pay attention to, as shockwaves in Europe aren’t going to be restrained only to the EU, but they’re going to spread to other economies, as well. This is a story that should get serious attention from traders.
In other news, United States home prices in February rose for the first time since the end of 2006 according to the Standard & Poor’s Price Index. While these numbers were weak, it at least shows some degree of recovery continuing along the sluggish housing market.
There were many other major reports of note this week, and while some countries were certainly busier than others, there are reports here that should be of interest to almost any Forex trader. So keep an eye on those fundamental reports, and without any further wait, here is the newest installment of the week in review.
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While all in all it was a fairly quiet week, there are plenty of things to be keeping an eye on
April 23, 2010
Overall this week was rather quiet on both the general economic news front, as well as with the Forex economic reports. However with a market as liquid and constantly moving as the Forex, any news is important to someone trading currencies. Some of the major stories in the news this week revolve around surprising results from two companies, some good economic reports, Greece’s woes continuing, and Mother Nature making cab drivers in Oslo, Norway, very happy. Microsoft’s profits jumped 35% with the rebound of the PC, while Amazon gave an amazing 68% increase in profits. Overall economic reports show that in the United Sates home sales jump up while overall jobless claims have fallen.
Greece’s debt situation has been revised, showing that they are in even worse shape than previously thought. The debt situation there is really a major concern, and could really affect the European Union. As for the Oslo, Norway, reference, the volcano ash that is still hovering over Europe still has air travel grounded. This isn’t only affecting airlines, but restaurants, stores, hotels, and other transportation options. Several stories of movie stars stranded in Oslo have resulted in multiple cab rides costing thousands of Euros, including John Cleese’s $5,100 Euro cab ride from Oslo to Brussels. Hope he tipped well.
Anyway, with that information in the books let’s kick off this week’s short installment of the week in review.
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Ironically It May Be Mother Nature That We Need To Watch More Than Any Other Major Report.
April 16, 2010
This has been a relatively quiet week as far as the major economic reports affecting currency pairs in the Forex market goes, but on the other hand there was plenty of other financial news throughout the week that could have a huge impact on many of the world’s economies. In the United States, the other economic stories in the news may have been as of much, or even more, interest than the released reports. The housing market started with a major setback as foreclosure rates jumped to their highest in 5 years. Reports from the government had the SEC accusing Goldman Sachs bank of civil fraud, while a Senate panel released a reports saying lax regulators basically allowed Washington Mutual Bank to doom itself. One bank that actually had good news was Bank of America, which earned nearly $3 billion in the first quarter.
The other major news report in the US showed a split where 33 states gained jobs, but 17 states lost jobs. However nature seems to be affecting the world business climate in ways no one anticipated. China’s massive earthquake has claimed over 1,000 lives and decimated the area’s infrastructure, making even relief efforts difficult early on and having a major impact on every part of life in the region. Iceland is also back in the news negatively affecting other economies, but not in the way expected. The massive volcano’s eruption in Iceland has completely shut down air travel in multiple countries in Europe, and as the ash continues to travel and the volcano erupts, there are major worries that many economies are going to get hammered extended downtimes - especially businesses requiring air freight, and the airlines themselves.
What happens there, and seeing if the volcano either quietly calms down or decides to erupt large one more time can end up having a huge impact on the Euro and domino effect to the rest of the world’s economies. That’s definitely a bit of Mother Nature to be keeping an eye on.
So with everything crazy going on in the news, it might be a bit of a surprise to find out that this week is relatively quick and quiet when it comes to the major economic reports. So without any further ado, and with one cautious eye on Iceland’s volcanoes, here is this week’s installment of the week in review.
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There was plenty of Economic News Worth Taking A Look at This Week.
April 9, 2010
Another week is in the books, and this was an eventful one with a wide array of reports spread out among the major currency nations. In fact, New Zealand is the only nation this week that didn’t have a major economic report of note released this week. Aside from the major reports, there was plenty of other economic news worth taking a look at this week. The price of oil is rising near $86 a barrel as a strengthening US economy is bringing up fuel prices once again. Asian stock markets traded this week higher across the board, as most traders like the early numbers they’re getting for the first quarter GDP of most of the regional economies.
On the home front former Fannie Mae executives are being forced to face a special panel regarding the practices and what helped lead to the near failure of the government sponsored company. It will be interesting to see what, if anything, come of this. There are many economic adjustments being made as the new universal health care is slowly being phased in, as well as the new credit card laws meant to protect consumers from abusive practices.
With all of that going on in the background, let’s not waste any time and now here’s this week’s installment of the week in review.
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The Recovery Continues and the Markets Continue to Fluctuate.
April 2, 2010
This was a relatively quiet week for most nations as far as the number of major economic reports goes, but there was a lot in the news that was worth watching and keeping track of. Right off the bat the jobs news dominated the United States on Friday, as the month of March showed the biggest increase in jobs in 3 years. This helped to increase the interest rate levels in the bond market, and although the stock markets were closed for Good Friday, abbreviated trading showed the market going up. Even better, the number of these jobs that were full time in the private sector was higher than expected, since many of these were expected to be temporary jobs due to the Census.
There are many signs in different nations suggesting the worst of the world wide recession might be winding down, but the optimism is cautious as between debt and housing markets there are still a lot of concerns out there. So without waiting any longer, let’s kick off for Easter weekend starting with this week in review.
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There Were A Couple of Surprises this Week, but All in All Most of The Reports Were in The Same Neighborhood of Predictions.
March 26, 2010
This was a relatively quiet week as far as the normal major economic reports go, but don’t let that fool you - there were plenty of major reports in the news that are very relevant to the overall economic situation. The universal health care bill was signed into law in the United States after months of contentious debate. Many of the programs phase in slowly over time until the year 2014, when the entire package will be in place. The short and long term effects of the bill in all honesty are going to be hard to determine until it’s studied over time, but that is a major shift in policy that is going to have major effects on many different parts of the economy.
In the United States there is also a new government plan involves giving subsidized loans from the Federal Housing Administration and helping to refinance loans to individuals who owe more than their house is worth, but appear capable of being able to keep up on mortgage payments with a new loan plan. The idea seems to be to help individuals who would have the means to dig themselves out of a hole with just a little support including a loan with slightly better terms. Economists at Moody’s Analytics predicted the plan could help between 1 to 1.5 million home owners avoid foreclosure.
Greece received very good news. The European stock markets went up after a final deal was finally struck between the EU and Greece to work out their debt issues. This had some immediate effect on the Euro, which strengthened after falling to a 10 month low against the USD. The deal is basically a safety net that guarantees loans and funding if the nation of Greece is unable to borrow at all.
This week is a prime example of how there can be huge news stories that have a major impact on markets without actually coming in the form of a normal economic report. Well there are still those reports to cover this week, so without any further dilly-dallying, here is the newest installment of the week in review.
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It Might Seem Like the New Year Just Started, but We’re Already Almost a Quarter of the Way Through.
March 19, 2010
Another week has passed by, and it’s hard to believe that we’re already approaching towards the end of March in 2010. It might seem like the New Year just started, but we’re already almost a quarter of the way through. There were many economic reports released over this week, and plenty of additional economic news to boot. The struggling state of Greece under its debt burden is still worrying a lot of people, and there are widespread fears of Greece becoming another Iceland and starting a domino effect that could send the world’s economy into a tailspin once again.
As a result of this and other news, world stock markets are mixed heavily, with many showing a bearish trend right now as many investors are nervous. Britain is dealing with a potential 3 day work strike by British Airway cabin crews that could delay thousands of flights, and in the United States the fighting in Washington DC is getting particularly nasty over the upcoming health care vote, but the vote is inching closer and closer.
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