This week is very strange, with a very quiet day on Monday, and all the main fundamental news items then crowded together towards the end of the week, with NFP on Thursday as a result of the 4th July celebrations in the US on Friday. Thursday could well prove to be a seminal day, as [...]

Latest economic calendar for trading and investing this week. A very quiet day in Europe on the fundamental news front for today, with all the attention in the US markets, coupled with the start of the earnings season which is likely to affect all the markets. If you would like a live version of the [...]

Good Morning
Newsletter for w/c 13th October 2008:  “Derivatives are financial weapons of mass destruction” is a famous Buffett aphorism and one with which many are familiar.  What may not be so familiar is that he first coined the phrase back in 2003 in his annual letter to shareholders.   He went on to argue that these [...]

It was a better week for world stock markets last week, with all the major indices pushing further off the January lows.
Despite Friday’s US payrolls falling by a more than expected 598,000, stock markets powered higher. This was an extremely weak employment report, with 3.5 million fewer Americans employed In January than a year earlier. [...]

The final week of 2008 passed with many markets recording their worst annual performance for generations. Equities finished above their lows, but still finished down by at least 30%. The S&P 500 closed 2008 down 38%, while the Nikkei closed down over 40%. The ‘lost decade’ rolls on ever more for the Japanese stock market. [...]

As many of you know, I now publish a weekly newsletter – if you would like a copy “hot off the press” please just visit the making bread site and follow the link at the top of the page and I will add you too my mailing list – I normally write this Sunday evening [...]

Chinese New Year has coincided with China’s attempts to secure supplies of iron ore by trying to derail one of the world’s biggest-ever takeovers – BHP Billiton’s £76bn bid for Rio Tinto. In addition Chinese backed companies are trying to buy a significant stake in Australia’s third major player in iron ore, [...]

Today is, of course, super Tuesday, the result of which may indicate who will be the front runners for the US presidency later this year and which in turn may give us a clue as to the fate of the dollar. Why? Because the fate of the dollar has historically been bound [...]

With ADP employment figures on Wednesday coming in at over 3 times higher than expected and the Fed cutting a further .50% on interest rates on the same day we will not be able to gauge dollar direction until release of both the nfp and ISM numbers later today.
However, weekly and monthly charts for both [...]

Following the emergency interest rate cut by the Fed last week the question being asked was whether the embarrassment at SocGen had anything do with the decision? Whilst the massive loss facing the French bank would be enough to temporarily spook any market is the bank merely using this event to cover up [...]

A very quiet day today for fundamental news with the main highlights today being released in Canada with the monthly CPI data coupled with the retail sales figures due out later in the morning.  However, the main market event today is the quarterly expiry of options and futures, commonly referred to as triple witching, although [...]

Trading in the first half of this week has been extremely difficult with a dearth of fundamental news on the economic calendar leading to all markets trading in very narrow ranges.  This price action has also been seen across all the major forex pairs with only one or two offering any degree of volatility and [...]

A very busy week for fundamental news across all the markets with the highlights including interest rate decisions from the Bank of Canada and the Reserve Bank of Australia followed by the ECB & the UK, all of which are expected to remain unchanged but as always the associated statements will be more interesting.  The [...]

Not just a quiet start to the trading week for fundamental news, but a positively comatose one.  In fact anyone checking the economic calendar today must wonder if there is an error on the screen!!  So here is a breakdown of the major items for the remainder of the week.
Japan
The only item on Tuesday is [...]

Last week’s market obsession with debt and in particular the problems with Greece will, no doubt, continue to dominate the markets this week although expect to see a rally in the euro as fears are calmed and investor risk returns.  However, the start of this week will be relatively quiet in terms of trading volumes [...]

Currency Markets Today
The dollar mostly lost ground Friday, with strategists attributing the modest weakness to market participants taking profits on the greenback’s recent bounce. Technical considerations appeared to be the biggest factor in Friday’s currency dealings, even with data reported from opposite sides of the Atlantic showing the European economy returning to growth as well [...]

This week is very strange, with a very quiet day on Monday, and all the main fundamental news items then crowded together towards the end of the week, with NFP on Thursday as a result of the 4th July celebrations in the US on Friday. Thursday could well prove to be a seminal day, as [...]

Below are the main items of fundamental news for the broad markets this week, with a very quiet day in prospect on Friday. The news from the G7 and G20 meetings over the weekend seem to have had little effect on the markets, with no major announcements, or ‘foot in mouth’ gaffs from anyone!
Monday June [...]

Monday May 4th:
Bank Holiday UK & Japan.
GE – 06:00 – Retail Sales M/M.
EU – 08:00 – Final Manufacturing PMI.
EU – 08:30 – Sentix Investor Confidence.
US – 14:00 – Pending Home Sales M/M.
US – 14:00 – Construction Spending M/M.
EU – 18:00 – FOMC Member Lacker Speaks.
Tuesday May 5th:
Bank Holiday Japan.
UK – 08:30 – Construction PMI.
EU – [...]

Latest economic calendar for trading and investing this week. A very quiet day in Europe on the fundamental news front for today, with all the attention in the US markets, coupled with the start of the earnings season which is likely to affect all the markets. If you would like a live version of the [...]

It was a better week for world stock markets last week, with all the major indices pushing further off the January lows.
Despite Friday’s US payrolls falling by a more than expected 598,000, stock markets powered higher. This was an extremely weak employment report, with 3.5 million fewer Americans employed In January than a year earlier. [...]

The price of gold closed sharply lower yesterday breaking below the 40 day moving average as the US dollar strength and a continuing weakness in daily crude oil prices proved difficult to be ignored by the market participants. Recently, gold has attracted buying interest following the clash between inflation and recession but now the yellow [...]

On Friday daily spot gold prices closed slightly lower in a choppy session with the market making big swings in both directions. Initially the price of gold was modestly higher, but the December non-farm payrolls data showed that job losses nearly matched the consensus forecast which boosted the US dollar and in turn put pressure [...]

Spot gold prices closed higher yesterday on the back of a weaker US dollar, with the daily gold chart showing an ‘Inside Day’ as traders were waiting for the US employment report. Concerns about the state of the global economy, and continuing geopolitical tensions in the Middle East seem to provide a good support for [...]

Despite a weaker US dollar spot gold prices moved sharply lower yesterday closing well below the 14 day moving average. Recently, safe haven buying amid continuing tensions in the Middle East have provided support to daily gold prices but worsening jobs data has shifted focus on the economy threatening the inflation driven gold rally in [...]

Initially daily gold prices declined yesterday hitting their weakest level since Dec 24th, but later on, as the US dollar gave up some of its early strength, the price of gold reversed course managing to close higher for the day. The late rally had the greenback as the main influencing factor with some additional boost [...]

Daily gold prices closed sharply lower yesterday crossing below the 9 and 14 day moving averages. The downward move came in reaction to the currency market with the euro hitting a three week low against the US dollar on perceptions that the European Central Bank is behind the curve in lowering interest rates. Gold is [...]

On Friday, as the US dollar moved slightly higher against the euro, gold prices declined with the chart indicating the 9 day moving average a good support level. In a session that looked like a continuation of the last trading day of 2008 where interest was very limited, the participants seemed more focused on profit [...]

Initially, on the last trading day of 2008 as the US dollar rose we saw gold prices declining, given that the yellow metal is seen as a dollar hedge and so usually trades inversely to the greenback. Later in the session gold prices bounced possibly on bargain hunting and closed higher despite a stronger dollar. [...]

The gold spot price closed lower yesterday as some investors decided that it’s safer to take part of the profits before year-end, a move somewhat expected and already mentioned in previous posts on daily gold prices. Speculation about a possible cease-fire between Israel and Hamas seemed to add extra pressure with gold slipping further in [...]

Considering the dead weight financial sector, stock markets could have fallen a lot further than they eventually did over the course of last week. However, there is no getting away from the mess that financial shares are in. Just over two years ago today, the RBS share price hit an all time high of £7.24. [...]

After taking some time off between Christmas and New Year, the credit crunch was well and truly back in action last week. Fears over further banking problems and sovereign debt downgrades for the likes of Ireland and Greece surfaced last month, but until now, these fears have merely been simmering in the background. Last week, [...]

Equities were firmly on the defensive last week, with all the major international stock indices trading in the red. The negative sentiment set in after Wednesday’s ADP Non Farm Employment figures fell by 693,000 between November and December, which was way ahead of consensus estimates. Friday’s NFP figures were down -524,000 which was in line [...]

The final week of 2008 passed with many markets recording their worst annual performance for generations. Equities finished above their lows, but still finished down by at least 30%. The S&P 500 closed 2008 down 38%, while the Nikkei closed down over 40%. The ‘lost decade’ rolls on ever more for the Japanese stock market. [...]

After an opening surge on Monday, markets had a mixed time of it for the remainder of the week. President elect Barrack Obama’s announcement of a huge public works program helped virtually every market rally against the main trends of the last few weeks. Equities and commodities were higher, while the dollar, bonds, and CDS [...]

The markets received a jolt of pain on Friday, as US employment numbers came in at -533,000, way beyond consensus estimates. The figures were the worst for three decades and are yet another example to add to the ever growing pile of “once in a generation” type extremes that we’ve seen in 2008. Friday’s numbers [...]

Markets pulled their socks up last week, with global equities putting some distance between the November lows and Fridays close. The FTSE 100 enjoyed a 13% weekly gain, while the Dow, S&P500 and Nasdaq are up 17.1%, 19.9% and 18.3% from the November lows respectively. The week started well with traders liking what they saw [...]

Although Silver rallied along with Gold on Friday and Monday the 9 and 14 day moving averages may need to cross to continue this short term rally. The 40 day moving average just above $10 is expected to act as support and a break of this level should result in a test down at $9.90. [...]

Since breaking through the $777 level, buy and entry stops have pushed the price into a new range technically targeting $848.50 on the upside. The 40 day moving average and the previously mentioned $777 level should act as good support some $40 plus dollars below current levels. The huge $60 range on Friday corresponded with [...]

Last week US equities ended a volatile week with big rallies on Friday, but these only came after the benchmark S&P 500 index had plunged to levels not seen for over a decade on Thursday. Despite Friday’s 6%+ rallies on the Dow Jones and S&P 500, those markets still finished the week down 5.31% and [...]

It was a better week for world stock markets last week, with all the major indices pushing further off the January lows.
Despite Friday’s US payrolls falling by a more than expected 598,000, stock markets powered higher. This was an extremely weak employment report, with 3.5 million fewer Americans employed In January than a year earlier. [...]

Spot silver prices closed sharply higher Friday in reaction to a strong gold and weaker US currency with additional boost coming from a surge in the base metals. As I have mentioned before, along with its tag as a precious metal, silver has many industrial applications so significant moves in base metals will usually affect [...]

Daily silver prices closed slightly down yesterday crossing below the 40 day moving average for the third day but then moving up above the indicator. Like the spot gold price,  the slide in the price of silver was triggered by an increasingly strong US currency and weaker crude oil prices. After trading upwards for most [...]

Daily spot silver prices declined yesterday pressured by the same steeply falling stock markets that hit spot gold prices. In addition to being considered a precious metal, silver is also widely used for industrial applications, more than the yellow metal so deflation has the potential to add extra pressure. Probably the feature that’s keeping silver [...]

Spot silver performed better than the spot gold price yesterday closing higher, although it crossed below the 40 day moving average. Behind the early session slide was probably a bearish industrial demand which seems to stubbornly make the headlines on a daily basis. As a gold follower, silver is likely to remain under pressure as [...]

Yesterday, after a week of testing the 9 and 14 day moving averages the spot silver price broke convincingly below these indicators stopping slightly above the 40 day moving average. Like gold the white metal nosedived hit by liquidation of previous long positions amid a strong US currency and lower crude oil. It is also [...]

Daily spot silver prices closed modestly higher on Friday, even as the spot gold price moved lower and the US dollar continued its upward trend, possibly on relief that payrolls data was broadly in line with expectations. As I mentioned before, long positions in silver have not built up as rapidly as in gold, so [...]

Following gold prices, the price of silver was slightly higher yesterday in response to a weaker US currency. The soft market seemed to indicate that participants were in no mood to commit too much before today’s US employment figures which could be the catalyst for a breakout in either direction. One interesting fact to mention [...]

In the face of a weaker US currency spot silver prices also fell yesterday although the decline was less than gold in percentage terms. The price of silver has not seen the same big rallies as gold in the last few weeks which suggests there’s less selling potential in the case of a pullback. In [...]

Following gold, the daily spot price of silver was initially weaker but then staged a late session rally to close higher as the US dollar gave back some of its early gains. The chart shows an inside day pattern which suggests that silver held up better than gold with a possible explanation being that the [...]