Posted on Tuesday, September 4th, 2012 at 8:34 am.
www.youtube.com/watch?v=ywL8Pyg2PGs A cold helplessness swept throughout the global economy as manufacturing PMI’s simultaneously disappointed, some in spectacular fashion. Manufacturing PMI data for China fell to 49.2 from 50.1 with Markit PMI falling to 47.6, (measures small cap manufacturing) the lowest levels since the global crisis began. The Chinese have not been slow to ease policy [...] Read More...
Posted on Monday, September 3rd, 2012 at 8:09 am.
www.youtube.com/watch?v=W6QXoTXDNp4 In a similar fashion to last week, the week in waiting is geared towards the ECB meeting this coming Thursday. These meetings of late have been all bark and no bite as we rarely see evasive action when we expect it. Bernanke disappointed on Friday in Jackson Hole keeping the FED chequebook in his [...] Read More...
Posted on Friday, August 31st, 2012 at 8:16 am.
www.youtube.com/watch?v=28YkIucgU2E The most constructive return seen yesterday from European heads of state was the air miles clocked up on the EZ frequent flyer card. Francois Hollande’s visit to Madrid to meet with Mariano Rajoy offered little excitement to the markets. As expected, both pledged support to ECB intervention in the bond market, as well as [...] Read More...
Posted on Thursday, August 30th, 2012 at 7:40 am.
It’s a good thing that the Jackson Hole symposium is taking place tomorrow or I would really worry about the sanity of those of us working in markets; the gradual and continual grind sideways leaves nobody interested in putting their head above the parapet for fear of having it shot off by some form of [...] Read More...
Posted on Wednesday, August 29th, 2012 at 7:51 am.
The news that the Jackson Hole symposium starting Friday would be missing one particular central banker came as a bit of a disappointment to the market yesterday. Mario Draghi had been due to speak on Saturday, a day after Ben Bernanke gives his speech titled “Monetary Policy Since the Crisis”. The hope had been that [...] Read More...
Posted on Tuesday, August 28th, 2012 at 7:42 am.
This week should be the week in which global markets start to exit the doldrums period that they have been sat in for the past month or so following Mario Draghi’s pledge to do “whatever is necessary” to solve the European crisis. The main landmark this week is the Jackson Hole symposium in the US [...] Read More...
Posted on Friday, August 24th, 2012 at 7:48 am.
Today’s revision to the UK GDP figure for Q2 should bring the number back closer to reality from the slightly ridiculous -0.7% that was the primary estimate. Revisions higher are due following better than expected construction and manufacturing output in June, while retail spending figures seem to have beaten expectations as well. The revision [...] Read More...
Posted on Thursday, August 23rd, 2012 at 7:43 am.
Markets have been supported overnight by the latest minutes from the Federal Reserve that were more dovish than most had been expecting, and fitted much more with our original estimation of further easing from the central bank in September, as opposed to later in the year. The language suggested that the slight improvements we [...] Read More...
Posted on Wednesday, August 22nd, 2012 at 7:30 am.
It was a perfect storm for those betting against the single currency yesterday as comment, bond auctions and other markets combined to push EURUSD back towards range highs ahead of important political meetings between the leaders of the Eurogroup, Greece, France and Germany over the coming few days. The rally was started by a [...] Read More...
Posted on Tuesday, August 21st, 2012 at 7:36 am.
The half-life of weekend rumours around plans and actions that the ECB may take to deal with the debt crisis is rapidly decreasing alongside the impact that they have on the single currency. The most recent rumour over the weekend was that the ECB is planning to cap European peripheral bond yields by intervening in [...] Read More...