Category: Other Forex Stuff
No great budget surprises (Video)
Even for those beyond UK shores, today’s budget should be of interest because austerity is the only game in town for many European countries and the UK is further down that path than most, at least in terms of implementation. There used to be a time when UK budgets were a closely guarded secret, but
Aussie hits a roadblock
The recovery in the Aussie seen over the past few sessions was brought to a halt overnight, AUD/USD stalling above the 1.06 level. The minutes of the latest RBA meeting were one factor in eliciting a more cautious approach – the door was left open to further easing should the global environment deteriorate. Also in
Friday not the dollar’s day
Friday was a remarkably dim day for the dollar, and yet apart from ‘flows’ it was no easy task to pinpoint an exact trigger for it. During the early afternoon there were some large sell orders for the greenback, especially against the euro – the single currency almost touched 1.32 at one point, after declining
No week-end worries
For once, markets are approaching the end of the week in a relative state of calm. Oil prices have eased around 4% from the highs seen earlier in the month, global equities have more than recovered from the modest correction and the sell-off in higher yielding currencies (Brazil and Australia, among others) has stabilised, at
That’s it yen
The yen is off some 1.8% vs. the dollar so far this week, with USD/JPY touching an 11mth high in recent days. There have been been a lot of changes in FX dynamics so far this month (see below), of which the yen has been just one. The better tone to US data has certainly
Well Fed markets
The US Federal Reserve pulled off a difficult balancing act last night, sounding both more upbeat on the economy, but also keeping open the option of further easing measures and maintaining the commitment to keep rates low until the end of 2014. The expectation of growth was altered from “modest” to “moderate”, a seemingly small
More flexibility from Germany
There were no great surprises at yesterday’s meeting of EU finance ministers, but some positive noises. The battle lines over Spain’s deficit were drawn and re-drawn, resulting in a shift of this year’s target from 4.4% of GDP to 5.3%. Still, the Spanish government was shooting for 5.8% and now faces a monumental task in
Just the job for Obama
The good news just gets better. On Friday morning we had a great result for Greece, with overwhelming participation by private sector bond-holders in the bond-swap tender. On Friday afternoon, there was a great result for President Obama, with yet more signs of strength in the US labour market. Headline payrolls rose by 200k for
Greece scores in extra time
Greece announced the details of the largest sovereign debt restructuring in history this morning, with private sector bond-holders finally recognising that the deal on the table was probably a much better one than they were likely to get by holding out. According to a statement from the Greek government, the participation rate of investors in
Unease down under
Ahead of today’s ECB and BoE meetings, and the impending Greek PSI announcement, both investors and traders displayed an understandable reluctance to commit to risk yesterday, although overnight nerves steadied just a little. For example, the single currency is back near 1.32, after lingering threateningly near 1.31 yesterday afternoon. The recovery is partly on the