Stocks open lower on Greek debt fears

01/24/2012 in General

NEW YORK (CNNMoney) — U.S. stocks opened in the red Tuesday as investors awaited progress on Greek debt talks and waded through another batch of corporate results. The Dow Jones industrial average (INDU) lost 65 points, or 0.5%, the S&P 500 (SPX)shed 8 points, or 0.6%, and the Nasdaq (COMP) dropped 12 points, or 0.4%. [...]

Euro Bounce May Find Added Fuel In Flash PMI Data

01/24/2012 in EURO, Trading, Trading Forex

Looking ahead, the focus turns to January’s preliminary set of Eurozone PMI figures, with consensus forecasts calling for narrow improvements. The region-wide composite PMI reading is expected to rise to 48.5 in January from 48.3 in the previous month, meaning both the manufacturing and service sectors shrank at a slower pace. While this hardly sounds [...]

Any Short-Term EUR/USD Rally May Fade

01/23/2012 in Trading, Trading Forex

Barclays Capital recommends against buying the EUR/USD even if signs emerge that Greece and its private-sector creditors are making progress on a debt deal. “Although a positive outcome may reduce the EUR risk premium, the balance of risks, a slowing real economy and further easing by the ECB all suggest fading any short-term rally in [...]

Year of the Dragon in FOREX

01/22/2012 in General

Chinese markets will be closed this week as the Chinese celebrate New Year and the Year of the Dragon. In Asia this Monday morning we are looking forward to the release of the Australian Q4 Producer Price Index Australian Q4 PPI expected + 0.4 % q/q + 3.0 % y/y from 0.6 % q/q 3.5 [...]

Paving the way for EUR/USD downside with recent position squaring

01/18/2012 in Trading, Trading Forex

Recent upside move of EURO seems more a result of short covering rather than fresh position initiations ahead of upcoming heavy event risks – Portugal T-bill auction and German bond auction on Wednesday followed by French and Spanish bond auctions on Thursday. Greek-private sector debt swap negotiations also set to resume today and involved parties [...]

MF Global Told JP Morgan That Using Customer Funds Was OK

01/17/2012 in General

MF Global gave JP Morgan assurance that the failed brokers transfer of customer funds to pay an overdraft was allowable: The assurance was given by an MF Global treasurer, Edith O’Brien, or someone in her office, after JPMorgan wrote asking for confirmation that the transfer was in accordance with regulations, said the person, who declined [...]

$100/bbl Magnetic For Crude

01/16/2012 in Oil

Traders should look for the $100 mark for the West Texas Intermediate crude contract to act as a magnet, despite the 16-month low of the EUR/USD following Standard & Poor’s decision to downgrade France‘s credit rating. Nymex floor-trading is shut Monday for the Martin Luther King holiday. Traders should also acknowledge any deterioration in domestic [...]