UK stocks declined on lingering concerns over the Eurozone's economy. The German Constitutional Court delayed its decision regarding planned changes in bailout rules on Tuesday. Financial stocks extended losses, with Lloyds Banking, Barclays and HSBC tumbling by 1.68%, 1.20% and 0.34%, respectively. Commodity producers also declined. Rio Tinto and BHP Billiton retreating 1.25% and 1.14%. Meanwhile, Glencore International soared 1.53%
Hong Kong shares closed slightly higher on Wednesday as strong performance of the China's real estate industry outweighed weakness of financials. Hang Seng Index rose 0.1% to 19,419.9 as stable investments in infrastructure provided additional support for the cement and railway stocks. Financial sector lost 0.10% after reports that Hong Kong's banks were exposed to bed loans. China Construction Bank
Nikkei 225 Index moved lower by 0.08% on Wednesday's session to trade at 8,851 ahead of the FOMS minutes release due later in the day. However, speculation that the Bank of Japan will announce additional easing measures after Thursday's meeting supported Japanese shares. Meanwhile, chip-makers were dragged lower by weakness of the US technology sector. Advantest and Dainippon Screen declined
Spot gold prices went up on Wednesday, July 11, after biggest decline since June. Gain of 0.4% brought price to USD 1574.50 an ounce after 1.4% decline on July 10. However August-delivery gold futures contract fell by 0.3% to USD 1574.80 in the USA. Though gold prices now are highly dependent on Eurozone's finance ministers decision on resolving debt crisis. Analysts expect spot gold to
Rural commodities apart from coffee declined on Monday on speculation that weather conditions in the US top-growing regions are likely to improve in the nearest future. Meanwhile, traders are cautious ahead of the USDA global crop report due on Wednesday. Wheat fell as expectations for cooler weather and rains in the northern part of the US Great Plains will ease
Energy commodities lost supply risk premium on Tuesday and ended the day on the negative note. Stronger US Dollar and continuous turmoil in the single currency union also created notable pressure on the commodity group. Crude oil plunged more than 2% after Norway's government demanded oil workers to stop the strike. Brent oil retreated as China's oil imports dropped in June.
Dow Jones Industry Average followed bearish trend on Tuesday, falling by 0.65% to 12,653.1. Investors tended to switch to safe-haven assets despite anticipation of FOMC meeting. Falling commodity prices and forthcoming corporate earnings reports added pressure on the US blue chips index. The top-loser was aluminum maker, Alcoa, which cut its earnings estimate for 2012 amid weak aluminum prices. However,
Industry metals declined in a choppy session ahead of the FOMC meeting due on Wednesday. Moreover, weak imports data from China and spiking borrowing costs in Spain and Italy weighted on base metals. Aluminum lost 0.68% amid strong greenback and global growth fears. However, Alcoa predicted stronger demand in the next quarters thus bolstering light metal's price. Copper declined as recent 17.5%
Precious metals tumbled on Tuesday on weaker Euro as uncertainties in the Eurozone continued to mount. Moreover, Fed member denied rumours about extension of asset-purchasing programme thus sending the commodity group lower. Gold moved lower after Italian PM said that additional backup may be needed to reduce Italy's borrowing costs. Silver followed gold's suit, falling by 1.96%. Mixed equities and an
S&P 500 declined by 0.81% to 1,341.47 on Tuesday amid lower profits at technology firms and sharp fall in energy prices. Traders are cautious ahead of the upcoming corporate reports. Capital IQ reported that firms in the index are likely to face an average 2% decline in earnings in Q2. Meanwhile, Advanced Micro Devices posted a more than 11% drop
10-year government bonds added value after Germany sold them at an auction for EUR 4.15 billion, with an interest rate of 1.31%. After the sale the yield dropped another basis point to 3.30%, as reported by the Bundesbank on July 11.
Due to the slowdown in the international economic growth, European stocks are weakening. The Stoxx Europe 600 Index lost 0.3% and reached 254.89. However, futures on Standard & Poor 500 Index and the MSCI Asia Pacific Index added 0.5% and respectively 0.1%.
The Prime Minister of Spain, Marianno Rajoy, announced new tax boost and government spending cuts of EUR 65 billion. Sales levy will be increased from 18% to 21%. To lower government spending unemployment benefits will be reduced and no tax rebate will be provided for home buyers. Moreover local governments will be consolidated, while not all public workers will receive bonus at the end of the
China's export is boosting and in comparison with previous year readings trade surplus increased by 42.9% to USD 31.7 billion in June 2012. However, export growth slowed down from 15.3% in April to 11.3%. Moreover, citing China's customs bureau, growth in imports halved from May's 12.7% to 6.3% in June. Such drop was mainly determined by reduced amount of commodity imports. Although the Chinese economy growth
The oil prices started to recover from being low for a week. August-delivery oil increased by USD 0.84 to USD 84.75 a barrel on Mercantile Exchange in New York. Contract prices in total were down by 14% this year. Although, August-settlement Brent crude gained 0.6% in London, being USD 98.52 a barrel now. Last week US oil inventories fell by 695 000 barrels, reported by American
The International Labour Organisation said the Eurozone may lose 4.5m more jobs in a period of next four years if not to abandon austerity. It also reported that all 17 Eurozone's countries will be in trouble, as those already suffering as the healthiest ones. According to Juan Somavia, ILO director-general, unless the necessary measures are undertaken, the unemployment will be
The Yen remains quite stable against its counterparts. It went up against the US Dollar on Wednesday morning, July 11, from USD 79.43 to USD 79.37. German court's decision about the Eurozone's bailout mechanism as well as stagnated manufacturing allowed the Yen to appreciate. The Japanese national currency beat record high against the Euro and touched EUR 97.10 trading rate. Though analysts claim
The United States reported about the progress in talks on creating perspective trade agreement with Pacific Rim countries including Peru, Chile, Malaysia, New Zealand, Vietnam, Singapore, Australia and Brunei. US officials said the trade with Pacific is a high priority. Negotiations included such topics as telecommunications, customs, cross-border services and government procurement.
The Australian Dollar appreciated against the Euro from EUR 83.20 to 83.24 on Wednesday, July 11. Moreover, the Australian Dollar gained 0.1% against the US Dollar on Tuesday, July 10, in Sydney. Therefore, trading rate now is USD 1.0204, whereas the Aussie depreciated against the Yen to JPY 80.66. Consumer confidence noticeably improved in Australia. Sentiment index advanced by 3.7% reaching highest reading (99.1) since January.
China's 5% cut in retail oil prices has caused an immediate effect. Gas prices will be diminished by CNY420 a tonne, diesel prices by CNY400, according to the National Development and Reform Commission. This is already a third cut in a period of two months which has lead to the lowest inflation in almost two years (latest CPI figure rose
Mariano Rajoy, Spanish Prime Minister, is likely to set out fresh austerity measures addressing the parliament. He is supposed to rise VAT and cut unemployment benefits and social securities. These measures are charged by EU government in return for urgent aid to Spanish banks and concession in Spain's budget deficit reduction targets.
Farm commodities skyrocketed on Monday after meteorologists reported that abnormally hot weather is likely to persist in the US next weekend. At the same time, recent rainfalls in Brazil damaged coffee and sugar crops in the country. Wheat approached 14-month high as drought in the past weeks curbed spring harvest in the northern part of the US Great Plants. Corn rallied
Energy markets soared on Monday on global supply worries as strikes of oil workers in Norway threatened to completely halt oil production of the largest European oil producer. Norway's crude oil output has already fallen by 13% over the last three weeks. Crude oil advanced as supply disruption from Norway and start of total Iranian oil embargo both weighted down on
Industry metals rose on Monday on easing hopes from the Fed and softer US Dollar. However, the upswing was limited by escalated global growth concerns after Spanish borrowing costs surged to an unsustainable level of 7%. Aluminum jumped as expected easing measures are likely to increase light metal's demand. However, economic slowdown in China and closures of mines both weighted down