Energy commodities, excluding natural gas, posted slight losses on Monday amid appreciating US Dollar and negative headlines from the single currency union. Meanwhile, signs of lower OPEC production limited losses of the commodity group. Crude oil dropped as hopes for stimulus measures from the Fed and ECB failed to outweigh lingering demand concerns. Brent oil lost 0.25% as spreading debt crisis in
Dow Jones Industry Average inched down 0.02% on Monday ahead of two-day FOMC meeting due to start on Tuesday. Negative headlines from Eurozone weighted down on the stock index. On Monday, Spain reported that its GDP continued to contract in Q2. Shares of Chevron edged up 0.51% a day after the company reported that it plans to invest USD2 billion
Industry metals, except for copper, advanced on Monday as potential monetary easing worldwide is likely to boost demand prospects for base metals. At the same time, negative news flow from Eurozone limited the upward trend of the commodity group. Aluminum prolonged its rally on improving China's demand. However, high aluminum production levels in China capped the upswing. Copper came under notable pressure
US stocks started Monday on a positive note amid hopes for easing measures from the Fed and ECB. However, equities drifted lower after release of weak regional manufacturing report. S&P 500 dropped 0.5% to close at 1,385.30. Telecommunications sector was the top-performer, climbing 0.65%. Sprint Nextel advanced 4.64% while Frontier Communications Company remained unchanged. Utility firms also moved higher with
Spain's government has doubled loans for 17 semi-autonomous regions to 41 billion Euros, as local authorities failed accessing capital markets to get debt redemptions, defray suppliers and fund the deficits. Terms of the backstops determine that in the case of region's default government would get repaid before existing bondholders.
The number of jobless people increased by a seasonally-adjusted 7,000 to 2.89 million, the adjusted unemployment rate held at 6.8%, the Federal Labor Agency announced on Tuesday. In July, German business confidence dropped to the lowest in two years amid market confusion and the Eurozone recession. The European Commission estimated a 0.3% decline for Eurozone economy in general.
Italy's jobless rate climbed to a seasonally-adjusted 10.8%, record high since the Q3 of 1999, Istat reported on Tuesday. Italy's economy slipped for a third quarter amid intensifying Europe' debt crisis and Mario Monti's austerity actions, which deepened countries recession. Youth was hit the most, with unemployment among people between the ages of 15 and 24 at 34.3% in June.
On Tuesday, The National Bank of New Zealand reported a net 15.1% of business outlook survey respondents expect economic situation to develop during next 12 month, compared with 12.6% in June. A net 24.0% of enterprises await their own conditions to improve. Net confidence is calculated as the percentage of pessimists deducted from the percentage of optimists.
Three stocks dropped for every two that gained on the U.S. exchanges amid doubts that the two-day rally of S&P 500 had outperformed economic reality. The Standard & Poor's 500 Index fell 0.1% to 1,385.30, after climbing 3.6% in two days.The Dow Jones Industrial Average slipped less than 0.1% to 13,073.01.
German retail sales dropped third month in a row in June on concerns about the results of the Eurozone crisis. On Tuesday, the Federal Statistics Office reported that sales, adjusted for seasonal swings and inflation, decreased 0.1% from May, when they tumbled 0.3%. While entrepreneurs' and investors' confidence slipped in July, consumer sentiment is expected to hit five-month high.
Canada's Dollar hit the highest in almost 11 weeks against the U.S Dollar on beliefs that Federal Reserve will act further to boost U.S. economy and ECB will undertake extra monetary stimulus. The Loonie increased 0.2% to C$1.0016 per U.S. Dollar, it buys 99.84 U.S. cents. The last time parity between the two occurred was May 15, when the Loonie
Global grain trade is expected to fall 4.9% in the 2012-13 marketing year, the U.S. Department of Agriculture reports. Arid weather from Europe to Australia and the worst drought in U.S. in more than 50 years determines potential decline in grain cargoes and unprofitable rates for cargoes' owners. Baltic Exchange data shows 17% drop in estimated forward delivery agreements for
The Aussie touched a four-month high after a report revealed the number of nation's building permits tumbled 2.5% in June, less than economists estimated. The Australian Dollar rose 0.1% to $1.0517, after touching the highest since March 27. Australia's 10-year bond yields dropped to 3.11%.
Eurozone economic confidence declined more than expected, falling to the lowest level in almost 3 years in July, indicating economic recession extended into the Q3 as policy makers have been struggling to combat the debt crisis. Executive and consumer sentiment index dropped from 89.9 to 87.9 in June, the lowest level since September 2009.
Japan's unemployment rate unexpectedly fell by 0.1% to 4.3% in June, beating economists' expectations, who estimated the rate to remain unchanged at 4.4%. This is an optimistic sign for the Japanese economy, which is struggling with the Yen's strengthening 6 % against the US Dollar since March and curbing export demand due to the Eurozone debt crisis.
South Korea's industrial output fell 0.4% in June for the first time in 3 months, after climbing 1.3% in May. The decline of the industrial production was caused by the worsening Eurozone debt crisis and China's slowing economy, which curbed export demand. Manufacturer's confidence declined to a 3-year low for August, after the slowest economic growth in 3 years.
The Fed's Chairman Ben Bernanke might reduce interest rate on bank reserves to decrease short-term borrowing costs and stimulate the U.S. expansion. Bernanke said that cutting the interest rate from 0.25% is one of the easing steps of the Fed to lower the unemployment, which has been above 8% for more than 3 years.
German Finance Minister Wolfgang Schaeuble and U.S. Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner have called for a closer cooperation to stabilize the world and European economy. The top officials supported sale of bonds in Ireland, welcomed success of Portugal in meeting the programme requirements. Moreover, they discussed efforts made by Italy and Spain to carry out structural and fiscal reforms.
According to the Chrysler Group LLC quarterly report, the automaker ended second quarter with $436 million in net income, compared to $370 million loss a year earlier. Sales jumped 23 per cent to $16.8 billion, while sales of passenger cars in the U.S. soared 42 per cent. Net industrial debt declined to $432 million, compared to $1.3 billion at the end of the
The European Central Bank to reveal some bold actions on Thursday, including the interest rate decision, resume of bond-buying program and even the announcement of quantitative easing is possible. Last Thursday Mario Draghi pledged to support the shared currency, with the ECB to resume bond-buying program as the yields on Spanish and Italian bonds reached Eurozone's record levels.
On Monday, July 30, copper ended a three-day rally as investors awaited the ECB and the Fed meetings on Thursday and Tuesday, respectively. Copper futures for September settlement erased 0.2 per cent to $3.419 per pound after adding 2.2 per cent in longest rally since the middle of June. Meanwhile, other metals like aluminum, tin, nickel, zinc and lead advanced during today's London's trading session.
Inflation rate in the country with the world's second biggest economy is expected to ease in July, as food prices were lower this month. China's consumer price Index may fall to 1.7 per cent, the 30-month low. In order to boost the economy, the monetary policy may cut the benchmark interest rate and reserve requirement ratio during the third quarter.
Oil futures for September settlement erased 0.2 per cent to $89.92 per barrel during today's New York trading session in anticipation of Fed's meeting on Tuesday. As to other oil related products, gasoline for August delivery advanced 0.8 per cent, to $2.91 per gallon; heating oil for August settlement declined by 0.24 per cent to $2.88 per gallon, while September natural gas soared 5 per
The Euro lost some ground versus the U.S. dollar as investors are getting more pessimistic about ECB's policy actions later this week. The shared currency dropped by 0.4 per cent to $1.2251, from Friday's $1.2320. On the contrary, the ICE dollar Index added 0.42 per cent to 82.895, and the WSJ dollar Index increased by 0.28 per cent. On Thursday, the European Central Bank's monthly