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
Precious metals were mostly higher on Monday amid weaker US Dollar and soaring borrowing costs in Spain and Italy. The commodity group was bolstered after the Fed officials said that weakness of the US economy is likely to lead to more loosening monetary policies. Gold climbed 0.24%, drawing strength from the Fed comments regarding next round of asset-purchasing programme. Silver rose
German DAX Index added 1.21% to trade at 6473.30 at the time of writing. The stock index was buoyed by rising Eurozone's optimism after the EU leads eased bailout terms for Spain. All industries within the index posted strong gains. Top-performers were consumer goods and technology. Adidas, Metro and Henkel moved higher by 2.60%, 1.17% and 1.95%, respectively. In technology
FTSE 100 Index soared 1.48% to trade at 5676.80 after UK factory output posted an increase of 1.2% in May on a monthly basis compared to expectations for a 0.1% decline. Unexpected jump in Italian industrial production also supported UK stocks. Barclays added 2.1% as the firm's former CEO agreed to forgo deferred bonuses after LIBOL scandal. Marks & Spencer
Asian stocks eased down on Tuesday after China's trade data indicated that domestic demand continued to weaken in June. Imports rose only by annualized 6.3% in June, confronting expectations for a 12.7% increase. Hang Seng Index lost 0.16% over the trading day. Meanwhile, concerns that regulators will continue China's prudent property policies weighted down on property developers, with Sino Land
Japanese equities declined after China reported a slowdown in imports' growth in June. Nikon Corp tumbled more than 7% as Intel Corp decided to invest in another Japanese chip-making equipment manufacturer. Oil and gas sector was the top-performer on lingering oil supply worries, with Showa Shell Sekiyu climbing 1.76%. Meanwhile, financials followed bearish trend, dropping by 1.19%. Aozora Bank, Mizuho
Dow Jones Industry Average inched down 0.28% to trade at 12736.29 amid dismal inflation data form China and Eurozone's fiscal instability. However, speculation that the Fed will launch extra monetary stimulus limited losses of the blue chips index. Oil and gas companies moved lower on global energy demand concerns. Chevron and Exxon Mobil both plunged by 0.59% and 1.36%. Meanwhile,
S&P 500 Index closed lower on Monday as Friday's disappointing labour data continued to weight on the US stock market. Adding pressure on the US equities, Spain's borrowing costs soared to almost 7%, level considered to be unsustainable. S&P 500 closed 0.16% lower at 1349.25. Apple rose 0.72% despite losing the case filed by Samsung Electronics. Shares of Celgene added
The Federal Reserve announced growth of USD 17.12 billion of consumer credit in May. It is USD 8.62 billion more than predicted by Wall Street economists. Revolving credits (through credit cards) increased by USD 8.01 billion, whereas non-revolving, including cars and student loans, gained USD 9.10 billion. Consumers are spending more , which is likely to stimulate the economy and new work places creation,
China is about to face a deflationary spiral. In 2011 the real money supply (M1) decreased the most since the modern history of China records. Additionally, producer and consumer prices fell during the last months. Orders from Japanese machine factories dropped by 14.8% in May, which is the biggest fall since 2001. Moreover, the joint volume of lending by the four biggest banks contracted
China's imports grew only by 6.3% last month, confronting expectations of an increase of 11.3% as seen from the results of the Dow Jones Newswires pool. The country's exports added 11.3% in June 2012; however, they are still below their peak of 15.3% in May this year. This slowdown shows that the Chinese economy needs additional stimulus, say experts.
Italian national statistics office announced on Tuesday, July 4, that industrial production recovered by 0.8% in May after contraction of 1.9% in April. However, economists still expect economy to contract by 2.4% by the end of the year. Total industrial output declined by 6.9% in May for the year period. Mario Monti, Italian Prime Minister, started to implement austerity measures for the economy in December 2011.
Norway's government managed to stop 16-day strike and pushed oil and gas workers to continue their job. This intervention will lead to the arbitration process in the National Wages Board to end disputes about retirement rights. Oil prices rose on Monday. The Norwegian Oil Industry Association assumes the strike to cost NOK2.9 billion.
As the sovereign debt crisis prevails in the Eurozone, the 17-nation currency continues to depreciate further. On Tuesday, July 10, the Euro has declined by 0.4% against the Us Dollar, reaching two-year low. Joseph Capurso, a strategist from Commonwealth Bank of Australia, claimed the Euro is expected to stay especially weak against the US Dollar and the Yen. Current trading rates are USD 1.2297 and
EU governments will start with providing EUR100 billion loans to help Spanish banks to recover and could write off these costs from the Spain's government balance sheet. EUR30 billion will be provided by the end of July to support banks directly, without adding to the existing government debts as it was initially planned. Policymakers also expressed their intentions to offer
Economists changed forecasts about India from 0% growth to 4.8% expansion this year. Such change was determined by Industrial Production index that rose from 0.1% in April to 1.8% in the beginning of July. Infrastructure sector also recovered slightly, with its output growing by 3.8% in May on an annual basis. However, eight core industries faced contraction. Though the economy growth is still below average
As reported by the World Gold Council, the demand for gold will strengthen in 2012 and reach 870 metric tons,13% more than in 2011. Commerzbank AG pointed out in its report the increasing interest from the growing middle class and the rising capacity of China's Central Bank as main factors. China is on the second place after India with a