German Chancellor Merkel and French President Sarkozy meet today in Berlin to create a dominant plan for saving the Euro in upcoming three months. Both officials prepare to stretch out a rulebook determining the fiscal discipline discussed during summit on December 9. Rulebook is supposed to provide guidelines for fiscal regulations across the Euro Zone.
17-nation currency reached 11-year record low against Japanese domestic currency and traded 0.3% from the lowest reading in 16 months before French and German leader meeting today in Berlin. Officials are planning to come up with a rulebook promoting fiscal discipline. Euro lost 0.2% reaching ¥97.74 and dropped 0.1% against US Dollar to $1.2704. EUR/USD currently is trading at $1.2717 while EUR/JPY is trading at
US stocks mostly fell on Friday as the sharp drop of Euro against the greenback offset gains from better than expected US employment data. Dow Jones Industrial Average lost 0.5% or 55.78 points at 12,359.92. S&P 500 Index gave up 0.3% or 3.25 points to 1,277.81. On Nasdaq Composite Index managed to break the trend and closed higher 0.2% or 4.36 points higher at 2,674.22.
Most Asian stocks traded lower on Monday as renewed concerns about the Euro Zone debt trouble weighted on Euro, pushing it down to $1.2687. Hong Kong's Hang Seng Index lost 0.8%, Australia's S&P/ASX 200 index fell 0.1% while South Korea's Kospi declined 1.3%. Only Shanghai Composite Index retreated and gained 1.6%. Japanese markets are closed today for a holiday.
US employers managed to exceed expectations in creating new jobs adding more than 200,000 new jobs in December. The unemployment rate declined to 8.5%, hitting three-year low while the salaries and working hours jumped. Better than expected results follow increase in manufacturing activities and improved consumer confidence thus signaling on economic recovery of the US.
Canadian unemployment rate increased more than expected in December. The rate hit 7.5% on the seasonally adjusted basis as compared to 7.4% in November, reported Statistics Canada. Experts predicted the unemployment rate to stay unchanged at 7.4% in December.
Spanish and Italian 10-year bonds saw an increase in yields by 5 basis points to 5.63% and by 16 basis points to 7.11%, respectively as traders await bond auction of both countries due next week. Costs of borrowing above 7% are considered unsustainable.
Deutsche Bank AG cut the forecast for metals' prices for this year citing negative economic outlook and high probability of firmer dollar. Industry metals faced the most essential cuts with nickel's expected price was decreased by 19% to $18,625/ton, copper by 18.8% to $7,350/ton and aluminium by 17.8% to $2,138/ton. Precious metals are also likely to fall with gold falling by 3.9% to $1,825/oz, silver
Germany's factory orders decreased more than expected in December. The orders declined by 4.8% on a seasonally adjusted basis from 5.2% increase in November, reported Bundesministerium für Wirtschaft und Technologie. Experts predicted the Germany's factory orders to slip by 1.6% in December.
Retail sales in the Euro Zone decreased by 0.8% in November on a monthly basis after adding 0.1% in the preceding month, reported Eurostat. The volume of sales declined by 2.5% in November year-to-year while experts predicted the figure to decline by 0.4% monthly and by 2.5% yearly.
Worldwide coffee exports achieved 7.78 million bags in November from 7.75 million a year before, reported ICO. However, global coffee exports declined by 3% in the period between October and November as compared to the same period in 2010. The global coffee output is estimated as 28.6 million bags between 2011 and 2012, according to ICO forecast. Currently, the coffee futures for delivery in March
Swiss CPI decreased more than initially projected in December, according to official data. The indicator remained at minus 0.2% seasonally adjusted unchanged from November, reported Swiss Federal Statistical Office. Experts expected the consumer price inflation to decline by 0.1% in December.
HSBC cut its gold price forecast to $1,850 from $2,025 for this year and to $1,800 an ounce from $1,850 for 2013. The bank did not changed the forecast for the period between 2015 and 2019, expecting the gold price to fall to $1,500.The bank says the gold is likely to recover this year and the market sentiment will remain bullish supported by
Euro Zone's unemployment rate remained steady at the record high of 10.3% seasonally adjusted in November, reported Eurostat. The number of people unemployed jumped by 45,000 in November to 16.372 million. The unemployment rate was in compliance with expectations.
HTC Corp announced the 26% drop in profit to NT$11.02 billion in Q4 citing increased competition and weak global demand. The revenue for the period decreased by 2.5% to NT$101.42 billion from NT$104.01 billion in 2010. The company has not commented the results.
Japan Airlines is planning to relist its shares to the Tokyo Stock Exchange as one of the steps towards recovery after bankruptcy. JAL is likely to sell shares totaling between 500B yen and 1Tn yen and in case relisting is successful the company will become the world's largest listed carrier, reports say.
Gasoline prices started 2012 with the all-time high of $3.28 per gallon, reported AAA Daily Fuel Gauge. Analysts expect the commodity to be extremely volatile this year. The record high price will negatively impact customers as gasoline price tends to peak later, usually between April and July, said Tom Kloza, economist from Oil Price Information Service.
The Yuan is expected to face large fluctuations in 2012 but mainly appreciate by 2%-3% against the USD over the year, said professor at Fudan University. The central bank of China essentially increased a daily reference rate to 6.3 Yuan per one USD. The Chinese currency is allowed to fluctuate by 0.5% above or below the reference rate. Wider currency fluctuations will positively affect
Belgium's budget for this year was rejected by the EC that assessed Belgian projections as overoptimistic. The country expects the deficit to narrow to 2.8% of GDP with the GDP expansion of 0.8% while the EC projects a deficit of 3.1% of GDP with the same expected growth figure.
Crude oil fell during the electronic trade, but remained above $101 a barrel as investors anticipate US employment report due today. On the New York Mercantile Exchange, crude oil futures for delivery in February declined by 24 cents to $101.57 a barrel at the Asian trade. The drop follows a 1.4% decline after data on the last week's increase in the US inventories issued
Alibaba Group Holdings Ltd. may face difficulties in acquiring Yahoo Inc. after it hired a new CEO. Yahoo appointed Scott Thomson; the move indicates Yahoo's unwillingness to sell its assets in the nearest future, said Xie Wen. Thompson's prime objective is to focus on the core business, innovation and revenue growth.
PricewaterhouseCoopers was fined £1.4m by the AADB for audit of the JP Morgan bank. JP Morgan was fined £33.3m in 2010 as the company failed to protect money of the clients by adding them to its own. The PwC was fined for not spotting this practice conducted by the bank between 2002 and 2008.
Greece's latest bailout package is likely to be bigger than EUR130 billion initially planned taken the deteriorated financial situation in the country, reported Financial Times Deutschland. The planned amount will be insufficient as the sum eventually will depend on the probable private participation, the FTD added.
Lifting of the China's domestic demand will be of critical importance for the government this year, said Chen Deming, Commerce Minister. Despite global downturn, China's economic expansion sees favourable conditions for boosting domestic consumption, he added. Recently, the government announced tax rebates and subsidies for purchases of appliances and vehicles and analysts expect officials to design more policies for consumption increase.