Despite recent announcement of the supercommittee's failure to implement deficit reduction measures and high volatility of the stock markets many experts claim the US economy shows signs of recovery. Retail sales increased more than expected by 1.1%. In case the trend continues the GDP growth might be more than 3% in last quarter this year. Moreover, the number of unemployment claims decreased from 400,000 to
Xstrata PLC., the world largest coal exporting company, expressed concerns regarding some new details included in a draft of the mining tax law in Australia. The law was discussed earlier by the Australian government and the largest coal miners. However, small companies complained the tax gives advantages to large producers and decreases the tax revenue for the government.
Crude oil futures increased during the Asian hours in Nymex electronic trading. Oil for January delivery edged up 8 cents to $97.01 a barrel. The increase covered losses of the previous session caused by worries about possible decrease of the France's triple A credit rating and US announcement about failure of the supercommittee to implement measures for decreasing deficit.
Germany predicts good holiday shopping session as German consumers prepare to spend 2.7% more on their Christmas gifts and other related goods than last year. According to predictions, Germans might spend approximately €630 per household on decorations, gifts, food and drinks, or about €25 more than other Europeans who plan to spend on average €605. Analysts explain the planned increase in spending with relatively low unemployment
Export-driven Asian economies are likely to be essentially impacted by lower demand caused by turmoil in the US and Europe. The growth in East Asia slows down; the forecast is 8.2% growth this year and 7.8% in 2012, as reported by the World Bank. Asian economies are strongly positioned but to sustain the growth level they have to do their best to stimulate domestic demand,
On Monday trading session European stocks recovered from 6-week low as rating companies restated the US credit rating. Stoxx Europe 600 Index gained 0.9% to 226.77 in London morning trading session after experiencing loss of 3.2% yesterday. Mining companies boosted index with Xstrata Plc (XTA) and Antofagasta Plc (ANTO) both adding 2%.
Japan's Nikkei Stock Average and the Australian S&P/ASX 200 index dropped by 0.9%, South Korea's Kospi lost 0.2%. Hong Kong's Hang Seng Index decreased by 1% and the Shanghai Composite Index lost 0.9%. Experts claim the investors' sentiment was impacted by developments in the Eurozone and failure of the US supercommittee.
Demonstrations in Egypt have been going on for 3 days. People protest against undemocratic government that fails to improve human rights. Thousands of people organize demonstrations in Tahrir Square in Cairo. More than 26 died in violence and hundreds were injured during these 3 days.
Many technical companies got listed last week. The successful IPO of Groupon Inc. gave a start to more than eight IPOs in the tech industry. When the market shows a sign of recovery, there will be a lot of IPOs, said Scott Sweet, research director of the IPO Boutique. However, the market is still too weak for large number of IPOs to be successful.
UBS AG, the Switzerland's biggest bank announced that Yasuki Matsui, chairman of the investment banking unit in Japan is going to resign. Matsui is the third UBS Japanese executive after Taiji Okusu, Credit Suisse's manager of investment banking and CEO of Credit Suisse Paul Kuo who resigns from European bank this year. UBS did not announce reasons for Matsui resignation. In September UBS reported $2.3
Credit Suisse the second largest Switzerland's bank is planning to reduce about 85 positions within its investment banking division. The job cuts in London and other cities are a part of 2000 job cuts reported in July. This month Credit Suisse claimed to remove 1500 jobs as bank's investment banking division reported for loss in 3rd quarter, the first since 2008. Additionally bank is pressed by
On Monday US stocks experienced a sharp decline as American lawmakers did not manage to reach an agreement on budget cuts that would allow reducing national debt. S&P 500 Index experience losses for a 4th session in a row and closed 1.9% or 22.67 points down. Dow Jones Industrial Average gave up 248.85 points, or 2.1% while Nasdaq Composite Index decreased 49.36 points, or 1.9%. According to
Tokyo Stock Exchange Group Inc is starting takeover process of Osaka Securities Exchange Co. The estimated value of deal is approximately $1.68 bn. Japanese stock markets have been decline since 1988. The country has lost its position as the world's second largest stock market to China. According to Takeshi Fukushima, asset manager at Yasuda Asset Management Co, the merger is reasonable strategy as volumes of trading in Japanese
World Bank claimed that Chinese economy is striving towards soft landing with 8% growth in 2012. What is more, also other Asian countries have enough fiscal capacity to protect their economies from intensification of Euro region's debt crisis. According to World Bank, Hong Kong, Japan, South Korea, India and Taiwan is likely to experience a slight slowdown in growth from 8.2% in 2011 to 7.8%
Recent figures show that the euro zone's crisis impacted Hungary severally. The country asked the IMF for financial help as the government's debt had increased by 82% of GDP and value of Hungary's currency, the forint, had fell. Hungary has sent an official request for financial assistance. IMF teams returned to Washington from Budapest to discuss further action.
Airline stocks fell on Monday as European debt crisis spreads. The NYSE Arca Airline Index experienced decline by 3%. The industry benchmark index fell even more than the Standard & Poor's 500 Index. Stocks of Public Airways declined by 4.4%, US Airways decreased by 3%, the Ryanair Holdings fell by 1.7%.
German Bundesbank predicts German growth may slow down next year as European debt crisis destroys exports demand. The central bank reduced its growth forecast for 2012 between 0.5% and 1% compared to prediction of 1.8% reported in June. According to Bundesbank's monthly bulletin, Germany is likely to face serious challenges during next months as several its export partners are exposed to default risk.
The ECB announced it settled 8 billion bond purchases as the European debt crisis continues to spread. At the moment bonds purchased by ECB from governments with financial difficulties totaled 194.5 billion euros since 2010. The majority of purchased bonds are Italian and Spanish, said experts in the field.
According to Li Daokui, associate of monetary policy board and consultant at the People's Bank of China, the country's economy may reach zero or even negative trade balance by the end of 2013. China's diminishing trade surplus is predicted to decline to $150bn this year while its yearly GDP may fall from 8% to 1.5%. Li pointed out that China is likely to face
The European Commission is going to discuss a green paper regarding three scenarios for issuing bonds by the members of the Eurozone, reported the Wall Street Journal. The first option implies discontinuing of the bond issuance and forcing the governments to raise funds on the bonds jointly guaranteed by all 17 members while the current bonds will be transformed into euro bonds. The second scenario
Treasury prices increased on Monday as lack of actions in the Congress put off investors from buying risky assets like stocks. Investors seek safer assets as dollar and treasuries. Higher treasury caused a decline in 10-year notes yields by 6 basis points to 1.96%.
US stock futures declined sharply on Monday as concerns about European and US leaders' inability to tackle debt turmoil surged. Chinese fuelled anxiety by predicting extended global slowdown. Futures on the Standard & Poor's 500 lost 16 points reaching 1,197.9, while those on Dow Jones Industrial Average dropped 139 points hitting 11,628. Nasdaq futures gave up 21 points attaining 2,228.75.
On Monday Gilead Sciences Inc. announced about the takeover of Pharmasset Inc. for $137 cash a share; the total sum being $11 billion. The share price of Pharmasset Inc. almost doubled after the announcement. Friday's closing price was $69.02. Gilead Sciences is going to finance the acquisition partly by cash on hand, partly by debt financing.
Softer energy market forced William Blair to decrease the profit forecast of the General Electric Co. However, its share price is predicted to increase by 13% to 68 cents annually as compared to 60 cents at the moment. William Blair declined his earning forecast for General Electric to $1.56 a share from $1.60. Fact Research expects even lower earnings of $1.54 a share. After