Markets improved a bit on Monday after a week of heavy losses, but despite G8's call for euro zone to stay unite, investors are still cautious. At G8 summit leaders of industrialized economies agreed to fight financial distress and revive global economy, but they did not propose any specific actions, while for the time being the main threat is coming from European debt crisis. Greeks
National Association for Business Economics (NABE) revised upwards its forecast of monthly job increase in the U.S.A. for this year to 188,000 from 170,000 in its Q1 forecast. NABE estimates that GDP will grow by 2.4 percent in 2012. Growth will become faster in 2013 - 2.8 percent.
Australian consumer spending declined by 1.3% on a seasonally adjusted basis in April, according to Commonwealth Business Sales Index. The card transactions survey indicated that customers still spend but prefer to buy services rather than goods. Australians are focused on experience nowadays rather than just on physical goods, said Craig James, economist from CommSec.
Dollar fell against its major counterparts during Asian trade on Monday as leaders at G8 summit eased concerns over the Euro Zone's crisis by suggesting keeping Greece within the single currency union. The US Dollar Index that measures its performance against basket of six main currencies dropped by 0.16% to 81.09 US Dollars. Meanwhile, EUR/USD traded at 1.2811, gaining 0.25%
Australia and Malaysia are set to sign free trade agreement on Tuesday, said Craig Emerson, Australia's Trade and Competitiveness Minister. The new agreement will allow 97.6% Malaysian goods imports from Australia to exempt from tariffs while the figure may climb to 99% by 2015. Closer economic ties between Austria and Malaysia will improve economic environment for Australian exporters of wide
Yahoo announced that it agreed to sell half of its 40% stake back to Alibaba. Yahoo will raise about 7.1 billion US Dollars from the deal. Alibaba will pay 6.3 billion US Dollars in cash and 800 million US Dollars in preferred stock. The agreement will allow Alibaba to think about IPO while Yahoo will be able to buy back
Crude oil price surged during Asian trade on Monday as Iran announced it would not discontinue its nuclear program that, it claims, serves civil purposes. However, growing OPEC supply and persistent Euro Zone woes capped the upswing. Light, sweet crude oil for July delivery traded at 92.03 US Dollars per barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange, gaining 0.25%.
Gold futures extended its rally during Asian trade on Monday as indications that US economy y may need additional monetary stimulus continued to lend support for the yellow metal. COMEX gold June contract traded at 1,594.45 US Dollars per troy ounce on the New York Mercantile Exchange, rising by 0.16% since opening.
Morgan Stanley reported that it expects China's economy to expand by 8.5% in 2012 as compared to previous prediction of a 9% growth. Morgan Stanley attributed the forecast cut to slower than expected growth between January and April of 2012 and later than initially expected easing measures. The forecast downgrade came after China announced its GDP growth in Q1 attained
Gold surged over 2 percent yesterday, but lost all its progress on Friday when euro area crisis worsened. Euro weakened again as Fitch downgraded Greek sovereign debt to CCC and Moody cut the rating of 16 Spanish banks. Gold slid down by USD 1.45 to USD 1,571. A weekly decline of 0.6 percent is expected later today. If so, it will be a third consecutive
The euro zone crisis will be in the limelight of a G8 summit which starts on May 18 in Maryland. Francois Hollande, who officially inaugurated as French president of May 15, has already expressed his criticism about European austerity measures. Together with Barack Obama, who favors pro-growth policies, they are expected to join forces on the euro zone debt crisis. French military forces in Afghanistan are
Agricultural commodities rocketed on Thursday amid unfavorable weather conditions in the top-growing regions worldwide.Wheat rose to six-week high as dry weather in Kansas is likely to curb US output. At the same time, extreme drought in Black Sea region may impact crops in Europe.Corn gained a spree as dry US weather is expected to decrease yields while China's demand continued
Energy markets tumbled on Thursday along with high risk-aversion among investors in view of the economic and political instability in the Euro Zone. On Thursday, Moody's downgraded 16 Spain's banks while Fitch cut Greek credit rating to ‘CCC'. Crude oil declined, following disappointing release of Philadelphia's manufacturing index. At the same time, investors eyed negative developments in the Euro Zone
Due to massive worries about the complex debt crisis situation in the euro zone, investors are more interested in obtaining save haven currencies, therefore, the national currency of the United States is still continuing its longest winning streak since the year 1985, even though it faced a small decline this Friday. The ICE index of the greenback, which indicates dollar's relation
The Bank of Spain announced that bad loans in Spanish banks increased to 8.37 percent of their outstanding loans. Independent auditors will be assigned to assess the situation and calm down the investors. Bad loans are expected to rise and according to some analysts might reach 15 percent of all loans. Distressed banks and highly indebted economy are the two main problems which, investors believe,
Outlook of leading economical indicators for upcoming 6 months decreased by 0.1% in April after 0.3% gain in March. Employers created jobs in the slowest rate in six months and thus limited consumer spending which accounts for more than two thirds of whole U.S. economy. Increase in underemployment claims and decrease in building permits and consumer confidence had negative impact to the outlook.
Industrial metals advanced on Thursday despite negative economic data from the US and the Euro Zone. Aluminum added almost 1%, being buoyed by recent production decline at Tajikistan's Aluminum. Moreover, premiums from Japan rose and may lend support to the light metal.Copper was the only loser as cancelled warrants at LME stayed weak. Adding to the negative mood of the
Due to high inconstancy of the national currency, the Reserve Bank of India considers a possibility of using U.S dollar in direct cooperation with oil importers. The rupee declined by 1.3 per cent during the previous day, reaching the level of INR 54.5225 in relation to dollar and still remaining the worst performing currency in Asia. B. Mukherjee, financial director
Precious metals rallied on Thursday amid hopes for more loosening policies from the Fed after Philadelphia's manufacturing activity posted a contraction in May.Gold gained momentum on indications of weakness of the US economy. Moreover, turmoil in the Euro Zone slightly increased safe-haven appeal of the yellow metal.Silver was the top-gainer despite soft global equities and strong US Dollar. Platinum received
Tech shares grow while investors are excitedly waiting for No. 1 social network to go public. Yahoo added 5.31%, Salesforce.com Inc. jumped by 9.88%, Apple Inc. gained 1.63%, Intuit Inc. advanced by 2.94%. Morgan Stanley High Tech 35 Index shows that overall industry improved by 0.49%.
S&P 500 lost 8.1 per cent since April 2, this year's high. On May 17 it registered a 4-month low on weak economic statistics and debt crisis in Europe. On the news that the situation in the European Union will be discussed today at G-8 leaders' summit in Maryland, S&P 500 contracts expiring in June gained 0.4 percent, to 1,306.9, indicating that the index should
Hang Seng China Enterprises Index, which includes Hong Kong listed Chinese companies, lost 21% of its value since year high on 29 February. 90% of stocks included in MSCI Asia Pacific Index contracted and index itself lost 2.6% for today and at least 5% for the week. Japan's Nikkei 225 Stock Average and more extensive Topix Index lost around 3% today. Hang Seng
German producer price index was increasing at a slower pace than expected. Monthly index, which was expected to be 0.3%, decreased by 10 basis points since March and was only 0.2% in April. Annual index missed expectations by 20 basis points and was only 2.4%, 90 basis points lower than in March. Energy prices, of all categories, increased the most on an
Earlier today Fitch Rating downgraded Greece to 'CCC' from 'B-', while Moody's has cut ratings of 16 Spanish banks. As the U.S. dollar gets stronger, investors are concerned that aggravating debt crisis in Europe will reduce demand for oil. Therefore, oil shows decline for a third week. Crude oil lost 25 cents yesterday and reached the 6-month low of $92.56. Brent oil for July delivery slid 0.5