(As written for My Paper on 31 July 2012. Click here to enlarge)

Last week, at an investment conference in London, President of the European Central Bank (ECB), Mario Draghi, pledged to do “whatever it takes” to protect the eurozone from collapse – including fighting high bond yields in countries like Spain and Italy.

Immediately after the speech, the Euro rallied and Spain’s 10-year yields retreated towards the 6.5% mark while Italy’s 10-year yields fell back below 6%.

This week, Draghi goes on the offensive to build concrete plans among government and central bankers to ease borrowing costs in the region. He has already secured the endorsements of Germany and France for a plan to reduce bond yields in Spain and Italy.

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(As written for My Paper on 24 July 2012. Click here to enlarge)

Nobody likes holding on to the Euro right now and the prices in the Forex Market show just that.

So far, it has fallen to a two year low against the US dollar, three and a half year low against the British Pound, twelve year low against the Japanese Yen and a historic low against the three commodity currencies of the Aussie (AUD), Kiwi (NZD) and the Loonie (CAD).

Last week, data from the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) showed that futures traders added to bets that the euro will continue to fall against the US dollar.

The “net shorts” held by hedge funds and other large speculators came in at 167,249 an increase of 1,544 contracts from a week earlier. Net shorts reached a record 214,418 on 8th June 2012.

The worldwide concern of course, is that Europe’s debt crisis is deepening. At this stage, all eyes are on Spain, Europe’s fourth largest economy. Here’s three reasons why:

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(As written for My Paper on 17 July 2012. Click here to enlarge)

Last Friday, China announced that its Gross Domestic Product (GDP) in the second quarter came in at a dismal 7.6 percent.

This marked its slowest pace of growth in three years and its sixth straight slowdown. Interestingly enough, instead of heading downwards, equities in China rebounded from a nine-month low. On Friday’s close, the Bloomberg China-US Equity Index (CH55BN) of the most traded Chinese shares actually gained 1.2 percent to 87.77.

Closer to home, Singapore’s Trade and Industry Ministry (MTI) reported that GDP in the second quarter contracted 1.1 percent quarter-on-quarter due to a contraction in the manufacturing sector which fell 6 per cent compared to the previous quarter. The median of 14 estimates in a Bloomberg News survey was for a 0.6 percent gain.

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