Posts Tagged ‘eurusd’

(As written for My Paper on 7 February 2012. Click here to enlarge)

Last week, US government data beat all estimates when it reported that Non-Farm Payrolls rose by 243,000 in January. The official figures easily surpassed the 140,000 estimate by economists.

Additionally, the unemployment rate came in at 8.3%, the lowest level in nearly 3 years. This also recorded the fifth consecutive month of falling unemployment in the US.

Immediately after the announcement, yields on 10-year US Treasuries spiked up 10 basis points to 1.92%, and the EUR/USD dropped over 100 pips. Read more…

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

What a week it has been for the Euro.

Mid-week, ECB chief Mario Draghi gave a press conference, stating that the bank’s policy of extending low interest loans to financial institutions had been successful in stabilizing the region’s credit markets.

Proof of his statement was seen in the recent Spanish and Italian bond auctions, which saw solid demand for their respective paper. In fact, Spain had doubled the size of their offering.

This caused the EUR/USD to rally to 1.2879 on Friday.

However, the party came to an abrupt halt late last week when news about the S&P downgrade of top European nations hit the wire. Read more…

(As written for My Paper for 10 January 2012 issue. Click here to enlarge)

It’s good to be back in the currency market after a three week break.

For my first article of 2012, let’s take a snap-shot of the world’s biggest economies to see how they fared for 2011. This can give us excellent insight into how they might perform at the start of 2012.

According to the list by the International Monetary Fund for 2011, the top 3 economies (by country) are as follows:

1. USA: USD 15.06 trillion

2. China: USD 6.99 trillion

3. Japan: USD 5.86 trillion

Read more…

(As written for My Paper on 22 November 2011. Click here to enlarge)

Last week, the Monetary Authority of Singapore said that the global economy and financial system are at their most fragile state since the 2008 crisis, with the immediate outlook characterised by a high degree of uncertainty.

Not the most encouraging words for traders and investors to hear, but recent data from the various industries seem to agree. Read more…

(As written for My Paper on 15 November 2011. Click here to enlarge)

The countries which make up the “PIGS” – Portugal, Italy, Greece and Spain, have new leaders.

Portugal is headed by Prime Minister Pedro Passos Coelho, after Jose Socrates resigned in March.

Greek Prime Minister George Papandreou resigned last week to make way for a coalition led by European Central Bank Vice President Lucas Papademos.

Former European Union competition commissioner Mario Monti, has become Italy’s new Prime Minister following the resignation of Silvio Berlusconi.

Spanish Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero has decided not to seek re-election and polls show Mariano Rajoy, leader of the conservative People’s Party, will win an absolute majority in the 20 November vote. Read more…