Addition The Impact Of Europe’s

2012 is proving to be the ‘Year of the Central Bank’. It is an exciting celebration of all the wonderful maneuvers central banks can employ to keep the system from falling apart. Western central banks have gone into complete overdrive since last November, convening, colluding and printing their way out of the mess that is the Eurozone. The scale and frequency of their maneuvering seems to increase with every passing week, and speaks to the desperate fragility that continues to define much of the financial system today. The first major maneuver took place on November 30, 2011, when the world’s G6 central banks (the Federal Reserve, the Bank of England, the Bank of Japan, the European Central Bank , the Swiss National Bank, and the Bank of Canada) announced “coordinated actions to enhance ...

Fundamental Analysis EUR "The decline in euro-area December retail sales confirms our view that private consumption is likely to have fallen in the fourth quarter" - James Ashley, senior European economist at RBC Capital Markets Euro zone retail sales declined unexpectedly in December, said the European Union's statistics office Eurostat on Friday. Retail sales fell 0.4 per cent from November after declining by the same amount in October. USD "The report was much better than expected in terms of indicating fundamental strength in the economy" - Pierre Ellis, senior economist at Decision Economics The number of Americans, who have found a job in January rose to nine-month high of 243,000, said the Labor Department on Friday, pushing unemployment rate lower to 8.3 per cent, the lowest ...

Fundamental Analysis EUR "It’s quite clear that we’re heading into a pretty sharp downturn even in Germany" - Jennifer McKeown, an economist at Capital Economics Ltd. German factory orders tumbled the most since 2009 in November as the euro area economy headed toward a recession and global demand cooled. Orders declined 4.8 percent from October, when they rose 5 percent, said the Economy Ministry on Friday. USD "The economy is still pushing forward, but many hurdles to further acceleration remain" - Jim Baird, chief investment strategist for Plante Moran Financial Advisors U.S. unemployment rate unexpectedly fell to 8.5 per cent in December from 8.7 per cent in November as employment growth accelerated, offering the evidence the U.S. economy is gaining momentum. Nonfarm payrolls rose ...

Advance Retail Sales, Trade Balance and Confidence Highlight The Superpower's Second Trading Week of 2012 The world’s largest economy prepares to start the second week of the year, following splendid economic momentum the week ago, after payrolls increased more than forecasts in the last month and unemployment rate fell to 8.5 percent, the lowest level since February 2009. Based on what we saw the past week, clues that the U.S economy picked up heading to 2012 seems to have had a slender impact on the market with 2012’s first trading week complete. Initially, optimism was somehow replaced with fears about potential downgrades and probably worsen economic outlook for Europe. Bank-capital risks, debt auction disappointments and 17-bloc common currency snapping a six-month low the past ...

Fundamental News: Last week the economic data released in the U.S showed that the American economy is improving. U.S. consumer prices held steady in November, according to figures released Friday by the Labor Department, with lower energy prices offsetting minor increases in other sectors. The consumer price index for November was unchanged from October levels, which showed a 0.1 percent drop from September. Other encouraging figures that were published during last week are; Retail sales posted a slight increase of 0.2 percent in November following gains of 0.6 percent in October and Industrial production delivered an unexpected decline of 0.2 percent. This week events, that might affect the market are; Tuesday, the U.S. official data on building permits (expect at 0.64M compare to 0.63M ...

Fundamental Analysis EUR "Spain is considered a far more attractive credit than Italy" - Michael Leister, rate strategist at WestLB Spain sold €6.03 billion of debt on Thursday, more than initially expected and at a lower rate compared to Italy, easing concerns the country may lose access to financial markets next year. USD "We’re seeing improvement in labor-market conditions" - Julia Coronado, chief economist at BNP Paribas The number of Americans claiming for unemployment benefits tumbled to 366 thousand last week from 385 thousand the week before, said the Department of Labor on Thursday. Economists expected the reading to increase to 389 thousand. GBP "All in all, the picture for U.K. household consumption is not very encouraging" - Annalisa Piazza, an economist at Newedge Group ...

Another session in New York could be featured with lack of economic reports from the world’s largest economy this morning, but optimism that the debt crisis of the euro zone will have a limited impact on the U.S economy cooled market jitters. Earlier Wednesday, futures on the Dow Jones Industrial Average Index gained 34 points or 0.3 percent to 11929 points at 09:54 in London, while the Standard & Poor’s 500 Index Futures jumped0.3 percent to 1224.3 points. U.S Stocks edged lower yesterday and closed the session with heavy losses, after the Federal Reserve announced the rate date decision, unchanged at its record low between 0.00 percent and 0.25 percent, reiterated the pledge to keep the benchmark interest rates within its historical lows nearly until mid 2013 to support the economic ...

Fundamental News: Today’s highlights: • Nationwide HPI (MoM) (GB, 05:00 GMT) • CB Consumer Confidence (US, 15:00 GMT) • Private New Capital Expenditure (QoQ) (Aus, 24:30 GMT) • Current Account (CAD, 13:30) New home sales in the U.S. showed a slight increase in the month of October, as Builders sold fewer new houses in the U.S. than forecast in October. According to data released by the Commerce Department on Monday, sales of new single-family homes came in at a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 307,000 in October. The growth was largely the result of data revisions showing that the September sales rate came in weaker than initially estimated. U.S. Rating Outlook was cut to negative by Fitch Ratings following the congressional supercommittee’s inability to reach an agreement on deficit ...

Fundamental News: Today’s highlights: • Core Retail Sales (MoM) (CAC, 13:30 GMT) • GDP (QoQ) (US, 13:30 GMT) • FOMC Meeting Minutes (US, 19:00 GMT) U.S Existing Home Sales which measures the change in the annualized number of existing residential buildings that were sold during the previous month rose unexpectedly to 4.97M in October from 4.90M in September, as published in a report of the National Association of Realtors on Monday. On the other hand, Canadian wholesale sales rose less-than-expected in September by 0.3%. Chinese vice Premier Wang Qishan, said over the weekend that his expectations that the global economy is headed for a prolonged global downturn, which will have negative applications on the Chinese’s economy and he added that the world is likely to experience a prolonged ...