Anxiety About The European Financial

Asian shares tumbled on Friday and were set for their worst weekly showing since September, amid political turmoil in Greece and signs of growing instability in Spanish banks, with investors adding the latest weak U.S. data to the list of risk factors. Assets across the board, from commodities such as oil and gold to riskier currencies such as the euro and the Australian dollar were all heading for their weekly losses. Financial stocks were hammered after the head of Australia and New Zealand Banking Group (ANZ.AX) said volatile conditions in global markets have caused the wholesale funding market for Australian banks to freeze again, a worrying echo of the global financial crisis. European shares were also set to fall, with financial spreadbetters predicting that major European markets ...

Gold sank to a 2012 low on Wednesday before paring losses in choppy trade, as traders were torn between hope that France and Germany would work together to keep the Euro zone intact and new signs of stress in the Greek banking sector. Bullion briefly crossed into bear market territory, down 20 percent from its record last September, as intensifying fears a Greek exit from the euro zone would worsen the debt crisis gripped financial markets earlier in the day. Prices later recouped most of their losses following a meeting between new French President Francois Hollande and German Chancellor Angela Merkel at which they pledged to forge a joint approach for an EU summit next month. That eased concerns of a spat that could worsen the euro zone crisis. During the U.S. session, gold prices ...

Oil prices ended mixed in choppy trading on Thursday as weaker-than-expected Chinese trade data, higher OPEC production and evidence of a strengthening U.S. jobs market muddied the oil demand outlook. China, the world's second largest oil consumer after the United States, reported that its exports and imports in April grow at a far slower rate than forecast. Its trade performance that month was also surprisingly weak, and analysts said the government would need to loosen monetary policy to spur expansion or risk missing annual growth targets. The Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries said it pumped 1.62 million barrels more per day, to 31.62 million bpd last month, as Iraq ramped up output and Libya's oil industry recovered. That's above the 30 million bpd target it had set ...

(Reuters) - Asian shares rose and the dollar recovered against the yen on Wednesday after strong U.S. factory activity data raised hopes that the world's biggest economy remained on a recovery track while growth in Asian manufacturing improved broader sentiment. European shares were expected to open mixed, with most exchanges reopening after the May Day holiday on Tuesday. Financial spreadbetters predicted that major European markets .FTSE .FCHI .GDAXI would open between down 0.3 percent and up 0.7 percent. U.S. stock futures were up 0.2 percent. .EU .L .N MSCI's broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan .MIAPJ0000PUS climbed 0.9 percent to a six-week high, after the Dow Jones Industrial Average closed on Tuesday at its highest level in more than four years. Japan's Nikkei ...

(Reuters) - Exuberant global markets have taken a reality check this month on chronic U.S., Chinese and European growth concerns, and investors should hold companies' relatively rosy profit outlooks up for scrutiny too. "Cheap" valuations based on historical price/earnings ratios have kept many investors bullish on world equities over the past three years despite what now appears to be routine economic disappointment and seemingly shorter business and profit cycles. But there is growing anxiety that temporary sentiment and stock price boosts related to central bank money printing and emergency lending bear little relation to the long-term profit outlook, among non-financial firms at least. Even though 12-month forward price/earnings ratios for world equity look good value, periodic pops ...

If you're waiting for the next meltdown in U.S. stocks or in commodities, you may want to get over it. After several false dawns following the global financial crisis, more investors are starting to believe the current rally in stocks, commodities and emerging markets could be a long-lasting one. The S&P 500 closed above 1,400 points last week for the first time since the 2008 financial crisis. Investors piled into U.S. equity funds, with the biggest weekly inflows since mid-September. "Is this risk rally for real? I think the answer to that question is yes, but it's not a straight line up," said Art Steinmetz, chief investment officer at Oppenheimer Funds in New York, managing more than $177 billion in assets. Oppenheimer is currently betting on stocks tied to upswings in the economy, ...

(Reuters) - If you're waiting for the next meltdown in U.S. stocks or in commodities, you may want to get over it. After several false dawns following the global financial crisis, more investors are starting to believe the current rally in stocks, commodities and emerging markets could be a long-lasting one. The S&P 500 .SPX closed above 1,400 points last week for the first time since the 2008 financial crisis. Investors piled into U.S. equity funds, with the biggest weekly inflows since mid-September. "Is this risk rally for real? I think the answer to that question is yes, but it's not a straight line up," said Art Steinmetz, chief investment officer at Oppenheimer Funds in New York, managing more than $177 billion in assets. Oppenheimer is currently betting on stocks tied to ...

(Reuters) - Gold prices slipped on Monday, weighed down by modest risk aversion across financial markets as concerns about the euro zone persisted, although high oil prices cushioned the slide. Bullion prices rallied more than 3 percent last week, as investors got some relief after Greece secured a bailout and expectations of further monetary easing boosted gold's appeal as an inflation hedge. During a weekend meeting of Group of 20 finance ministers and central bankers, euro zone nations were told to put up more money to fight their debt crisis if they wanted more help from the rest of the world. "There is a softer turn across commodities after the G20 added to the risk anxiety," said Nick Trevethan, senior commodity strategist at ANZ in Singapore. "Gold failed to break the $1,780 ...

European shares fell and the euro eased to a 3-week low on Thursday as a delay in deciding on a crucial bailout for Greece unnerved investors and halted the rally for riskier assets like equities that has marked the start of 2012. U.S. stock index futures also pointed to a lower open with the warning by ratings agency Moody's of a possible downgrade of several major Wall St banks adding to the worries over Greece. Moody's said it may cut the credit ratings of 17 global and 114 European financial institutions in another sign the impact of the euro zone debt crisis was spreading. Among the banks listed were Morgan Stanley (MS.N), Goldman Sachs Group Inc (GS.N) and Bank of America Corp (BAC.N). But it was fear that time is running out for Greece to avoid a potentially chaotic default that ...