Claims And Fed’s Decision

Consumer sentiment in the U.S. rose to 77.8 in May from the final April reading of 76.4, according to a report released by Reuters and the University of Michigan on Friday. While, the Labor Department said on Friday that its producer price index fell by 0.2 percent in April. According to Bloomberg news, Sales at U.S. retailers probably slowed in April as the weather turned more seasonable and consumers took a breather following a pre-Easter holiday buying spree, economists said before a report this week. The projected 0.2 percent gain in purchases would follow a 0.8 percent advance in March, according to the median forecast of 68 economists surveyed by Bloomberg News ahead of Commerce Department figures on May 15. Events in the U.S, likely to affect the markets this week are: Monday; a ...

Fundamental News G20 Finance Ministers and Central Bank Governors reached an agreement to lift the funding resources of the International Monetary Fund by over $430 billion as the Eurozone debt crisis dent global growth. “This is the result of a broad international cooperative effort that includes a significant number of countries," the International Monetary and Financial Committee and the Group of 20 Finance Ministers and Central Bank Governors said in a joint statement issued in Washington late Friday. Bloomberg news reported that, the biggest gain in consumer spending in a year probably helped the U.S. economy keep expanding in the first quarter even as fuel costs climbed, economists said before a report this week. Gross domestic product, the value of all goods and services the ...

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 ...

Dukascopy Fundamental Analysis EUR Royal Dutch Shell announced it plans to invest more to boost production. The company reported it would invest 30 billion US Dollars into the new gas and oil projects in 2012 as compared to 24 billion US Dollars invested in 2011. The move came after the company announced the annual rise in net income by 50% to 28 billion US Dollars in 2011. USD US employment surged more than predicted in January while the unemployment level dropped to the lowest reading in last three years, confirming the US labour market is recovering and raising doubts about Fed's pledge to maintain interest rates down by the end of 2014. The number of payrolls increased by 243 000 and the jobless rate decreased to 8.3% in January. Economists earlier predicted the unemployment level ...

Fundamental Analysis EUR "The cost of postponing a solution is extremely high for Europe, but especially for the future of the euro" - Giovanni Bossi, chief executive officer of Banca Ifis SpA Talks on Greek debt swap resumed on Thursday as European finance ministers pressure private bondholders to take bigger losses on their Greek holdings. USD "Improving economic momentum and diminished angst surrounding the financial crisis has encouraged businesses to take on more risk" - Richard DeKaser, deputy chief economist at Parthenon Group Inc. The number of Americans claiming for unemployment benefits rose to 377 thousand in the week ended January 21 from 356 thousand the week before, said the Department of Labor on Thursday. GBP "Given the key role of consumer spending, the CBI survey ...

Fundamental Analysis EUR Big rethink is necessary in the Euro Zone within world's economy, said Angela Merkel at the World Economic Forum. Structural reforms aimed at creating new jobs are crucial, she added. Indebted Euro Zone is the most discussed issue at the forum. Many consider Germany and other strong economies have to inject more money into rescue fund. USD Due to weak recovery and slowing inflation in the US, market speculation on possible further easing has skyrocketed. On the last announcement Ben Bernanke claimed that Fed was unlikely to increase interest rates until 2014, indicating the weak state of the American economy. GBP UK Prime Minister David Cameron claimed today during his speech in Davos forum that European officials should be bolder if they wish to calm the ...

As this past period and these past weeks we rather have pessimism spread rather than optimism regarding the present weakened economic conjuncture of the world's leading economy and its close future since that most data released so far has not been encouraging and the labor market deterioration remain on weighting down on most of the sectors activities restraining their enhancement while that the Fed sees this week "significant" downside risk vis-à-vis to the country's outlook. If truth be told the FOMC announced an “Operation Twist” program, in which the Fed will rebalance its $2.8 trillion balance sheet by buying $400 billion of long term securities and selling $400 billion of short term securities but also beside this gloomy Fed revealing of a “significant downside risks to the economic ...

Yesterday Fed’s Chairman Ben Bernanke delivered a speech similar to the FOMC members statement; both confirming that the recent revival that is actually taking place at a slower pace temporarily, while that today overall labor and housing data are forecasted to come out depressing to validate that these two key sectors remain deteriorated. If truth be told yesterday we had the FOMC members and Bernanke attesting that the prior growth lost strength and was weak as well as the labor market despite of the slender signs of enhancement seen this past period since that jobless levels remain high and crucial and keep on weighting down on overall activities of the economy. Accordingly later on today on one hand the initial jobless claims for June 18 could have faintly and gloomily rose up to ...

This week was full of crucial data from different sectors and reports regarding the present and also the future of the world's superpower with the FOMC members whom stated out in fact that the current recovery is not only gradual but seems to take place at a "moderate pace" since that overall jobless levels remain high along with weak housing conditions and recent but temporary inclined inflation. If truth be told throughout the week the FOMC members held their rate decision meeting in which once again the Federal Open Market Committee decided unanimously to leave its benchmark interest rates unchanged once again and already highly forecasted at the current target range between 0% and 0.25% to support the superpower's growth, describing the present pace of recovery as a "moderate pace". ...