Pound Appreciated On Versus

Dukascopy Fundamental Analysis EUR Spain faced increasing borrowing costs during successful sale of bonds with two and ten-year maturity. The country's Treasury sold 1,116 billion Euros of two-year bonds at yield of 3.463% and 1,425 billion Euros in ten-year bonds with yield of 5.743%. Demand for Spain's debt was strong as bids surpassed demand 3.3 times. USD Stock index futures indicated a lower opening on today’s USA session on the EU concerns. Additionally, news from Wal-mart on a possible bribery case had negative influence on stock indices. GBP According to experts from zifx.com, following an extensive rally of GBP/USD, the currency pair is presently overgoing a bearish correction. While the initial support and resistance levels are situated at 1.6037 and 1.6154, respectively, ...

Fundamental Analysis EUR Euro Area officials are going to Washington this week in order to demand larger war chest from overseas partners to prevent debt crisis as Spanish government struggles with surging borrowing costs. US though insists Europe can tackle crisis by its own financial firewall while Euro Zone representatives claim they already have done enough and deserve global help. USD Temasek Holdings is preparing to buy a part of Goldman Sachs Group's stake of Industrial & Commercial Bank of China (ICBC). Goldman Sachs is going to sell 3.55 billion of ICBC shares valued at USD 2.5 billion or about 4% of total amount traded in Hong Kong. ICBC shares lost 0.8% in Hong Kong on the news. Temasek has been raising holdings in China Construction Bank and Bank of China. GBP UK managed ...

The Week Ahead Highlights Can the ECB save the day? Fed speak provides more transparency but not clarity Bank of Japan easing pressure mounts A very mixed UK recovery Bank of Canada to hold RBA minutes to provide more insight Norges Bank's battle with the Nokkie Market Moves Can the ECB save the day? At the end of last week market sentiment towards the Eurozone took a turn for the worse. Stocks closed down sharply and Spanish 10-year bond yields surged to 6% at one stage. The cost to insure Spanish debt against default reached a record high; while bond yields are a mere 70 basis points away from the euro-era record highs reached in November 2011. Problems have been simmering in Spain for some time, and there was no new news that triggered the sharp dip ...

Fundamental Analysis EUR European stocks fluctuated between gains and losses on Thursday as region's debt worries were partly offset by small improvement in Wall Street. Stoxx Europe 600 index added 0.1%, Italian FTSE MIB index slipped 0.2% while Spanish IBEX 35 traded flat. UK FTSE 100 index advanced 0.4% whereas German DAX lost 0.1%. French CAC 40 index improved 0.2%. USD The US applications for jobless benefits dropped less than predicted for the week ended in March 31, Labor Department reported on Thursday. According to data 357 000 people submitted new claims last week. Economists earlier predicted the number of applications to reach 355 000. The US unemployment level was 8.3% in February. GBP UK manufacturing fell for the second consecutive month in February, signalling the ...

Fundamental Analysis EUR The primary reading of the Euro Zone's composite PMI indicated further contraction of the economic activity in the region. However, the final estimate of the PMI was above the preliminary reading of 48.7. The final PMI in the Euro Zone attained 49.6 in Q1, signaling on the mild contraction as compared to the preceding quarter reading of 47.2. USD The greenback advanced against 17-nation currency on Tuesday as Federal Reserve cooled speculations for extra monetary stimulus. The US Dollar added 0.3% versus Euro to USD 1.3199 and slipped 0.2% versus Yen to JPY 82.64. Currently EUR/USD is trading at USD 1.3205 and USD/JPY is trading at JPY 82.68. GBP The gauge measuring British construction activity through a number of new orders unexpectedly surged in March, ...

After the start of the session today, major currencies have been trading narrowly against the U.S. dollar as markets are still waiting the Spanish budget announcement and the Minutes of the FOMC last meeting; where with the lack of major fundamentals from Europe, markets are still slightly positive over the significant improvement in the Chinese services sector. The euro advanced slightly against the U.S. dollar today, where after the opening the common currency recorded gains against the low yielding currencies as investors' appetite for risk started to gradually improve on expectations Spain will pass the new budget with cuts worth around 27 billion euros that aims to reduce the deficit this year after missing targets in 2011. The question to be asked here is how Spanish lawmakers will ...

Fundamental Analysis EUR The factory executive rose to 96 in March from 93 in February, after the French Ministry of Finance rose its 2012 economic growth forecast to 0.7% yesterday. Experts believe tha raise will significantly help the current president Sarcozy in his election battle. USD Nike has announced higher profits in the last quarter due to strong demand that offset increasing production costs. Profit of the sportswear producer in the last quarter that ended in February soared by 7% year-to-year, attaining 560 million US Dollars on the 15% increase in total revenues. The economic climate stays highly uncertain but we are optimistic about the company perspectives, said Mark Parker, the President of Nike. GBP The nationwide consumer sentiment index declined unexpectedly in ...

The United Kingdom released inflation-linked data today, which showed that prices continued the downside movement in February, where inflation started to ease after reaching in September the historical record of 5.2%, affected by the global slowdown and the slower economic activity and most importantly due to the spending cuts adopted by the British authorities. The monthly Consumer Price Index (CPI) expanded 0.6% from the previous drop of 0.5%; however, the annual index retreated again to 3.4%, the lowest record since November 2010, from 3.6%, missing median estimates of 3.3%. In addition, the annual core CPI index also retreated in a slower than expected pace to 2.4% from 2.6%. Furthermore, the Retail Price Index (RPI), also unknown as the cost of living index, expanded over monthly ...

Dukascopy Fundamental Analysis EUR European governments urged Spain to implement larger budged deficit cuts to prevent debt crisis from returning to the region. 10 days ago Spanish PM Rajoy unilaterally increased Spain's deficit target to 5.8% of GDP for year 2012 and claimed the country will aim to attain region's common target of maximum 3% in 2013. The announcement was not praised by region's officials who recently signed fiscal discipline treaty. USD US federal budget deficit widened more than expected in February, reported Department of the Treasury. The US federal budget balance declined to minus 231.7 billion US Dollars on a seasonally adjusted basis in February as compared to minus 27.4 billion US Dollars in January. Experts predicted the deficit to attain 229.3 billion US ...