Each Week Gets Tougher and Tougher

March 2nd, 2009

Is there light at the end of the tunnel

Poland has increased the cost of their external debt requirements, decimating their current account deficits and prompting the IMF to provide relief funding to Hungary for example. This is a thorn in the EZ side as some of these countries are either already members of the EZ or on the cusp of joining. Who is to look after them when trouble strikes? Data released throughout the course of the week favoured the downside with German IFO falling to 82.6 vs. 83.2 on Monday, which wiped out all of January’s gains. Industrial orders fell whilst German final GDP contracted by -2.1% in the fourth quarter, confirming the regions largest economy is being hard hit by a decrease in global demand for its exported goods. Read Full Article »

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Sterling Still Surging After Negative Non Farm Payrolls

February 9th, 2009

Markets react positively to the Bank of England’s Interest rate cut

The Bank of England cut Interest rates by 0.5% on Thursday to bring the benchmark rate down to 1%, this being the UK’s lowest rate to date. Consumers who own mortgage trackers will be overjoyed in seeing the Interest rates being cut for the 5th consecutive month. This is not good news for savers who will now receive minimal return on their investment. Off the back of the Interest rate cut markets started to react confidently across the board with Equity, Stock and the currency markets improving, even though we did see on Friday morning manufacturing data declining at it’s fastest rate since 1981. Sterling is now at a two week high against the dollar and an impressive two month high against the Euro, let’s see if the pound can hold onto these gains and rally further. Read Full Article »

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US Employment Numbers Reflect Ailing Economy

January 12th, 2009

Sterling softer after positive week

After trading at sub 1.4500 levels throughout the Christmas period, Sterling spent most of last week printing more respectable numbers. Anything over the 1.5000 mark at the moment is seen as reasonable value, so with most of the deals done last week exceeding this level, its wasn’t a bad week at all. We have however opened this morning softer, reflecting renewed sentiment that the UK economy is headed for a prolonged slowdown. Read Full Article »

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