Equity Rally Enters Fifth Day

March 16th, 2009

Barclays Provides Lift to Enquiries

Global equities have continued their run higher to start the week and we have yet to see the day of profit-taking that almost everyone has expected to materialize after last week’s run of successive gains. Though the weekend’s G20 meeting failed to deliver any material developments, the week is off to a positive start as it relates to risk acceptance, largely as a result of the fact that Barclays has reported that it is in the midst of a profitable quarter. Because it was a similar message from Citigroup last week that produced a turn in equity markets, those with long equity positions are now hoping to string together a few more days in the black. Read Full Article »

USD Enjoys Yet Another Risk Averse Rally

March 5th, 2009

Plenty of Negative News for Financial Markets

The USD index is up more than 0.6%, and yesterday’s rally in equities appears to have been stopped dead in its tracks by growing doubt at GM that the storied automaker can remain a going concern if it cannot generate cash and stop the bleeding of red ink in very short order. Contained within the filing of its 2008 annual report to the US Securities and Exchange Commission, GM stated that there is “no assurance that the global automobile market will recover or that it will not suffer a significant downturn.” The firm has requested access to $30 billion USD in emergency funding from the federal government just to survive the coming period, and with sales of its product continuing to plummet around the globe, the situation couldn’t be more dire. GM stock is trading down more than 7% ahead of the opening bell. Read Full Article »