December 18, 2009
General Motors is Shutting Sweden’s Saab
GM is shedding the Saab, Saturn, Hummer and Pontiac brands to focus on Chevrolet, Cadillac, GMC and Buick.
September 14, 2009
Greek Economy News September 2009
This particular post goes out to all my good Greek friends that insist stubbornly – or you wouldn’t be Greeks 
– that the global credit crisis has not affected Greece. It goes without saying that this is not true and I could if I would explain in much detail but as an analyst I always tend to prefer to let the numbers talk for themselves…
The National Statistical Service of Greece has recently published the unemployment report for June 2009. The report shows a rise in unemployed people from 7.3% in June 2008 to 8.6% in June 2009. The total number of employed remained pretty much unchanged where the non-economically active population of Greece has decreased from 4,314.8 thousands last year to 4,265.6 in June 2009. Continue Reading »
September 11, 2009
Greek Banks News Update September 2009
Alpha Bank announced on the 31st of August the completion of the sale of treasury shares. The bank confirmed it has sold through almost 1.50% of the bank’s issued common voting shares to an institutional investor through a private placement. Over 6 million treasury shares were transferred to the institutional investor at a sale price of 12.12 euro per each share. Continue Reading »
July 9, 2009
Currency Market Snapshot
Currency Market Snapshot
|
|
Open |
High |
Low |
|
EURUSD |
1.38837 |
1.39351 |
1.38587 |
|
EURGBP |
0.86386 |
0.865175 |
0.86288 |
|
GBPUSD |
1.60725 |
1.61255 |
1.60295 |
|
EURJPY |
128.952 |
130.018 |
128.092 |
|
USDJPY |
92.8825 |
93.5175 |
92.38 |
|
|
|
|
|
Commentary: Yen crosses stabilise following a heavy selling. US equities closed falt and the Nikkei was down by 1.38%. The Aussie, USD and EUR rallied against the Yen as investors took profit on risk trades on short covering. The previous support levels are now considered the key sell levels as the market is selling in to any rallies.
Data due today:
06.00 GMT – German Consumer Price Index exp 0.4% for June
06.00 GMT – German Consumer Price Index YoY exp 0.1% for June
06.00 GMT – German Trade Balance exp Euro 9.0 Billion for May
06.00 GMT – German Current Account exp Euro 3.7 Billion for May
06.00 GMT – German Imports exp 0.8% for May
06.00 GMT – German Exports exp 1.5% for May
08.00 GMT – ECB Monthly Report for July
08.30 GMT – U.K. Visible Trade Balance exp Deficit Gbp 6.75 Billion for May
08.30 GMT – U.K. Total Trade Balance exp Deficit Gbp 2.85 Billion for May
11.00 GMT – BOE Rate Announcement exp No Change at 0.5%
12.15 GMT – Canada Housing Starts exp 130,000 for June
12.30 GMT – U.S. Initial Jobless Claims exp 603,000
14.00 GMT – U.S. Wholesale Inventories exp -1.0% for May
June 30, 2009
UK Economy Contraction 2009
The UK economy shrank by 2.4% in the first quarter of the year in what is now thought to be the biggest contraction since 1958, the Office for National Statistics reported today in London. The median estimate in an earlier Bloomberg survey of about 30 economists was a 2.1% decline.
The construction activity fell by 6.9%, three times as much as initially predicted. The UK’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP) is now estimated to plunge by 4.3% in 2009, the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development reported on 24th of June. Continue Reading »
June 17, 2009
Sucker’s rally to an end?
European stocks declined for a fourth day signalling fears that the first quarter’s sucker’s rally (as it is very nicely put) is coming to an end. For those who still haven’t understood what a sucker’s rally is, this is that!
Stock prices have risen substantially (some over 80%) over the past 3 months but was this rise justified? Theory says that prices go up when earnings expectations rise. As we are counting almost 2 years into the worst recession of the modern times, I really cannot see how anyone expects earnings to go up. What we do expect and hope is for their (and ours!) debt to go down! And this is what is happening. We have actually funded their debt repayments in a barely disguised stockmarket trap. Continue Reading »
May 27, 2009
General Motors Bankruptcy Facts
General Motors, the once-upon-a-time largest US automaker is finally coming to terms with the bankruptcy scenarios that have been around for the past year or so.
GM had so far used up $19.4 billiion in US Treasury loans but billions more are needed to keep the giant running. So the suggested a deal to their existing bondholders… an exchange offer that got easily rejected. Continue Reading »
April 23, 2009
Technical Update for EUR-USD
EURUSD is higher at 1.3030 as the US Dollar lost a little ground against most currencies. Today sees the release of economic data that may give further clues on the need for another rate cut from the ECB.
Support & Resistance
Support at 1.2985 should hold to keep the short term uptrend intact and the outlook higher with 1.3060/70 as first, and 1.3130 as next target levels on the way up.
Resistance at 1.3150 should hold to keep the outlook bearish with 1.2750 ase the next target on the way down.
Bears have managed to contain price action below the retracement zone and the 200DMA to remain in medium-term control. The latest break under the 61.8% retracement of the latest up-swing should now increase optimism for a retest of 1.2834, which shields the key lows between 1.2455 and 1.2328.
Oscillators are pushing into over-sold territory but show no sign of an immediate reversal (or corrective bounce). Only a recovery above 1.3581 would start to question the latest decline for another attempt at the 200 DMA and the high at 1.3737. However, only above the latter would change the medium-term outlook for EUR/USD. Below 1.2328 would resume the down-trend towards 1.1832.
March 17, 2009
Global De-Industrialisation
According to Wikipedia, manufacturing production is a wealth-producing sector of an economy, whereas a service sector tends to be wealth-consuming. However, as the recent economic data indicate even the strongest of the world economies undergo the reverse process of de-industrialisation.
De-industrialization as a concept can generally be defined as “a decline in the ratio of the workforce employed in industry” (Patnaik, 2003). Drawing upon previous analysis by Alford (1997) it was decided that the key measures of de-industrialisation that should be considered would be the number of people employed within the manufacturing industry, manufacturing output/productivity, and the level of import and exports of manufactured goods. Continue Reading »
March 16, 2009
G20 Meeting
The situation in the markets is a rather strange one at the moment… everyone is simply repeating pretty much what has been said before but the truth is that nobody really knows will lies ahead.
The G20 meeting over the weekend could not be much different and it was bound to let people down as there was no speculation of new policy agreements. Good intentions were voiced though in the shape of more regulations both for hedge funds and rating agencies. More money supply to help emerging countries and clearance of toxic assets were also discussed but the markets remained heavily indifferent as all of this is pretty much a repetition of what has been heard before. Continue Reading »