General Forex News

      As weakness remains detected throughout the U.S. labor market pessimism dominate the global financial markets and mixed results are seen within the equity markets. The Initial Jobless Claims for May 28 inclined above market forecasts higher to 422 thousand from 417 thousand expected, while the continuing claims for May 21 rose gloomily to 3711 thousand from 3675 thousand expected. While the labor markets continues to indicate it is far from recovering, Factory orders also disappointed after falling to -1.2% from -1.0% expected, while the non-farm productivity rose slightly to 1.8% in the first quarter from 1.7% expected. The attention will continue to be on the US since on Friday the economy will release the official jobless numbers, therefore investors will remain in a cautious mode. Stocks in the United States dropped at opening on Wednesday, where the Dow Jones Industrial Average was down by nearly 0.06% to trade around 12,283.48, while the S&P 500 index rose by nearly 0.13% to trade around...

Pessimism dominated global financial markets after the opening of the U.S. session, where the ADP employment showed U.S. private employers added only 38,000 jobs in May, well below median estimates of 175,000 added jobs, while the ISM manufacturing index eased in May to 53.5 from 60.4 in April and below expectations of 57.1. The disappointing U.S. data followed other disappointments from Europe, which showed manufacturing activities eased as well in Germany and the Euro Zone, noting investors were feeling optimistic earlier on Wednesday amid news Greece will soon receive a new bailout package. Stocks in the United States dropped at opening on Wednesday, where the Dow Jones Industrial Average was down by nearly 0.85% to trade around 12,460, while the S&P 500 index dropped by nearly 0.90% to trade around 1,333. European stock indexes were also lower before closing on Wednesday, where FTSE 100 was down by nearly 0.60% trading at 5955 and the DAX was lower by nearly 0.50% to trade...

  As full volume returned on Tuesday, the broader markets responded with mixed results. However today gains were seen within the currency and commodity markets as the dollar weakened while markets expect lower growth within the US manufacturing and jobs sectors. The US witnessed bad economic numbers on Tuesday. The Chicago PMI, the S&P/CS composite-20 HPI and the consumer confidence were all disappointing. Today the US will start releasing the jobless numbers with the ADP employment change expected to show a weaker outcome than the previous month. While the ISM manufacturing in May is expected to fall to 57.1 from 60.4, these data managed to position the dollar in a negative trend as concerns over growth in the largest economy in the world started to spread. The dollar index fell today to the lowest level at 74.38. The euro however is finding support not only from the dollar’s weakness, as the European commission along with the ECB and the IMF are close to an...

The Canadian Dollar has been the weakest one of the commodity currencies for some time. It also lost ground against the USD, which rallied to above 0.9800 for the first time since late March. With this in a background, today’s interest rate decision by the Bank of Canada was highly anticipated. While the market participants did not expect a hike, yet, everybody wanted to hear what the central bank is going to say about possible future actions, especially since economic indicators from Canada have been mixed and hard to interpret. Turned out that the forecast was correct – the BoC left interest rates unchanged at 1%. However, the Governor Mark Carney said that the economic recovery was proceeding as expected, and promised a raise “eventually”. That is a very vague term, revealing, well, nothing, but markets took it to heart and the Canadian Dollar rallied. Now we need to see a continuation tomorrow, otherwise today’s action is only a correction within...

Optimism dominated global financial markets on Tuesday after news emerged that Greece could soon receive a bailout, as this overshadowed worse than expected economic data from the United States. The S&P/CaseShiller house price index from the United States showed that house prices continued to decline in March, while the Chicago PMI for the month of May eased below estimates, and consumer confidence also fell below estimates. Moreover data from the Euro Zone showed that the flash estimate for CPI inflation eased in May to an annualized rate of 2.7% from 2.8%, while unemployment remained unchanged in April at 9.9%. Stocks in the United States dropped at opening on Tuesday, where the Dow Jones Industrial Average was up by nearly 0.75% to trade around 12,535, while the S&P 500 index rose by nearly 0.60% to trade around 1,339. European stock indexes were also higher before closing on Tuesday, where FTSE 100 was up by nearly 0.80% trading at 5990 and the DAX was higher...

  Broad markets witnessed full volumes returning in force, after the US and UK were in holidays yesterday. Sentiment will be put to test today as markets participants await the release of some important fundamentals this week. The US will released the Chicago PMI as well as the consumer confidence index and the S&P/CS house prices. Lately the manufacturing and housing data proved to be lackluster, thereby today's reports will give investors a proper insight. This week's data will culminate with Friday's non-farm payrolls report that will be of interest for many investors who are looking for a clue on how the Feds will deal with the weak jobs sector combined with the weaker than expected GDP report from last week. Other data released today is Europe's unemployment rate which matched last month's reading, rising by 9.9% in April, as well as the CPI flash estimate from the Euro area which fell to 2.7% in May from 2.8%, and Switzerland's GDP which fell in...

Trading in financial markets was rather calm on Monday amid the absence of U.S. markets, and a lack of economic fundamentals from Europe, which forced thin trading in global financial markets, and accordingly, investors were cautious in trading, as renewed fears from the Euro Zone debt crisis continued to weigh down on confidence levels. Stock markets in the United States were closed on Monday. European stock indexes were mixed before closing on Monday, where CAC 40 was down by nearly 0.05% trading at 3950 and the DAX was higher by nearly 0.25% to trade around 7180, noting U.K. markets were also off on Monday. The U.S. dollar was slightly higher against a basket of major currencies, where the U.S. dollar index was trading at 74.96, compared with the opening level at 74.90. The Euro was little changed against the Dollar, where the EUR/USD pair traded at $1.4287, compared with the opening level at $1.4289, and the British Pound slightly dropped against the...

  The mixture between caution and holidays in both UK and US, will keep the broad markets volatile today. Volumes will be lighter than normal in the currency and commodity markets, and full volumes will return only on Tuesday. There will be a complete lack of data from Europe, the UK and the United States today. Therefore sentiment will be driven by the outlooks surrounding the European debt crisis and the global economic recovery. However the data expected for this week will be critical. On Friday the US will release the important Non Farm payrolls change, while on Wednesday the largest economy in the world will release its ISM Manufacturing report. The recent data from the US jobs sector and the manufacturing sector have proven to be lackluster, therefore market participants will be following the reports with caution and doubts, while Wall Street might witness some losses. Germanywill release the retail sales tomorrow, while Australia will release its first quarter GDP. The AUD  is moving...

Investors were feeling optimistic on Friday after data from the United States showed that personal income and spending continued to rise at a moderate pace in line with expectations, while inflation remained subdued, and consumer confidence rose, which bolstered optimism in European and U.S. markets. The optimism in markets encouraged investors to target higher yielding assets, and accordingly, major currencies rose against the dollar, while commodity prices rose on Friday. Stocks in the United States dropped at opening on Friday, where the Dow Jones Industrial Average was up by nearly 0.55% to trade around 12,470, while the S&P 500 index rose by nearly 0.60% to trade around 1,334. European stock indexes were also higher before closing on Friday, where FTSE 100 was up by nearly 1% trading at 5940 and the DAX was higher by nearly 0.40% to trade around 7142. The U.S. dollar was slightly higher against a basket of major currencies after opening with a downside gap on Friday, where the...

  "The global recovery is gaining strength and is becoming more self-sustained", said the group of right leaders in a statement at a two-day summit that will end today in Deauville, France, fueling confidence and risk appetite. This statement was enough to fuel optimism as a strengthening global economy will diminish debt concerns that increased recession worries lately, especially as woes mounted yesterday with Juncker saying the IMF may not release its 12 billion euros portion of the bailout for Greece next month. Leaders from the U.S., Italy, Japan, Germany, France, UK, Canada and Russia vowed to fight fiscal woes and focused on how to cut debt as "downside risks remain, and internal and external imbalances are still a concern". As the global economy is believed to gain strength, speculations are for demand on commodities to be sustained, especially since the weaker dollar raised the appeal of commodities. Oil is trading today above the $100 level, while gold is above the $1525.00 level. The rise...