Europe is weak

By GG Analyst in Reviews 0 Comment

EUR/USD

The beginning of the accounting period seems to be quite reassuring. US aluminium giant Alcoa has posted a better-than-expected profit and expressed moderate optimism that demand will continue to grow in 2013. It has gradually moved the stock market from the middle of the trading range to its upper bound. Turning to Forex, here EU currencies are trailing much behind their counterparts. Yesterday EUR again failed to consolidate above 1.31. The pair had been pushed down before it even got above the mark. Apparently, the euro is being pressurized. It is rumoured that the reason is asset sales by sovereign wealth more…

A brief surge of optimism

By GG Analyst in Reviews 0 Comment

EUR/USD

A number of vital events have happened in the market since our last review. Firstly, Obama formally gained the upper hand in the fiscal policy issue. The fact that the agreement had been finally reached (now taxes for those who earn more than 450K will be raised) led to opening of the currency and stock markets with an upward gap. S&P 500 returned to October highs, but this is all the bulls could do at the time. Since then the market has been steadily trading sideways and even the employment stats couldn’t change the situation. In the currency market opening with more…

Forex bulls are slightly ahead

By GG Analyst in Reviews 0 Comment

EUR/USD

Yesterday the US dollar was much weaker than expected. The few speculators, still staying in the market, tried to take EURUSD to 1.33, but were stopped at 1.3280. After that even the moderately negative news from the USA was enough to push the pair below 1.32. The Consumer Confidence stats were poor. Concerned about the impending fiscal cliff and frightened by press releases, Americans were very cautious about their spending and tempered their optimism. As to spending, we have a preliminary estimate of the pre-holiday activity.  It wasn’t very impressive with growth of just 1% against 2% last year. The same more…

Dying carry-trade

By GG Analyst in Reviews 0 Comment

EUR/USD

The markets are still in dissonance. Yesterday the single currency was appreciating while the US stock exchanges were on the decline. The EU markets were closed and will be back to work only today. The thin pre-holiday currency market was warmed up to the degree that triggered stop-orders. As a result, the daily minimum was set at 1.3180 at the beginning of trades and then with short hitches the pair got to 1.3250. Anyway, the pair didn’t manage to grow higher – instead traders got down to collecting their profits and activity started to gradually subside. This day promises to be more…

Portfolio rebalancing in the markets

By GG Analyst in Reviews 0 Comment

EUR/USD

Just as we expected, the profit-squeeze lasted till the end of the week. It’s remarkable that the stock markets were moving in the opposite direction. This performance doesn’t look surprising if we regard it as the year-end portfolio rebalancing. Thus, on Friday EURUSD dropped below 1.32 and at some point hit 1.3160. Yet now purchases in the pair are rather moderate. In the meantime, the US stock indices, which were appreciating at the end of the previous week, are sliding down. Apparently, the markets will demonstrate the same unconformity till the end of the week, with a new trend setting only more…