As of Thursday evening, the S&P 500 is reeling from a heavy session that saw the benchmark index hit a six month low and turn negative for 2015. S&P 500 Daily Chart You can take your pick as to the reason for the decline – Here are just some of them. The first and most…
This week’s trading has been dominated by the People’s Bank of China allowing the yuan to devalue by dropping the peg against the US dollar on consecutive days. To add to the drama, the PBOC then declared in a press conference that it sees no reason for the yuan to fall further. The conflicting messages…
As is typical, the first week of the month has been dominated by the release of the latest US Non-Farm Payrolls report. July data came in roughly in line with expectations with a gain of 215k compared to expectations of 222k. The accompanying unemployment data came in mostly in line with expectations. Yet, judging by…
As of Friday mid-afternoon, the euro looked set to end a difficult weak on a high. Eurozone inflation came in slightly above expectations, raising hopes that regional deflation could be on the wane. At the same time, US unemployment cost index data came in above estimates, a development that only added fuel to the euro’s…
The European crisis appears to have abated for now. Markets seem to be seeing the latest agreement for what it is – a very fragile compromise that could blow up at any step. As such, we have not seen a significant relief rally in the euro just yet. One reason for this is the continued…
The main news flow this week has been related to the apparent capitulation of Greek PM Tsipras to extremely harsh EU demands. This triggered a vote via the Greek parliament to approve the plan, leaving the Greek population angry and confused – after all had they not just voted to reject the previous bailout conditions…
Wednesday saw the Shanghai Composite plunge by as much as 8% on its open, with trading in almost half of Chinese shares halted to stem the volatility. By midweek, the main Chinese index was down by around a third from the highs, having given back all of its gains from the March rally. There haven’t…
After another dramatic week, Greece is still standing… just. Markets opened on Monday with a huge opening gap lower in response to the surprise call for a referendum by the Tsipras government. Quite what this bailout is actually about is confusing for most people across Europe, especially Greek citizens. As the FT has been keen…
Another week passes and Greek negotiations slip past increasingly tenuous deadlines. European leaders continued to press for firm economic development plans while Greece held firm. Proposal rejections are a daily occurrence as each side continues to push hard without issuing iron clad ultimatums. Greece knows that European leaders such as Jean Claude Junker wish to…
At the time of writing, the latest round of Greek negotiations appears to be going to the wire once again, yet the euro continues to stand relatively firm. The bond market has borne the brunt of volatility while the euro is seemingly inoculated thanks in part to the effect of the ECB’s quantitative easing programme.…
