Month: October 2012

The first trading day of the trading week will have investors monitoring poll results as the two US presidential candidates have their final debate tonight. Good morning, this is Kristin Bianco with the Week Ahead Market Report for October 22, 2012.

By CountingPips.com

The latest Commitments of Traders (COT) report, released on Friday by the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC), showed that large futures speculators added to their overall US dollar short positions last week, breaking a string of two consecutive weeks of improvements for the dollar.

Non-commercial large futures traders, including hedge funds and large speculators, increased their total US dollar short position to a total of $8.14 billion on October 16th from a total short position of $6.43 billion on October 9th, according to the CFTC COT data and calculations by Reuters which calculates the dollar positions against the euro, British pound, Japanese yen, Australian dollar, Canadian dollar and the Swiss franc.

Individual Currencies:

EuroFX: Currency speculator sentiment for the euro rebounded last week after falling sharply the previous week. Euro net short positions or bets against the currency declined to 53,495 contracts on October 16th from the previous week’s total of 72,570 net short contracts on October 9th. Euro positions are close to their best standing in over a year which was reached on September 25th when short positions totaled 50,238 contracts.

The COT report is published every Friday by the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) and shows futures positions as of the previous Tuesday. It can be a useful tool for traders to gauge investor sentiment and to look for potential changes in the direction of a currency or commodity.

Each currency contract is a quote for that currency directly against the U.S. dollar, a net short amount of contracts means that more speculators are betting that currency to fall against the dollar and a net long position expect that currency to rise versus the dollar.

(The graphs overlay the forex spot closing price of each Tuesday when COT trader positions are reported for each corresponding spot currency pair.)

GBP: British pound sterling positions fell last week for a second straight week after reaching a new high level for 2012 on October 2nd. British pound sterling speculative positions declined to a total of 19,599 net long contracts on October 16th following a total of 22,572 net long contracts on October 9th. British pound positions, on October 2nd, touched their highest level since May 3, 2011 when long positions numbered 30,807 contracts.

JPY: Japanese yen speculative contracts fell last week for a second straight week and to their lowest level since July 10th. Japanese yen positions decreased to a total of 10,086 net long contracts reported on October 16th following a total of 12,914 net long contracts on October 9th.

CHF: Swiss franc speculator positions edged just slightly lower after improving to their best positioning since December 2011 the previous week. Speculator positions for the Swiss currency futures registered a total of 1,192 net short contracts on October 16th following a total of 306 net short contracts as of October 9th. Franc contracts continue to be at just about a neutral position against the US dollar and hovering around its best levels since 2011.

CAD: Canadian dollar positions declined slightly for a fourth consecutive week following a streak of eight weeks of rises. Canadian dollar positions decreased to a total of 93,750 net long contracts as of October 16th following a total of 95,628 net long contracts that were reported for October 9th. Before falling the last four weeks, Canadian dollar positions had ascended higher for eight consecutive weeks and surged to the highest level in over two years on September 18th.

AUD: The Australian dollar positions declined slightly lower last week as Aussie positions fell for a second consecutive week. Aussie speculative futures positions dipped to a total net amount of 38,444 long contracts on October 16th after totaling 39,814 net long contracts as of October 9th. Australian dollar positions, on September 25th, had reached their 2012 high level when long positions equaled 86,882 contracts before falling for three weeks.

NZD: New Zealand dollar speculator positions fell slightly last week to decline for two consecutive weeks. NZD contracts decreased to a total of 16,284 net long contracts as of October 16th following a total of 16,710 net long contracts on October 9th. Kiwi contracts, on October 2nd, were at their highest level since February 27th when positions totaled 22,114 long contracts before declining the past few weeks.

MXN: Mexican peso speculative contracts declined just slightly last week after edging higher the previous week. Peso positions dipped to a total of 135,456 net long speculative positions as of October 16th following a total of 136,392 long contracts that were reported for October 9th. Peso contracts have now been over 100,000 long positions for six straight weeks and are just off their highest level in over two years that was reached on September 25th.

Article by CountingPips.com

This forty second trading week of 2012 comes to a close with investors selling off stocks after a series of disappointing earnings reports being reported on the twenty fifth anniversary of the 1987 stock market crash on Black Monday. Hi.

Stocks are getting crushed after a slew of disappointing earnings reports. Heading into the last hour of trading, The Dow was down 1.7%, the S&P was down 1.8% and the Nasdaq was lower by 2.3%.

Seadrill Partners (SDLP) announced that it priced its initial public offering of 8,750,000 common units at a price of $22.00 per unit. Seadrill Partners has granted the underwriters a 30-day over-allotment option to purchase up to 1,312,500 additional common units, at the same price per unit, to cover over-allotments, if any.

Intuitive Surgical (ISRG) was upgraded by Bank of America/Merrill Lynch from neutral to buy with a price target of $620 as the firm’s Da Vinci robot will gain market share in the US for surgeries. Shares are higher by about 1.2 percent.

E*Trade Financial (ETFC) was downgraded by Wells Fargo (WFC) from outperform to market perform with a price target of $9 to $10, after it missed EPS estimates. Shares are lower by about 8.7 percent.

Abbott Laboratories (ABT) was upgraded by Wells Fargo (WFC) to outperform from market perform, as the firm believes that the stock is oversold. Shares are higher by about a third of a percent.

Schlumberger Limited (SLB) maintained its quarterly dividend of 27.5 cents per share. The dividend is payable on January 11, 2013 to stockholders of record at the close of business on December 3, 2012.

In trading on Friday, computer peripherals shares were relative leaders, up on the day by about 0.3%. Leading the group were shares of Riverbed Tech (RVBD), up about 12.5% and shares of F5 Networks (FFIV) up about 1.5% on the day.