Verizon Communications is near a $130 billion deal to buy out the 45 percent stake in Verizon Wireless it does not already own from Vodafone Group and plans to raise about $65 billion to fund the purchase. Boards of Verizon and Vodafone are each expected to meet soon to approve the proposed transaction.
By CountingPips.com
Weekly CFTC Net Speculator Report
10 Year Treasuries: Large trader and speculators added to their bearish positions last week for 10-year treasury notes in the futures markets and pushed 10-year notes to their most bearish position of 2013. 10-year treasury non-commercial contracts totaled a net position of -110,825 contracts in the data reported for August 27th. This is a drop of -85,985 contracts from the previous week’s total of -24,840 net contracts on August 20th.
In the same time-frame, the yield on the 10 Year treasury note declined from 2.82 on Tuesday August 20th to 2.72 on Tuesday August 27th, according to US Treasury data.
Last 6 Weeks of Large Trader Positions
| Date | Net Large Specs | Weekly Change | 10 Year Yield |
| 07/23/2013 | -32312 | -50047 | 2.53 |
| 07/30/2013 | 11903 | 44215 | 2.63 |
| 08/06/2013 | -20096 | -31999 | 2.67 |
| 08/13/2013 | -66432 | -46336 | 2.71 |
| 08/20/2013 | -24840 | 41592 | 2.82 |
| 08/27/2013 | -110825 | -85985 | 2.72 |
*COT explanation: The weekly cot report summarizes the total trader positions for open contracts in the futures trading markets. The CFTC categorizes trader positions according to commercial hedgers (traders who use futures contracts for hedging as part of the business), non-commercials (large traders who speculate to realize trading profits) and nonreportable traders (usually small traders/speculators).
Article by CountingPips.com – Forex News & Market Analysis
The weekly Commitments of Traders (COT) report, released on Friday by the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC), showed that large futures traders and currency speculators added to their bullish bets of the US dollar last week for the first time in six weeks.
Non-commercial large futures traders, including hedge funds and large International Monetary Market speculators, raised their overall US dollar long positions to a total of $15.28 billion as of Tuesday August 27th. This was an increase of $2.28 billion from the total long position of $13.54 billion that was registered on August 20th, according to calculations by Reuters that calculates this amount by the total of US dollar contracts against the combined contracts of the euro, British pound, Japanese yen, Australian dollar, Canadian dollar and the Swiss franc.
This was the first rise in US dollar overall long positions since July 16th when long bets rose by $1.67 billion to a total of $29.61 billion.
COT explanation: The weekly cot report summarizes the total trader positions for open contracts in the futures trading markets. The CFTC categorizes trader positions according to commercial hedgers (traders who use futures contracts for hedging as part of the business), non-commercials (large traders who speculate to realize trading profits) and non-reportable traders (usually small traders/speculators).
Individual Currencies Large Speculators Positions in Futures:
The large non-commercial net positions for each of the individual major currencies directly against the US dollar last week saw weekly increases for the euro, British pound sterling and the Swiss franc while the Japanese yen, New Zealand dollar, Canadian dollar, Australian dollar and the Mexican peso had declining numbers of large speculator positions for the week.
Notable changes:
Euro net speculative contracts improved for the seventh straight week and are now at their highest level of 2013. Canadian dollar positions have fallen to their lowest level since June 18th while Mexican peso positions dropped to the lowest level since July 2nd.
Individual Currency Charts:
EuroFX:
Last Six Weeks of Large Trader Positions: EuroFX
| Date | Large Trader Net Positions | Weekly Change |
| 07/23/2013 | -27900 | 9265 |
| 07/30/2013 | -8504 | 19396 |
| 08/06/2013 | 6061 | 14565 |
| 08/13/2013 | 16057 | 9996 |
| 08/20/2013 | 36746 | 20689 |
| 08/27/2013 | 40081 | 3335 |
British Pound Sterling:
Last Six Weeks of Large Trader Positions: Pound Sterling
| Date | Lg Trader Net | Weekly Change |
| 07/23/2013 | -49653 | -12207 |
| 07/30/2013 | -49463 | 190 |
| 08/06/2013 | -46033 | 3430 |
| 08/13/2013 | -46521 | -488 |
| 08/20/2013 | -39522 | 6999 |
| 08/27/2013 | -38226 | 1296 |
Japanese Yen:
Last Six Weeks of Large Trader Positions: Yen
| Date | Lg Trader Net | Weekly Change |
| 07/23/2013 | -87496 | -1734 |
| 07/30/2013 | -82135 | 5361 |
| 08/06/2013 | -80213 | 1922 |
| 08/13/2013 | -74462 | 5751 |
| 08/20/2013 | -71721 | 2741 |
| 08/27/2013 | -78353 | -6632 |
Swiss Franc:
Last Six Weeks of Large Trader Positions: Franc
| Date | Lg Trader Net | Weekly Change |
| 07/23/2013 | -5433 | -464 |
| 07/30/2013 | -1261 | 4172 |
| 08/06/2013 | -325 | 936 |
| 08/13/2013 | 2136 | 2461 |
| 08/20/2013 | 291 | -1845 |
| 08/27/2013 | 402 | 111 |
Canadian Dollar:
Last Six Weeks of Large Trader Positions: CAD
| Date | Lg Trader Net | Weekly Change |
| 07/23/2013 | -16758 | 3285 |
| 07/30/2013 | -11434 | 5324 |
| 08/06/2013 | -10436 | 998 |
| 08/13/2013 | -9081 | 1355 |
| 08/20/2013 | -9544 | -463 |
| 08/27/2013 | -24959 | -15415 |
Australian Dollar:
Last Six Weeks of Large Trader Positions: AUD
| Date | Lg Trader Net | Weekly Change |
| 07/23/2013 | -63982 | 6704 |
| 07/30/2013 | -72573 | -8591 |
| 08/06/2013 | -76779 | -4206 |
| 08/13/2013 | -62721 | 14058 |
| 08/20/2013 | -63183 | -462 |
| 08/27/2013 | -71117 | -7934 |
New Zealand Dollar:
Last Six Weeks of Large Trader Positions: NZD
| Date | Lg Trader Net | Weekly Change |
| 07/23/2013 | -1846 | 898 |
| 07/30/2013 | -520 | 1326 |
| 08/06/2013 | -1539 | -1019 |
| 08/13/2013 | 197 | 1736 |
| 08/20/2013 | 2390 | 2193 |
| 08/27/2013 | 252 | -2138 |
Mexican Peso:
Last Six Weeks of Large Trader Positions: MXN
| Date | Lg Trader Net | Weekly Change |
| 07/23/2013 | 19799 | 8433 |
| 07/30/2013 | 24888 | 5089 |
| 08/06/2013 | 32125 | 7237 |
| 08/13/2013 | 36320 | 4195 |
| 08/20/2013 | 36131 | -189 |
| 08/27/2013 | 7198 | -28933 |
The Commitment of Traders report is published every Friday by the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) and shows futures positions data that was reported as of the previous Tuesday (3 days behind).
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.)
See more information and explanation on the weekly COT report from the CFTC website.
Article by CountingPips.com
Japan’s government won backing for a controversial decision to raise the national sales tax in 2014, after influential members of a special advisory panel said the step would not threaten economic recovery or business confidence if it was coupled with other stimulus.
Activist investor Carl Icahn said he may seek talks with speech-recognition technology maker Nuance Communications Inc. regarding the possibility of adding nominees to Nuance’s board. Icahn holds a 16.9 percent stake in the company.
The Wall Street Journal is reporting that General Electric (GE) plans to spin off its US consumer lending business as early as next year in an IPO. The consumer lending unit accounts for nearly 20% of GE Capital’s total outstanding loans with more than 55 million people having store credit cards backed by General Electric’s finance division.
Emerging markets are stuck between a rock and a hard place. Policymakers are working to halt the rapid depreciation of their currencies by raising interest rates and tightening monetary policy. But that may risk slower economic growth in the years ahead and threaten to drag down the global economic recovery.
All-cash purchases accounted for 40% of all sales of residential property in July 2013, according to a new study. But experts caution that this increase may not be a good sign for the health of the housing market. MarketWatch’s Jim Jelter reports (Photo: Getty Images)
By CountingPips.com
We are excited to announce that we have released our latest indicator for the Metatrader 4 platform: Automatic Fibonacci Retracements
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According to Emergency Manager Kevin Orr, Detroit, which has filed for the largest Chapter 9 bankruptcy in U.S. history, will issue a request for proposals to borrow $350 million that will be used to terminate a complicated swaps deal and give funding for “quality of life” improvements in the city.
