Author: FX_Trdr

Finance minister George Osborne says Britain’s ecoomy has turned a corner, vindicating his austerity programme. But as David Pollard reports some question the strength of the recovery.

Britain’s finance minister George Osborne says the economy is turning a corner as a result of the government sticking to its guns with its package of austerity. (ROUGH CUT – NO REPORTER NARRATION).

Italy’s Monte dei Paschi di Siena will seek 2.5 billion euros ($3.3 billion) in fresh capital from investors to shore up its finances, an amount that is more than double its original plan and makes nationalisation more likely should the cash call fail. Sonia Legg reports

Japan’s economy expanded much faster than initially expected in the second quarter, adding to growing signs a solid recovery is taking hold and heightening the case for Prime Minister Shinzo Abe to proceed with a planned sales tax hike next year.

US Dollar up vs Euro, Yen, Franc last week, down vs Pound, Aussie, Kiwi & Loonie – Week Ahead features NZD rate decision, US retail sales

The US dollar was mixed last week against the other major currencies in forex trading as the American currency was higher for the week against the euro, Swiss franc and the Japanese yen while losing ground against Canadian dollar, Australian dollar, British pound sterling and the New Zealand dollar.

This week’s economic calendar is much lighter than last week with only a few major economic releases due out. Early in the week, there is important data out of China on new yuan loans and consumer prices for August. In the middle of the week, there is an interest rate decision from the Reserve Bank of New Zealand with market expectations looking for the bank to hold its interest rate at 2.50 percent. Later in the week, we have employment data out of Australia for August, the European Central Bank publishes its monthly report and finally, on Friday, retail sales data for the United States as well as the University of Michigan confidence survey are released.

Please See the week’s highlighted economic events below:

This Week’s Economic Highlights:

Sunday, September 8

China — trade balance
Japan — GDP report
Japan — trade balance
Japan — bank lending

Monday, September 9

China — loan data
China — consumer price index
China — producer price index
Australia — home loans
Switzerland — employment data
Japan — consumer confidence
Switzerland — retail sales
Canada — building permits
euro zone — investor confidence
United States — consumer credit

Tuesday, September 10

Australia — NAB business confidence
China — industrial production
China — retail sales
euro zone — Italy GBP report
Canada — housing starts

Wednesday, September 11

Australia — Westpac consumer confidence
euro zone — Germany CPI
United Kingdom — jobless claims
New Zealand — interest rate decision
Japan — foreign bonds/stocks buying
Japan — machine orders

Thursday, September 12

Australia — employment data
euro zone — European central bank monthly report
euro zone — industrial production
Canada — new housing Price Index
United States — weekly jobless claims
United States — monthly budget
New Zealand — manufacturing performance

Friday, September 13

Japan — industrial production
New Zealand — ANZ consumer confidence
United States — producer price index
United States — retail sales
United States — U. Michigan consumer confidence
United States — business inventories

Article by CountingPips.com

Australia’s conservative opposition swept to power, ending six years of Labor Party rule and winning over a disenchanted public by promising to end a hated tax on carbon emissions, boost a flagging economy and bring about political stability. (Sept. 7)

By CountingPips.com

Weekly CFTC Net Speculator Report

10 Year Treasuries: Large trader and futures market speculators slightly pulled back on their overall bearish positions last week for 10-year treasury notes. The 10-year treasury non-commercial contracts totaled a net position of -103,094 contracts in the data reported for September 3rd. This is an increase of +7,731 contracts from the previous week’s total of -110,825 net contracts on August 27th.

In the same time-frame, the yield on the 10 Year treasury note rose from 2.72 on Tuesday August 27th to 2.86 on Tuesday September 3rd, according to US Treasury data.

Last 6 Weeks of Large Trader Positions

*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

By CountingPips.com

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 raised their bullish bets of the US dollar last week for the second consecutive week.

Non-commercial large futures traders, including hedge funds and large International Monetary Market speculators, increased their overall US dollar long positions to a total of $20.08 billion as of Tuesday September 3rd. This was an increase of $4.26 billion from the total long position of $15.28 billion that was registered on August 27th, 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.

US dollar overall long positions are now at their highest level since August 6th when long bets registered a total of $21.62 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 a weekly increase for just the Swiss franc while the euro, British pound sterling, Japanese yen, New Zealand dollar, Canadian dollar, Australian dollar and the Mexican peso all had declining numbers of large speculator positions for the week.

Individual Currency Charts:

EuroFX:

Last Six Weeks of Large Trader Positions: EuroFX

British Pound Sterling:

Last Six Weeks of Large Trader Positions: Pound Sterling

Japanese Yen:

Last Six Weeks of Large Trader Positions: Yen

Swiss Franc:

Last Six Weeks of Large Trader Positions: Franc

Canadian Dollar:

Last Six Weeks of Large Trader Positions: CAD

Australian Dollar:

Last Six Weeks of Large Trader Positions: AUD

New Zealand Dollar:

Last Six Weeks of Large Trader Positions: NZD

Mexican Peso:

Last Six Weeks of Large Trader Positions: MXN

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

Newcastle Investment (NCT) announced that it has acquired Dow Jones Local Media Group from News Corp (NWSA) for $87 million. The Company made a total equity investment of $54 million, including transaction expenses, and financed the remainder of the purchase price with $33 million of debt.

Mexican Wireless services provider America Movil’s Chief Financial Officer Carlos Garcia Moreno said that a three-part sterling and euro hybrid bond that the company announced is aimed at preserving it’s credit rating and not linked to any particular pending deals