EU’s Rehn on the Wires

Says:

• Euro governance to be determined this year
• Closer economic union to complement monetary union
• Recession to be ‘much nastier’ if crisis not resolved
• EU going through a ‘mild recession’
• EU undertaking reformation of Europe’
• Portugal making ‘good progress’ on fiscal reforms
• Greek PSI agreement by the end of the week
• Greece must make ‘decisive progress’ on reforms

Bobbys Corner-Open Market-January.23.2012

Good Morning:

Asian trading was muted as the start the Chinese New Year kept many Asian market participants away.

In a move that has been anticipated- EU Foreign Ministers announced that there will a ban on Iranian oil imports beginning July 1st in an effort to pressure the nation to contain its nuclear program.  The EU will try to put measures in place to ease the pain of an embargo for some countries, like Greece
Iran has been meeting with Indian officials on how to maintain trade-as the world looks to tighten sanctions around Iran and countries doing business with them.  Iran is India’s second largest oil supplier-and they have discussed Iran being paid in rupees.  Iran is seeking partial payment in JPY-as Iran is concerned about the value of the rupee staying somewhat stable.

Equity markets are higher-as are US Futures.

Oil, Gold and silver are all higher.

HAVE A GREAT DAY & GOOD LUCK

Bobbys Corner-Open Market-December.14.2011

Good Morning:

The euro fell below $1.30 as Italian borrowing costs increased, and ECB borrowing for Spanish banks hit a 1 year high.  Continued political differences within the EU community have caused a negative scenario with the euro.
Lower European equity markets also caused the euro to lose steam.
The GBP was higher in overnight trading as lower equity markets had investors look for the safety of the GBP.

Commodity and equity markets dropped after the FOMC yesterday stated that they are not looking to add any more stimulus to their easing policy.   The FOMC announced that the US economy is showing signs of growth (as slow as it may be)-which was their reasoning behind their no new stimulus approach.  Many investors were looking for a 3rd round of QE. 

World equity markets traded lower-and US Futures are lower at this time also.

Oil,Gold,Silver and commodities in general are lower across the board.

HAVE A GREAT DAY & GOOD LUCK

Bobbys Corner-Open Market-December.13.2011

Good Morning:

The greenback lost steam overnight-as investors look ahead at the Fed’s policy meeting today.  Many market participants are anticipating that the Fed will reiterate their pledge to keep interest rates at record lows.  Most feel that the Fed will not reduce any of the stimuli that they have in place.  They may possibly be able to slow down their asset purchase program, but I do not think they will do that quickly.
The FOMC will have their rate decision and comments at 2:15 PM this afternoon.

In news over the pond: 
Comments from ECB member Makuch that the ECB can’t carry out massive bond purchases-as the EU treaty does not allow the ECB to act like the US Fed. 
The markets did see the ECB out in the market buying Italian bonds today.
With banks in Europe under pressure from regulators to boost their capital reserves, many major European banks are selling some of their best businesses so that they can raise the much needed capital.  This practice will most definitely hurt future long term profits, but the banks have no choice at this time.

November Retail Sales rose .2% versus .6% in October.

Oil and Silver are higher, while Gold is flat.

Asian equity markets were lower-but Europe and US Futures are in positive territory.

HAVE A GREAT DAY & GOOD LUCK

Bobbys Corner-Open Market-December.12.2011

Good Morning:

The USD and JPY rose as investors seek out safe haven assets as the European debt crisis continues to cause havoc in the marketplace.
It seems that some of the “crisis fighting” measures that have been put in place are not enough-as European borrowing costs are continuing to rise.
Moody’s Investor Services will again review the ratings of European Union countries after last weeks summit did not produce any real initiates to put and end to the debt crisis.
S&P also made comments that the EU summit made some progress, but did not come away with any concrete decisions.
The CHF also fell versus the USD as investors continued concerns that European leaders have not come up with an agreement to reign in the debt crisis, thus causing investors to seek assets with less ties to the Euro Zone.

Asian equity markets were mixed-Europe is lower-and US Futures are pointing to a lower opening this morning.
 
Gold and Silver and Oil are all lower.

HAVE A GREAT DAY & GOOD LUCK

Bobbys Corner-Open Market-December.7.2011

Good Morning:

Market participants mostly remained on the sidelines as we await the scheduled ECB meeting along with a EU summit scheduled for tomorrow.  News from the ECB that dollar demand via the swap auction was higher than expected, took a lot of the wind out of the EUR/USD pair.  It seems that the banking sector is still struggling to meet it’s funding obligations.
Yesterday’s 25 basis point drop by the Reserve Bank of Australiais the RBA’s attempt to keep the economic momentum in Austrailia moving forward.

World equity markets are mostly higher-but Europe is showing signs of a small sell-off-and US Futures are  higher at this point.

Gold, Silver and most metals are lower-while oil is also slightly lower.

HAVE A GREAT DAY & GOOD LUCK

Bobbys Corner-Open Market-December.6.2011

Good Morning:

Risk 0ff after yesterday’s late afternoon announcement by S&P that they are putting 17 European countries on a negative credit watch.
This negative watch may lead to possible downgrades.
In other S&P news-they have reaffirmed China’s Aa/A-1+ rating.
S&P seems to be interested in politics again, after downgrading the US this summer.  S&P commented that the “continued disagreements among European policy makers” was a main reason for the downgrade warning.  Many feel that S&P should back off-as the downgrade watch just complicates solving the EU debt crisis.
With the EU meeting for yet another summit in Brussels on Dec 8 and 9-analysts questioned the timing of the S&P move.
Ahead of the summit-German Chancellor Merkel and French President Sarkozy will present a plan to rewrite the EU’s governing treaty to enforce tighter economic controls over member countries.
The crisis has already led to bailouts for Greece,Ireland and Portugal-and it looks like Italy is next in line.

World equity markets were mostly lower-but US futures are slightly higher.

HAVE A GREAT DAY & GOOD LUCK

Bobbys Corner-Open Market-November.30.2011

Good Morning:

The euro dropped early in the overnight session (1.3258).  During this time comments by a representative from Peoples Bank of China regarding a cut in reserve ratios set by the government,  this sent the Shanghai index down 3.3%.   Then comments by a Italian regulator that there is a risk of a euro breakup if the ECB does not change it’s role, and get more deeply involved in the Euro Zone’s financial crisis caused the single currency to loose steam.

Irish PM Kenny stated that he sees “real and present danger” from the current EU crisis.  He feels that the crisis is spiraling out of control-and European leaders must make decisive actions and decisions. 
EU finance minister are going to look at the IMF and not just the ECB to help out during this crisis.  This comes on the heels of conceding that the bailout fund has missed it’s target.

ADP payrolls printed at 206K-much better than the 130K the street had predicted.

Today we have Chicago PMI data-and the Beige Book will be released at 2PM this afternoon.

HAVE A GREAT DAY & GOOD LUCK

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