Market Analysis

MARKET OVERVIEW   2013-02-25 06:36 GMT Italy at the crossroads ahead of weekend elections On 24 and 25 February Italy heads to the polls to vote in the general election, called two months before of the end of the statutory five-year term. The outcome is rather uncertain as many voters remain undecided as to who […]

MARKET OVERVIEW   2013-02-21 06:15 GMT FOMC Minutes: Some Fed officials consider eventual QE pullback Minutes of the Fed's January policy meeting showed several officials think the bank should be prepared to vary the pace of its asset purchases, depending on how the economy performs and its analysis of the costs and benefits of the

MARKET OVERVIEW   2013-02-20 06:09 GMT Australia: RBA Sees the Medicine Starting to Take, But Is It? After a year-and-a-half of cuts in its cash rate, Australia’s central bank kept rates unchanged at its recent meeting citing a firming in economic growth. We are not convinced and cannot rule out more rate cuts. Australia’s economy

MARKET OVERVIEW   2013-02-19 06:23 GMT Draghi: Exchange rate is not a policy target ECB head Mario Draghi visited the European Parliament on Monday to take part in two hearings before the Committee on Economic and Monetary Affairs, one on the central bank’s monetary policy and the second on systemic risk. He assured that the

MARKET OVERVIEW   2013-02-18 06:15 GMT G20 statement settles on generalities; approval to keep selling the Yen? The G20 weekend meeting and its final statement settled again on generalities, with key passages posing little risk to neither discredit nor criticize ongoing Japanese polices, where no specific mention was noticed. As Sean Callow, Westpac FX strategist,

MARKET OVERVIEW   2013-02-14 06:11 GMT The Real Threat from Spain's Corruption Scandal Investors worried about Spain’s political stability have been dumping their Spanish holdings and pushing up the country’s borrowing costs after the eruption late last week of a corruption scandal involving Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy. Until now, the government’s durability had been one

MARKET OVERVIEW   2013-02-13 06:11 GMT Obama addresses congress at the SOTU speech In the State of the Union speech, President Barack Obama addressed the Congress, with the main highlights found below. The text was obtained from Obama's prepared full text speech and released moments before he came on stage. Obama first emphasized that the

MARKET OVERVIEW   2013-02-12 06:11 GMT S&P keeps Ireland rating at BBB+; Outlook revised up to stable from negative The Standard and Poor's rating services has maintained its Ireland rating at BBB+ but has revised upward the Irish outlook from negative to stable on the back of promissory notes exchange. Earlier on the day, BUBA’s

MARKET OVERVIEW   2013-02-11 06:11 GMT EU leaders reach 7-year budget deal After more than 24 hours of negotiations, European Council President, Herman Van Rompuy, announced Friday that the 27 members of the European Union have reached agreement on the EU budget framework for the next seven years. Van Rompuy's plan proposed to limit new

MARKET OVERVIEW   2013-02-07 06:11 GMT Euro bloc faces acute challenges from rival central banks Much is at stake in the Eurozone should the fabled 'currency war' be ultimately waged as the price will be paid in both growth and jobs amidst fresh tensions about the future of the bloc itself. Few would doubt the