During the Asian session equities fell the most in two weeks after the release of Chinese manufacturing data, showing that its manufacturing sector is likely to contract in September for an 11th month. The Asian selloff continued after the release of Japanese exports down by 5.8% from August compared to the previous year. This week has seen WTI Crude fall by nearly $10 from high to low currently trading with a $90 handle trading at a 6-week low. This follows the sudden selloff on Monda…

Minutes of the monetary policy committee meeting held on 5th and 6th September 2012 http://www.bankofengland.co.uk/publications/minutes/Documents/mpc/pdf/2012/mpc1209.pdf *The above is a link to the Bank of England website to view the online PDF of the MPC minutes.…

The Bank of Japan unexpectedly increased is asset-purchases by 10trillion Yen, as the central bank attempts to counter the country’s economic contraction. Following the announcement Japanese stocks rallied and the Yen fell as only 5 of 21 analysts forecast the easing. Manchester United may have had a good season on the pitch, but financially their first earnings show that the lack of trophies led to an operational loss of £14.9m. Total revenues were down 3% to £…

Its Monday morning and the start of the trading week in Europe, and though there has been unrest in the Middle East, political tensions increasing between Japan and China, the mainstream UK press is focused on the pictures taken of a royal while sunbathing. The escalating unrest in the Middle East is likely to unsettle investors and push up the prices of Oil due to the uncertainty of future supply. Protesters have been outside western embassies and Al-Qaeda brazenly attacked the ISAF b…

If you held bullish positions this week in commodities, equities and were short the dollar against pretty much any other currency, then this should have been a very successful week of trading. The dollar has been heavily sold against the majors, with respective multi-month highs and lows. The week has had 3 major events the German constitutional court announcing that the formation of the ESM wasn’t unconstitutional, the Dutch elections and Ben Bernanke turning on the taps of the antici…

Following the attack on the US embassy in Libya and the murder of the US ambassador, commentators are citing the possibility of the unrest spreading across the region. Anger was vented against the US in retaliation to a film published by a US citizen that was felt mocked and undermined the Islamic faith. If there is unrest spirals and is widespread this is likely to impact on Oil prices due to the stability in the Middle Eastern region. Expectation and rumours surround the capped EURCH…

In a controversial plan Vince Cable the Business Secretary, will announce the plans today for a government-backed corporate lender. This is an attempt to reignite lending and reinvigorate the UK economy, though firmer details as to the scale and setup are yet to be decided. I personally think that this is a backwards step and that a regulated banking sector is the solution rather than a politicised government lendeThe new Chief Executive of Barclays Antony Jenkins has vowed to review each un…

It’s the first day of the trading week for London, following an impressive closing ceremony for the Paralympic Games. Last week’s markets ended following a disappointing US NFP report on Friday and further weak macro data out of China at the weekend. Though this led to markets getting a slight lift as it increases the likelihood of further stimulus from both the US and China. Spencer Dale of the Bank of England speaking at Trinity College Dublin over the weekend stat…

Equity markets rallied yesterday after the expected announcement by Mario Draghi that the European Central Bank (ECB) will indeed be supporting indebted European governments. He pledged the ECB will consider to purchasing their government bonds in a new programme dubbed Outright Monetary Transactions. These would be bought in the secondary market, and not indirectly from the governments and Draghi stipulated that this would only happen after the governments had sought financial aid from the…