The Bank of England MPC has just announced (12.00pm London) that they have as expected left interest rates and asset purchases unchanged. The MPC has concluded their two day meeting, 7 and 8 January 2015. Current base interest rate: 0.5% Asset purchases (QE): £375bn The minutes for today’s MPC meeting will be released on Wednesday 21 2015. Traders will be eager to see if there has been a change in the committees voting split (previously 7 -2) and to disseminate…

UK Markit/CIPS UK Services PMI disappoints at 55.8 vs (Previous 58.6). The pace of growth stuttered in the service sector in December. The data adds to the confusion over the health of the economy, and adds weight to the view of that a rate rise in 2015 is diminishing. GBPUSD In the FX market Sterling traded lower following the release of the PMI data, trading to a new session low of 1.5187. (Session high 1.52735) Full data release…

The fears of a Greek exit from the Eurozone, remerged over the weekend for the first time since its height in mid-2012. In early Asian trading, EURUSD gapped lower on the open trading to a 9 year low of 1.1870 (Straticator DMA) on the offer. Greece has implemented a number of austerity measures since the financial crisis, in an attempt to appease the ECB and the IMF. The economy teetered on the brink of collapse, and was saved by an IMF bailout. The country has begun to recover, with u…

The final trading session of 2014 is upon us; the year finishes with record highs for US indices, and a bear market in Oil. As the year ends, there has been resurgence in instability in Libya, a near collapse of the Russian Ruble and heightened tensions from North Korea. These are individual views, and shouldn’t be taken as investment advice; Abshire-Smith provides execution only trading. Trading leveraged products such as FX and CFDs, is a high risk and you may lose more than yo…

The Russian Ruble’s recent moves have hit the financial headlines, after wild swings, interest rate increases and market intervention. The value of the Ruble has moved dramatically this week, being deemed “untradeable” by some analysts. USDRUB trade to 80 Rubles to the US Dollar on Tuesday, currently the pair is trading around 62 Rubles to the USD. The rapid depreciation was meant to be curbed by a bold move by the central bank, a 650bps increase in interest rates, ho…

The price of Oil has collapsed since the start of the year, with concerns of the global recovery being derailed. Oil producing nations, who rely on the black gold for revenue, are in risk of having to cut expenditure following the commodity rollercoaster. US Oil (WTI Crude) has traded below $60 for the first time in 5 years on Thursday and there is a concern that there could be further to fall. Countries that are expected to suffer are net exporters of Oil, and rely primarily on govern…

The Swiss National Bank has reaffirmed their commitment to the minimum exchange rate of CHF 1.20 per Euro. “Consequently, the SNB will continue to enforce the minimum exchange rate with the utmost determination. It is prepared to buy foreign currency in unlimited quantities for this purpose.” There had been concern that a referendum (Save Our Swiss Gold) would leave the SNB unable to maintain the floor. The initiative was rejected by the Swiss people, which initially…

Production data released by the Office for National Statistics missed analysts’ expectations. Manufacturing output had its lowest drop in 5-months, though it was pulled down by a fall in the production of computers. The ONS announced that manufacturing output was the only one of the four components of the Index of Production to fall. GBP Sterling was offered following the disappointing figures, trading down to print 1.5641. Cable has been trending in a choppy channel since…

At 12:30pm (London) Chancellor George Osborne will unveil his Autumn Statement at the House of Commons. This is one of the current coalition government’s few major announcements prior to next year’s general election, and an attempt to sway voters. This is a fiscal announcement rather than a monetary policy; which is overseen by the Bank of England. Osborne is under pressure as the current government announced a range of austerity measures during its term in parliament, on t…

The yellow metal, black gold, call them what you want; commodities have seen significant moves of over 6% in a single trading session in the last few days. The steep declines, and rallies in both Gold and Oil have seen significant volumes traded over the US public holiday, Thanksgiving. Crude Oil US (WTI) and UK (Brent) crude have been trending lower since the start of 2014, down over 30% YTD, trading at a four year low. The move is a gift for airlines and Oil purchasers, but is…