Thread: Forex News from InstaForex

The European currency has been extending Tuesday's Asian session downtrend against its UK counterpart during early European deals also. The euro thus slipped to its lowest point since March 06, 2009 against the pound. At about 5:20 am ET, the euro-pound pair hit as low as 0.8928, compared to Monday's closing value of 0.9001. If the Euro drops further, 0.886 is seen as the next likely support level.

For comments and feedback: contact [email protected]

Copyright(c) 2009 RTTNews.com, Inc. All Rights Reserved

News are provided by InstaForex in partnership with RTT.

President Barack Obama Monday sought the Congress' backing for a proposed USD100 billion U.S. loan for the expansion of an International Monetary Fund (IMF) emergency fund by USD 500 billion, reports say.

The USD100 billion is part of the plan agreed at this month's Group of 20 summit in London to triple IMF resources to a total of $750 billion to help the Fund respond to crises in emerging market economies as a result of the global financial crisis and economic downturn.

Obama made the request Monday in several letters to two Democrats: House of Representatives speaker Nancy Pelosi and Senate Majority leader Harry Reid; and Republican House leader John Boehner and Senate Minority leader Mitch McConnell.

"Our proposal to increase U.S. participation in the NAB by up to USD 100 billion as part of an overall increase of 500 billion dollars was warmly endorsed by the G20 Leaders," the letters said.

The president pointed out the funding does not represent a budgetary expenditure or any increase in the deficit since it effectively represents an exchange of assets.

The transfer funds to the IMF under the program, known as an expansion of the New Arrangements to Borrow (NAB) will allow member-countries to provide credit to the IMF to deal with crises that may threaten the stability of the global financial system. In turn the donor nations would receive interest bearing assets in return, backed up by IMF resources including gold stocks.

Obama said countries were looking to the U.S. to deliver on its G-20 commitment, which could spur other governments to contribute to the IMF.

Noting that the NAB was "woefully inadequate" to deal with the severe economic and financial crisis, Obama said the deteriorating conditions threaten to worsen the recessions in the emerging economies and could cause currencies to collapse.

Asserting that rapid progress is essential to the restoration of confidence in the global economy and financial system so that the global economy can emerge from recession to recovery and to sustained growth, Obama appealed for help to deliver on the U.S. commitment by supporting inclusion of the NAB and related IMF proposals in the most timely legislative vehicle that will enable the United States to act quickly.

He said an enlargement of the NAB facility would allow for increased participation by emerging market economies, in particular China and India. Beijing has already indicated that it plans to contribute USD 40 billion to the IMF through a bond issued to its central bank by the Fund.

For comments and feedback: contact [email protected]

Copyright(c) 2009 RTTNews.com, Inc. All Rights Reserved

News are provided by InstaForex in partnership with RTT.

Wednesday, UK's Chancellor of Exchequer Alistair Darling is set to announce his second budget statement at 7.30am ET.

According to the findings of the Operational Efficiency Programme released by the HM Treasury on Tuesday, there is a scope for GBP 15 billion of efficiency savings. In its pre-budget report, the government had increased the target for the current spending review period to GBP 35 billion savings.

Economists expect government borrowings in the range of GBP 150 billion to GBP 175 billion. This would lift borrowings to 12% of GDP for each of the coming two years.

Darling is also expected to downwardly revise the GDP forecast for the British economy.

At 3.30am ET, Dutch consumer confidence is due. Consumer confidence is forecast to rise to minus 33 in April from minus 34 last month.

Thereafter, the Bank of England minutes and the UK labor market statistics are due at 4.30am ET. At the end of two-day rate setting meeting, the Monetary Policy Committee of the BoE held the interest rate at historical low of 0.5%. A preliminary M4 money supply report is expected at the same time. After rising 1.4% in February, M4 money supply is expected to increase 1.2% on a monthly basis in March.

The number of people claiming jobless benefits in the UK is expected to increase 116,000 in March after reporting a record monthly increase in February. The claimant count rate is seen at 4.6%, up from 4.3% in February. Meanwhile, the ILO jobless rate for three months to February is forecast to increase to 6.7% from 6.5%.

In the meantime, the Office for National Statistics is also scheduled to issue UK's Public Sector Finance data. The public sector net cash requirement is seen at GBP 18 billion in March compared to GBP 4.4 billion in February.

For comments and feedback: contact [email protected]

Copyright(c) 2009 RTTNews.com, Inc. All Rights Reserved

News are provided by InstaForex in partnership with RTT.

The dollar was mixed versus other major currencies Wednesday morning in New York, holding most of its recent gains versus the euro while coming under modest pressure against the yen. With little first-tier economic data for traders to consider, attention will turn to how equities markets behave amid the release of another flurry of key corporate earnings results.

Boeing, AT&T, Wells Fargo and McDonalds are just out with quarterly earnings. US stock futures continued to point to a lackluster open as traders weighed those results.

In news from the housing sector, mortgage applications in the U.S. rose last week as lower interest rates encouraged refinancing. The Mortgage Bankers Association's index of applications rose 5.3 percent to 1,172.2 in the week ended April 17, from 1,113.2 the week before.

On Tuesday, Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner said that the "vast majority" of U.S. banks have enough capital and hinted that the credit markets may be thawing following their deep freeze.

Geithner will again take center stage this morning, speaking about the recession at 9 am ET.

The dollar was range-bound versus the euro Wednesday morning, clinging to its gains from a recent run-up. The buck hovered between 1.2900 and 1.3000 in early dealing, moving to the lower end of that range approaching 8 am ET. On Monday, the dollar hit a monthly high of 1.2887.

Meanwhile, the dollar was weaker against the sterling this morning as traders reacted to the release of the minutes of the latest Bank of England policy meeting. The dollar slipped to 1.4650, giving back its gains from the previous session and moving back towards last week's multi-month low near 1.5000.

Wednesday, the minutes of the Monetary Policy Committee meeting of the Bank of England held on April 8 and 9 showed that policymakers voted unanimously to hold the Bank Rate at a historical low of 0.5%.

The minutes also revealed that all the nine members of the MPC stood united while deciding to continue with the initial asset purchase plan worth GBP 75 billion.

Also, the jobless rate in the UK was 6.7% for the three months to February 2009, up from revised 6.1% in the previous quarter, the Office for National Statistics said Wednesday. That was in line with economists' expectations.

The dollar eased a bit versus the yen this morning, slipping to 97.73 before finding support near Monday's 3-week low of 97.64. The buck has leveled off since hitting a 3-month high of 101.43 earlier this month.

Export-driven Japan's trade balance for fiscal 2008 suffered its first annual deficit in nearly three decades, data released Wednesday showed. The Ministry of Finance said Japanese exports plunged a record 16.4% to Y71.14 trillion during the fiscal year ended in March.

For comments and feedback: contact [email protected]

Copyright(c) 2009 RTTNews.com, Inc. All Rights Reserved

News are provided by InstaForex in partnership with RTT.

Moody's Investors Service Thursday lowered the Latvian government's foreign and local currency ratings to Baa3 from Baa1, giving a negative outlook.

The rating agency said that with the depth and the pace of economic adjustment in Latvia being more severe than anticipated, the government's revenues and budget deficits were being negatively affected, causing budget-related conditions in the IMF stand-by arrangement to be missed.

Moody's noted that the Latvian government's liquidity was under undue stress owing to reduced revenues, problems in the locally owned portion of the banking sector, and limited financing options in the domestic and international markets. Moody's therefore said that the government should identify sufficient budget adjustments to maintain access to the IMF/EU funding.

The firm forecasts the debt/GDP ratio to double to more than 50% of GDP by the end of 2010. Moody's noted that delaying expenditure cuts could damage investor confidence and risk the goal of euro adoption in 2012.

Meanwhile, the firm forecast the Latvian economy to shrink 12-13% in 2009, which is likely to have a negative effect on incomes, profits and consumption that are unlikely to recover in the near term.

For comments and feedback: contact [email protected]

Copyright(c) 2009 RTTNews.com, Inc. All Rights Reserved

News are provided by InstaForex in partnership with RTT.

Extending morning deal's downtrend, the Mexican peso weakened against its US counterpart during New York afternoon trading on Monday. At present, the peso is trading near a 26-day low of 13.9755 versus the greenback, compared to Friday's North American session close of 13.3398. The next downside target level for the Mexican currency is seen at 14.20. The peso plummeted on concern that the outbreak of the swine flu will deepen the country's economic slump.

The flu outbreak may slow dollar flows from tourism and curb consumer spending at restaurants, theaters and other venues where crowds gather. Suspected deaths in Mexico have risen to 103 from the 81 announced earlier, Health Minister Jose Cordova said yesterday.

For comments and feedback: contact [email protected]

Copyright(c) 2009 RTTNews.com, Inc. All Rights Reserved

News are provided by InstaForex in partnership with RTT.

The euro showed mixed trading against its major counterparts after a preliminary report from the German statistical office showed that consumer price annual inflation rose to 0.7% in April from 0.5% recorded in March. While, the euro gained slightly against the pound it moved sideways against the rest of majors. As of now, the euro is trading at 0.8916 against the pound, 1.3076 against the greenback and 126.26 versus the yen.

On a monthly basis, the consumer price index, or CPI, was flat. Economists had forecast the CPI to climb 0.8% annually and 0.1% month-on-month.

The harmonized index of consumer prices, or HICP, climbed 0.7% year-on-year after rising 0.4% in March, while the consensus forecast was for a 0.8% increase. Compared to March, the HICP was flat.

For comments and feedback: contact [email protected]

Copyright(c) 2009 RTTNews.com, Inc. All Rights Reserved

News are provided by InstaForex in partnership with RTT.

The German government is expected to slash its economic forecasts for 2009, reports said Wednesday, citing sources close to the government.

Gross domestic product, or GDP, is expected to decline 6% in 2009, the worst contraction since the World War II. The forecast was cut from a 2.25% fall predicted in January. Economy Minister Karl-Theodor zu Guttenberg will announce the latest set of forecasts at 7.00am ET.

Last week, a group of German economic think tanks jointly lowered their forecast for the biggest Eurozone economy. They now expect Germany to contract 6% in 2009, quicker than a 2.25% fall estimated previously. For 2010, the forecast group does not expect a dramatic recovery. GDP should decline 0.5%. Unemployment was forecast to rise to an average of 3.7 million this year and to 4.7 million next year.

In March, seasonally adjusted unemployed persons in Germany rose 69,000, bigger than 50,000 increased in February.

The International Monetary Fund forecasts the German economy to contract 5.6% in 2009 and 1% in 2010. Meanwhile, the Commmerzbank expects Germany to shrink 6%-7% this year.

On April 27, European Central Bank Governing Council member Axel Weber told German newspaper Franfurter Allgemeine that the German economy is unlikely to grow before the second half of the next year.

For comments and feedback: contact [email protected]

Copyright(c) 2009 RTTNews.com, Inc. All Rights Reserved

News are provided by InstaForex in partnership with RTT.

The Monster Employment Index for the U.S, which measures online job availability in the country, increased to 120 in April from 118 in March, the online job-advertising agency Monster Inc. said Thursday. The rise in the index indicates that there was a slight increase in online job opportunities. However, on a yearly basis, the index was down 31% in April.

Jesse Harriott, senior vice president and chief knowledge officer at Monster Worldwide said, "April's rise in online recruitment activity was in line with seasonal expectations and suggests that the pace of slowdown in the U.S. labor market is moderating."

During the month, protection service occupations showed the largest monthly gain. Accommodation and food service as also the art and entertainment industries showed an increase in online job demand in April. Transportation and warehousing industries also showed a strong rise in online job opportunities.

Meanwhile, online job recruitment activity in the mining and extraction sector fell further in April, reflecting the impact of the current recession on commodity demand, which lowered business expansion. Legal, architecture and engineering occupations also experienced declines in online job opportunities in April.

Region-wise, 19 out of the top 28 major U.S metros recorded gains in online recruitment activity in April.

The Monster Employment Index is a broad and comprehensive monthly analysis of U.S. online job demand conducted by Monster Worldwide, Inc, with data being collected since October 2003.


Copyright(c) 2009 RTTNews.com, Inc. All Rights Reserved

News are provided by InstaForex in partnership with RTT.

Thursday, the Irish Exporters Association, or IEA, said the country's exports in the first quarter fell 9.6% year-on-year hit by global economic downturn. The association warned that unemployment in the sector would increase substantially if the government does not provide additional stimulus for the sector.

Total exports for the first quarter stood at EUR 33.78 billion, down from EUR 37.38 billion in the same period last year. The association forecasts exports to fall 13% in 2009, with a loss of export revenue worth EUR 20.2 billion and direct job losses of some 91,000.

John Whelan, Chief ****utive of the IEA said, "The knock-on effect of job losses on this scale on the economy, however, is much greater as each export job supports two other jobs in the community."

Merchandise exports showed a decline of 3.4% in the first quarter, while exports of services fell 18%.


Copyright(c) 2009 RTTNews.com, Inc. All Rights Reserved

News are provided by InstaForex in partnership with RTT.