Mar8 The Brazilian real dropped today as uncertainty about an outcome of the conversation about reduction of Greek debt made traders sell riskier currencies and stick to safer assets.
The tale of Greek debt was dragging for too long and Forex traders are worried that it may end with a disorderly default. There were some positive macroeconomic indicators from Europe, but that wasn’t enough to alleviate fears. All currencies, apart from for safer ones, usually suffer in times of uncertainty and Brazil’s real behaved according to this rule today. USD/BRL climbed from 1.7165 to 1.7280 as of 16:18 GMT today. The currency pair has reached 1.7179, more than a three-month low, on February 3. Mar8 Starting the week on a relatively firm foothold versus the dollar, the euro faces some key challenges this week including today’s EU Summit (the 17th in two years), as well as ongoing debt restructuring discussions linking Greece and its confidential sector investors. EU leaders will meet later to finalise the details of a monetary pact aimed at reining in budget deficits, as well as giving the closing sign off to a stable bailout fund (ESM) with a lending capacity of EUR500 billion ($ 661 billion). One of the main stumbling blocks ahead of the Summit talks appears to be conflict over a German proposal to have an EU commission review Greece’s budgets, a measure that has been rejected by the Greek Finance Minister. Meanwhile, in stipulations of euro zone data due this week, markets will be looking for any further suggesting that economic activity in the euro zone may possibly be stabilising. Click here to read more.. »  Jan18 After downgrading nine European nations including France on January 13, Standard and Poor’s announced that it will also cut the rating of the European Financial Stability Facility from AAA to AA+. The news offset a relatively successful French bond auction which saw yields fall on one year notes fall from 0.454% at a January 9 auction to 0.406%. It appears that most investors had already priced in a cut in ratings for France and the reaction of investors in the first trading session after the release of the mass downgrades was rather muted. Germany is now the only eurozone state with a stable AAA rating. The EUR has failed to went much from 18 month lows and opens the Asia morning trading at 1.2660. Click here to read more.. » Jan14 Buy Buy Buy! At least that’s how the New Year is starting out, as the markets are decidedly risk-taking mode after the shortened holiday trading sessions. Global financial markets are set to open higher, led by stocks and commodities. The fact that markets couldn’t revive higher to end the year may bode well for the start of 2012, but will it take up again right through the year? Click here to read more.. » Jan14 In looking at the trading records of tens of thousands of FXCM clients, as well as talking with even more traders day after day via webinars, email, and Twitter, it quickly becomes apparent that most individual forex traders are what are called “range traders”. It also becomes apparent that many of them have distress being successful in forex because they are trading during the incorrect time of day. Click here to read more.. » |