Forex Secrets. Delusion No1. Forex Currency Rate and Economic Factors Impact on Exchange Rate
January 26, 2009 by
Filed under Articles
The delusion conceptually propounds that intraweek and intraday FOREX currency quotes movement is governed by either improvement or by deterioration of the state’s economic situation. But in reality, even in case the actual Forex news are superior to the estimated one, the FOREX quotes up/down movement is of 50/50 probability.
This statement is thoroughly important. Once the job of Forex trader is gambling on FOREX exchange rates differential (FOREX pairs up/down movement), the following is to be realized to obtain faultless profit:
FOREX pairs pricing mechanism (say at point X where you are completing the market analysis)
Factors imparting growth/decline to FOREX rates (up/down from point X).
Thus, having understood the FOREX ratesfactors effective at the extra-exchange (book-maker) FOREX market and the given currency motive factors, a trader must possess distinct knowledge of whether to buy or to sell the given currency pair.
So, what are these factors?
FOREX student suggest unambiguous interpretation of factors responsible for the price formation and the fluctuations there of:
Forex rate constitutes a demand-supply balance for a given goods (currency).
Any violation of this balance, (for instance, in case where the estimated news is in disagreement with the issued official one), results in the FOREX rates reciprocation in chase of a new demand-supply balance. Poor demand brings about decline in a certain currency rate, with a high demand leading to the growth of the latter. The situation continues as long as the currency buy/sell demand comes to balance at another level or at another point.
Referring to the B. Williams (“Trading Chaos 2” Chapter 1 “The market is what you are thinking of it”):
Each world market is dedicated to distribute or share limited amount of something… among those desirous to obtain it most of all. The market affects it by way of finding out and identifying the exact price? Underlying the buyer’/sellers’ power absolute equilibrium point.
The above point is readily established by stock, futures, bonds, FOREX and options markets, be it either via an open auction or by virtue of a computerized facility. Markets spot this point prior to any misbalance being detectable by You or by me or even by traders at the exchange floor.
With this scenario holding true – and it really does – we are in position to jump at certain simple yet important conclusions as regards the information being circulated through the market and enjoying doubtless acceptance”.
Thomas Demark was more laconic in “Technical analysis – an emerging science”:
“Price movement is governed by demand and supply. Should demand exceed supply, there’s a price rally and if visa versa, there’s a price decline. All economists do share these underlying principles”.
Hence, the role of fundamental analysis for FOREX market is readily apparent.
In scholar fiction one will discover roughly the following explanation, persistently wandering from book to book, from site to site and suggesting attaining successful trading at FOREX market by way of scrutinizing the country’s economic fundamental data, viz. by tracking the factors reflective of the country’s economy condition as below:
State economy condition dynamics indicators (GDP, trade & payments balance, current account, industrial production, etc. It is knowledge, that the higher the above indicators – the faster the economic and the currency price growth);
Stock indices, via average arithmetic index of the country’s securities market condition and dynamics. E.g.: 0.3% daily DJI growth in the USA means that this certain day the shares of 30 leading US companies, being pictured by DJU, went 0.3% more expensive. By similarity, DAX30 is the major German index, incorporating the price of shares of the country’s 30 leading companies.
The country’s interest rate, since the higher the rate, the greater number of investors is eager to invest into the country’s economy and hence into national currency strength.
Rate of inflation (the higher the rate, the quicker the National Bank will hike the interest rate). With this assumption, the CPI constitutes a key factor.
Money supply growth in domestic market, which fact brings about the inflation, leading to the interest rate hike.
The country’s gold and currency reserve assets.
Variation dynamics correlation of: balances of payment, trade balance, state budget, gross domestic product (GDP), etc.
Trade and industry dynamics (industrial production, industrial orders, DGO, capacity utilization, retail sales, etc.)
Construction statistics (construction spending, new home sales, housing under construction, building permits, etc.)
Labor statistics (unemployment rate, new jobs, etc.)
Society investigations (consumer confidence, consumer sentiment, purchase managers and service managers sentiment, etc.)
To be considered additionally are the country’s political stability and tranquility (clearly, any political, natural and other cataclysms are sure to turn investors nervous making them withdraw the investments from the country, thus weakening its national currency). And with the currency being the national economy derivative, changes in economic data will inevitably result in the above currency rate movement.
Conclusions:
Progress in economy results in the currency exchange rate rally.
Decrease in economic indicators leads to the national currency rate decline.
To sum it up, critical economic and political news (whose calendar is issued in advance and is familiar to any trader) constitute a standing factor giving rise to misbalance and causing the currency rate fluctuations.
In anticipation of important economic and political news FOREX pair crawl to the rates as inspired by the estimates (“rumored trade”), whereas upon actual news there occurs a pulse motion of FOREX pairs in accordance with the scheme below;
Forex rate grows if actual news are better than the estimated one;
Forex rate declines if actual news are worse than the estimated one.
ARE YOU FAMILIAR WITH THESE ABC BASICS OF STUDYING FOREX?
Do you accept that one can earn money by way of using these basics, known to every trader?
Then why, having absorbed these economic axioms, 90% of Forex traders in the world are losers rather than winners.
Where is the delusion of the above ABC truth, nudging traders towards losses? Let us perform sort of point-by-point analysis.
The currency exchange FOREX market is a book-makers one. It is gambling on rates difference without direct money delivery to the exchange market, except for hedging of traders’ funds by Forex brokers, via buy-sell difference especially during strong trends). Then, www.forexite.com reads: “Trading is performed without actual currencies supply, which fact cuts overheads and enables Forexite to go long and short on the currency” http://www.forexite.com/forexite_advantages/forex_advantages.html.
Comment: Have you ever met any book-makers;
o whose logics was coincident with that of THEIR clients (traders),
o whose stakes were being made in accordance with THEIR technical analysts forecasts, economic laws and common sense?
And what extent of doubt and skepticism should be attached to THEIR free “recommendations”, “advice”, “surveys” and “forecasts”, laid out at THEIR sites through THEIR analysts?
As a regular result, over 90% of the world traders are still loosing their deposits at FOREX each time they follow Thomas Demark stereotype that “All the economists share these underlying principles”.
Comment No.1. In as much as the above underlying principles are 90% contradictory to practice, it gives rise to the following question. Might these “underlying principles, shared by all economists including Thomas Demark” have possibly turned into dogma, alien to life and practice?
Comment No.2. What should a trader lean on: practice or dogma even if supported by great names, provided that the trader is purported at earning money?
FOREX analysts issuing their daily bulky market reviews are not FOREX traders in the overwhelming majority (see detailed discussion below). And on bringing together pairs 1, 2 and 3 there appears certain regularity.
Please, think over A. Elder words, that: “FOREX rates and the fundamental analysis are tied together with a mile-long rope. The fundamental analysis is ultimately decisive. But anything is likely to happen prior to this eventuality”. See http://forum.alpari-idc.ru/viewtopic.php?p=233365&sid=a15db5e24b0eec0a8cf725e2c5cac859).
Another, yet no less renowned trader and analyst, Bill Williams underlines the same mental regularity of an experienced professional trader (level 3 of his trader’s skill rating as per “Trading Chaos 2”): “On attaining level 3 you emerge as a self-provided pro trader. You are always familiar with the market’s basic, usually invisible structure. You no longer need to refer to others’ opinions. You needn’t read “Wall Street Journal”, watch market-oriented TV programs, and subscribe to information bulletins, waste money on information channels”.
Comment: Logically, there is a counter-implication, that if You are eager to become a successful trader, You are to restrict the influence of various surveys and recommendations on yourself even in case they originate from the world famous “Wall Street Journal”, to say nothing of crude gurus in analyst skins who use to know ahead of time where currencies will go.
Forex news is a scheduled issue of fundamental data, which as a rule impairs FOREX rates a sharp pulse of motion. But then, why the currency rates movement vector is only 50% coincident with the ABC truism logics as to where the rate should rush in case of actual news being much better or worse than the estimate. And, please, make an attempt to answer the following question, stirring for every trader: why with the new being worse than expected (say, on US economy), the USD currency would initially fall by 40 pips (news work-off) but in 5 to 10 minutes it would swivel back and would display a 200-point rally, with no account to either the issued news or to common sense.
Below are some examples:
Fig. 1. GBPUSD chart as of April 1, 2005 after the news, positive for the GBP and negative for the US economy.
(Picture you can see on author site )
In March the CIPS manufacturing index amounted to 52.0 (with the previous data revised from 51.8 to 51.6). Oil price in NYC has grown by USD 2.40 up to USD57.70 per bbl (new record of the latest 21 years). Non-farm payrolls in the USA was minimum since last July (previous data revised towards lower values). There has been a decline in the Michigan sentiment index to 92.6 (median estimate was 92.9, with 92.9 previously).
All the US indices faced a fall down. DJI at NYSE has fallen by 99.46 pips (-0.95%) towards closing at 10404.30. NASDAQ declined by 14.42 pips (-0.72%) to 1984.81. S&P500 slipped by 7.67 pips (-0.65%) to 1172.92. 30-yr US Bonds yielded 4.729 (0.037 lower as compared to the previous close). By contrary, FTSE100 has grown by 19.60 pips (+0.40%) to 4914.00.
Now, the question is to certified economists: what will happen to the GBPUSD within one day or even several hours upon publication of these data? You are right, USD should not simply fall down, it should collapse. Powerfully, swiftly. Well, well…
And this time, the same question to experienced traders. By FOREX news headlines You might have guessed that the events are taking place at the Friday American session. Correct. Initially, anyway, the GBPUSD chart will go up by 100 pips (news wok-off), followed by a pullback. Then Forex chart starts a new rally.
It is now to be tracked whether the GBP will breach the latest rally high or not. If affirmative, it will rush up by approximately 160 pips (Elliott wave 1 was 100 pips, while EW 3 is 60% longer). But if the high is not breached? The GBP currency quote will in no way come to a standstill, moreover on Friday afternoon. Hence, – down, to the starting point! And, if breached, similar situation takes shape but the counting is performed in a “down” direction (EW1, being the same 100 pips plus 187 pips from 1.8826 to 1.8759 being EW 3).
The FOREX day trading tactics will be given scrutiny in a separate chapter. A still separate chapter will be dedicated to Friday trade at American session due to its inherent specifics and to strong seemingly inappropriate movement. The movement is, of course, appropriate. To say nothing of Friday. But it will be touched upon later.
Now, getting back to the currency chart. As apparent, the GBPUSD pair movement on Friday, April, 01, 2005 is in no way in conjunction with the US economy fundamental data. Each forex trader can provide from tens to hundreds of similar instances, where the news are of a certain vector, whereas, after a fraudulent rush along the news vector, a currency applies reverse thrust.
Thereafter, the next day, in daily currency surveys, certified economists are sure to explain all to us by way of inventing another undisguised nonsense, like: “in spite of certain data, traders decided that the currency has already worked-off this side”. But! How could this occur on Apr, 01, 2005, provided that the currency has been staying flat in a narrow range in the course of the whole of the European session?
Otherwise, another explanation may emerge, that forex traders were expecting still more inferior news on the US economy… But! By how much more inferior, if according to DJ, the US non-farm payrolls MA was equivalent to 180K, with actual being +110K, estimate being +225K and prior being +243K? And in what manner do these economists count up world traders: by capita, by countries or by the funds, lost by those, who continued staying long in a holy belief in renowned academic scholars postulate of FOREX rates being tied up to countries’ economy statistics.
I wonder if I’ll ever chance to witness legal procedures to be instituted against any of those famous scholars, so that no one would dare claim that fundamental data trigger rate spikes.
The same pertains to economists, writing about the way, hundreds of thousands traders throughout the globe have conspired to conclude that it is time to reverse the trends with absolutely no grounds. Is it really feasible?
Such reading-matter is, but hammering a single question into one’s head: is it lie or is it stupidity of those cooking daily reports for taking traders for a ride, fooling them up and keeping them from the truth, which might be of great avail to them in daily trading. Traders are not a decisive factor, thus rates movement is in no way dependent on their will. Practically in no way.
Wanna check? Negotiate with tens of traders of the trading floor and arrange for a simultaneous entry long on some exotic FOREX pair. In so doing, try to push up either the NZDHKD, or the NZDCAD, or the HKDCAD. No need? I think so. You’ll certainly suffer failure with the above, to say nothing of the EUR, GBP, CHF.
Another example:
Fig.2. GBPUSD movement as of May 13, 2005.
(Picture you can see on author site )
This is an M15 chart of the American session, where the USD pair has grown by over 100 pips from 1.8583 to 1.8481 against the news, negative for the US economy:
Most indices have dropped down: DJI at NYSE – by 49.36 pips (-0.48%) to close at 10140.12; S&P500 – by 5.31 pips (-0.46%) to 1154.05. NASDAQ has grown by 12.92 pips (+0.66%) to1976.80. 30yr US Bonds yielded 4.484 (0.047 drop from previous close)
There is a fall in Michigan sentiment index. In May UMich was 85.3 with med est 90.0 and prior 87.7. So it was worse than the estimate, reaching the low since March, 2003. The index decline was being observed for the fifth month.
The April US export price index was +0.6% with prior of +0.7%.
Below are other similar examples of that same day.
Fig. 3. EURUSD chart as of May 13, 2005.
(Picture you can see on author site )
Hundreds of examples may be offered, where the Forex news vector is opposite to that of the currency movement. Practically, actual news may happen to be superior or inferior to the estimate. FOREX quotes up/down movement is also of 50/50 probability irrespective of the above.
Why does it happen and what is the way for a trader to pinpoint entries and exits? This is going to be discussed in ensuing chapters of this book and in the Masterforex-V Trading Academy proceedings.
Full text of this article and pictures of examples http://www.masterforex-v.su/
If you wish to be trained on Trading System Masterforex-V – one of new and most effective techniques of trade on Forex in the world visit http://www.masterforex-v.su/
Wall Street Breakfast: Must-Know News
January 25, 2009 by
Filed under News
- Morgan Stanley Smith Barney. Citigroup (C) and Morgan Stanley (MS) confirmed they’re merging their wealth management units into Morgan Stanley Smith Barney. Morgan will pay $2.7B for a 51% stake with the option of taking full control after five years. Citi will book a pre-tax gain of $9.5B, and an after-tax gain of $5.8B. The joint venture will employ 20,390 brokers in over 1,000 firms, surpassing the 16,000-strong ‘thundering herd’ of brokers that Bank of America (BAC) acquired in Merrill Lynch. However, some question the timing of the deal, wondering if creating the largest group of financial advisers is prudent when many investors and brokers are shying away from Wall Street giants and analysts expect a resurgence of ’boutique’ brokerage firms.
- Citi keeps shrinking. Citigroup’s (C) deal with Morgan Stanley (MS) is just one part of its radical restructuring operation. Abandoning the much-touted ‘financial supermarket,’ sources say Citi is preparing to break the mega-bank into investment and commercial units, essentially dismantling the 1998 merger between Citicorp and Travelers that created Citigroup. It will jettison several business units and scale down its proprietary trading, shrinking itself by about a third and focusing on large corporations and wealthy individuals instead of less-affluent customers. Sources say the changes will be unveiled when Citi released Q4 earnings next week. Citigroup declined to comment.
- Bernanke backs new efforts for toxic assets. In a speech at the London School of Economics yesterday, the Fed’s Bernanke threw his support behind a big U.S. stimulus plan, saying "a substantial fiscal package… could provide a significant boost to economic activity." However, he also said that Obama’s plan is ‘unlikely’ to revive growth on its own without ‘a comprehensive plan to stabilize the financial system and restore normal flows of credit.’ To that end, he raised three options for Obama’s Treasury in the event that it actually decides to address troubled assets with TARP money: 1) public purchases of troubled assets, as previously proposed by Paulson, 2) government provision of asset guarantees in return for warrants, or 3) creating and capitalizing ‘bad banks’ that would purchase assets from financial institutions in exchange for cash and equity in them. (Read the full text of Bernanke’s speech)
- HSBC at risk. Shares of HSBC (HBC) fell 7.3% in London after analysts at Morgan Stanley said Europe’s largest bank may be forced to raise up to $30B and cut its dividend in half. Unlike most rivals, HSBC has not had to raise capital during the financial crisis, but the analysts warned its capital position has eroded: "Historically, HSBC has carried about 120 basis points of surplus capital at the group level – this has now all but gone at a time when we think it better for the buffer to have increased," they said, adding it now has "one of the weaker capital ratios in Europe and the second weakest in Asia."
- Yahoo turns to Bartz for rescue. Yahoo (YHOO) named Carol Bartz its new CEO, as expected, and announced that President Sue Decker is resigning. Talking up Bartz, chairman Roy Bostock said "she is the exact combination of seasoned technology executive and savvy leader that the board was looking for." Not everyone agrees. Bartz’s appointment is largely viewed by Wall Street as safe but unspectacular, and some worry about her lack of professional experience with internet companies and online advertising. Known as a tough-talking straight-shooter, Bartz will be under immediate pressure from investors who have watched Yahoo’s share price erode over the last year. Bartz was previously executive chairwoman of Autodesk (ADSK) and had served as its CEO for 14 years.
- Deutsche’s major Q4 loss. Deutsche Bank (DB) warned of a loss of roughly €4.8B ($6.4B) in Q4 vs. profits of around €1B a year earlier. Germany’s biggest bank, Deutsche lost around $1B on bad bets involving CDS-hedged bonds, and another $500M trading equities. CEO Josef Ackermann released a statement Deutsche Bank has "scaled back or exited trading strategies most affected by market turbulence." The bank cited ‘exceptional market conditions’ for its poor performance, notably in credit trading, equity derivatives and equities proprietary trading. Its official Q4 FY ‘08 earnings report is due Feb. 5. Shares -11% premarket (7:00 ET).
- Quotables. "I’ve never quite been in this situation before of getting a massive pay cut, no bonus, no longer allowed to stay in decent hotels, no corporate airplane," complained Bob Lutz, General Motor’s (GM) Vice Chairman. "I have to stand in line at the Northwest counter. I’ve never quite experienced this before." Poor guy.
- Barclays lays off workers, again. Barclays (BCS) is cutting around 2,100 jobs globally in its investment banking and money management units. The bank had built these units aggressively over the last five years but now says it wants to be ‘appropriately sized, given the current market conditions.’ The move will likely raise speculation about further cost-cutting in Barclays’ retail and corporate banking division. Shares -14% premarket (7:00 ET).
- RBS sells China stake. In line with yesterday’s whispers from unnamed sources, Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS) confirmed it has sold its 4.26% equity stake in Bank of China for around $2.3B. "The decision to sell the stake forms part of the ongoing strategic review of the group’s businesses announced in October," RBS said in a statement.
- U.S. keeps its Triple-A. S&P affirmed its AAA rating for the U.S., but said risks to the country’s top sovereign rating have increased "noticeably" since September. S&P’s "reasonable worst-case scenario" sees net general government debt rising from its 2008 level of 42% of GDP to as much as 75% by 2011. On the plus side, S&P said U.S. strengths include one of the most flexible economies of any nation and the fact the U.S. dollar is one of the world’s most used currencies.
- Retail sales drop. Retail chain store sales fell 2.3% from a week ago, ICSC reported, and fell 2.2% Y/Y. "A seasonal weakening in traffic, less gift-card redemption and adverse weather all came together to weaken demand sharply for the first full week of 2009." Redbook reported a 2.3% decline in the first week of January vs. the previous month, while sales were down 1.9% Y/Y.
- Budget deficit balloons. The U.S. Budget Deficit swelled to a record $485B in FQ1, compared to a deficit of $455B for all of fiscal 2008. December’s budget shortfall was $83.6B, vs. a $48.3B surplus a year ago. Congressional estimators project an unparalleled deficit of $1.2T for 2009, not including any Obama stimulus.
- Consumer confidence? What’s that? A whopping 65% of Americans now rate the economy as ‘poor,’ a record in 23 years of weekly polls, according to ABC News. Another 29% say it’s ‘not so good’ for a net negative rating of 94% – matching the all-time high. ABC’s Consumer Comfort Index remains at a dismal -49.
- Trade balance. November’s Trade Balance of -$40.4B, down from October’s -$56.7B, was less than economists’ $51B forecast. Exports: $142B (-$8.7B); imports: $183B (-$26B). For now, the global slowdown is crimping U.S. demand for exports more than it is foreign demand for U.S. products.
Today’s Markets
- Asia markets closed in the green. Nikkei +0.3% to 8,438. Hang Seng +0.3% to 13,705. Shanghai +3.5% to 1,929. BSE +3.3% to 9,370.
- In Europe at midday, London -2.3%. Paris -1.3%. Frankfurt -1.95%.
- U.S. futures: Dow -0.7%. S&P -0.8%. Nasdaq -0.85%. Crude +3.1% to $38.94. Gold +0.7% to $826.30.
Wednesday’s Economic Calendar
7:00 MBA Mortgage Applications
8:30 Retail Sales
8:30 Import/Export Prices
10:00 Business Inventories
10:30 EIA Petroleum Status
1:00 PM Fed’s Stern speaks on macroeconomic policy
2:00 PM Fed’s Beige Book
Notable earnings after Wednesday’s close: XLNX
Seeking Alpha editor Eli Hoffmann contributed to this post.
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Wall Street Breakfast: Must-Know News
January 25, 2009 by
Filed under News
- GM shifts into high gear after GMAC bailout. General Motors (GM) and its dealers rushed to unveil new financing offers after the Treasury allocated $6B for GMAC (GKM). GM announced it will offer 0% financing on five 2008 models, renewing a practice that was put on hold when GMAC was forced to tighten its credit standards in October. GM will also offer low-interest loans on dozens of other models in an attempt to drum up year-end sales, will offer loans to consumers with lower credit ratings and has begun reaching out to customers worried about credit availability. The flurry of activity underscores GMAC’s critical role in keeping sales going at GM.
- Treasury maxes out TARP funds. The Treasury has committed almost $9B more than the $350B of TARP funds it has been authorized to use. With Monday’s announcement of $6B for GMAC, the Treasury’s total TARP spending has reached $358.4B. "They are pushing the envelope here," complained Sen. Bernie Sanders. "What they are trying to do is create a situation to put pressure on Obama and the Congress to provide the next $350 billion." Treasury officials defended the agency, saying only $207B of the committed money has been disbursed thus far and that the agency is therefore working within the limits assigned by Congress.
- Fair value marked to stay. The SEC has rejected a push by the banking industry to suspend mark-to-market rules. In a report to Congress, the SEC strongly recommended maintaining the accounting practice but suggested reducing the number of models used to measure impaired assets and offered several improvements to deal with illiquid markets.
- Fed advances on MBS. The Federal Reserve took an aggressive step yesterday to drive down mortgage costs, setting itself a goal to buy $500B in mortgage-backed securities by mid-2009 under a program it announced last month. The purchases will begin in early January. (Read the Fed’s FAQ about the purchases.)
- AIG seeks to modify loan terms. AIG (AIG) wants permission to change some of the terms of its $60B government loan, according to sources close to the situation. The troubled insurer wants the Federal Reserve to raise the limit for non-cash assets that AIG can submit as part of its loan repayment. The changes, which would allow AIG to accept more stock and other non-cash payments for the assets it’s selling, could help attract more bidders and higher prices. Under the current terms, at least 90% of the loan has to be repaid in cash.
- Aberdeen lands CS assets deal. Credit Suisse (CS) will sell parts of its asset-management business to Aberdeen Asset Management in exchange for a 24.9% interest in the British investment firm and a seat on Aberdeen’s board. The deal will see 75B Swiss francs ($70.9B) in managed assets transferred to Aberdeen. Credit Suisse announced earlier this year that it is refocusing its asset management business after a pretax loss of 45M francs during Q3.
- Quotables. In one of his last interviews before leaving office, Treasury’s Paulson said: "We’re dealing with something that is really historic and we haven’t had a playbook. The reason it has been difficult is first of all, these excesses have been building up for many, many years. Secondly, we had a hopelessly outdated global architecture and regulatory authorities… in the U.S."
- Home prices plummet. Home prices fell an astounding 18.0% in October from a year ago (vs. -17.8% consensus), the largest drop since the S&P/Case-Shiller Index was created in 2000 and the 22nd straight monthly decline. Prices fell 2.2% from the previous month.
- Retail sales drop. Retail chain store sales fell 1.5% from last week, ICSC reported, and fell 1.8% vs. the previous year. "The 2008 recession, widespread heavy discounting and adverse pre-holiday weather all coalesced to produce the weakest holiday season since at least 1970." According to Redbook, national chain store sales fell 0.5% in the first four weeks of December vs. the previous month and fell 0.9% vs. a year ago.
- Mortgage apps hold steady. Mortgage applications are unchanged from last week’s 48% jump, MBA says, and rose 155% Y/Y on an unadjusted basis. The average interest rate on 30-year fixed-rate mortgages decreased slightly to 5.03% from 5.04%.
- Confidence falls. The Conference Board’s Consumer Confidence Index dropped to an all-time low of 38 in December, from November’s 44.7. ABC News’ Consumer Comfort Index closed the year at -49 on a scale of +100 to -100, making Q4 the second worst quarter ever.
Today’s Markets
- Asia markets closed mixed, wrapping up a year of heavy losses. Hang Seng +1.1% to 14,387, and down 48% on the year. Shanghai -0.7% to 1,821, and down 65% on the year. BSE -0.7% to 9,647, and down 52% on the year. Nikkei closed.
- In Europe at midday, London +1.0%. Paris +1.2%. Frankfurt closed.
- U.S. futures: Dow +0.1%. S&P +0.25%. Nasdaq +0.02%. Crude -4.4% to $37.30. Gold -0.7% to $863.90.
Wednesday’s Economic Calendar
- 7:00 MBA Mortgage Applications
8:30 Jobless Claims
9:00 NAPM NY Report
10:35 EIA Petroleum Status
12:00 PM EIA Natural Gas Report
Seeking Alpha editor Eli Hoffmann contributed to this post.
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