Market Wrap

14 May 2012
International developments This weekends deliberations in Greece revealed little new. Notwithstanding all the talks of the endgame and that Greece had now reached the point of final decision making the top three political parties failed to form a coalition government ...

07 May 2012
International developments This weekends significant risks related almost entirely to the elections in France and Greece and they did not disappoint. Whilst in France the outcome was to a significant extent priced in and expected the wild card was ...

30 April 2012
International developments It is difficult at present to make sense of the behaviour of eurozone markets. There is certainly more bad news than good and yet in the past two trading sessions the EUR has stabilised and even outperformed the ...

23 April 2012
International developments At the start of the week it is surprising to see the EUR holding up close to 1.3150 against the USD. Politically the eurozone has turned fragile once more and there is no form of bailout that can ...

16 April 2012
International developments Bond yields in Spain are reflecting a renewed phase of strain with the 10yr yield trading close to the highest levels since Dec 2011 which in and of itself is significant as it required the ECB to step in ...

10 April 2012
International developments The Easter period has been an eventful one. Most notably the US payrolls data disappointed to the downside coming in at 120k vs expectations of 203k. At the same time the European mess continues to unfold ...

02 April 2012
International developments Friday saw the release of US income data personal income growth fell more than expected in Feb to 0.2% mm from 0.3% mm in Jan exp. 0.4% mm. Personal spending growth however rose more than expected to ...

02 April 2012
International developments Friday saw the release of US income data personal income growth fell more than expected in Feb to 0.2% mm from 0.3% mm in Jan exp. 0.4% mm. Personal spending growth however rose more than expected to 0.8% ...

26 March 2012
International developments The US housing market was in the spotlight last week. While there were some positive signs the overall picture remains one of sluggish growth with the housing market significantly lagging behind other sectors of the economy in terms ...

19 March 2012
International developments Friday. Asian stocks are positive except for the Shanghai composite which is down a third of a percent at the time of writing. Data released over the weekend showed that Chinese house prices declined in 45 out of ...