20.08.13

The Reserve Bank of Australia meeting minutes were released today and the central bank said that the bank ‘’should neither close off the possibility of reducing rates further, nor signal an imminent intention to reduce rates further.” Japanese stocks fell to a seven week low as risk aversion saw investors close positions. USD/JPY was trading at 97.34 with a high of 97.85 and a low of 97.17 so far.

The NIKKEI closed at 13396.40 down 361.75 or minus 2.63%

France Finance Minister, Pierre Moscovici, has said France is leading Europe out of recession, and expects full employment in France in ten years. The French unemployment rate hit 10.9% in May and the International Monetary Fund predicts that it will reach 11.6% in 2014. While today we will see construction figures for the Euro Zone released, otherwise a slow day in Europe. Later in the week we will see British Public Sector Net Borrowing figures released tomorrow, as well as European Purchasing Manager’s Index figures on Thursday. CABLE was trading at 1.5628 with a high of 1.5657 and a low of 1.5628 so far.

The FTSE100 closed at 6417.33 down 48.40 or minus 0.75% while the DAX closed at 8279.73 down 86.56 or minus 1.03%

US stocks have suffered the first four day run of losses this year. The once proud city of Detroit in the US is in the courts as constitutional challenges are made against the bankruptcy filing. The issue of whether the city manager, Kevyn Orr, negotiated with creditors in good faith is being questioned. EUR/USD was trading at 1.3331 with a high of 1.3355 and a low of 1.3322 so far. The Egypt violence continues, leading to further Oil price action as the violence continues. The Suez Canal is a major transport route from the Middle East to Europe and the US.

The DOW closed at 15010.70 down 70.73 or minus 0.47%

Have a nice day.