Posts from — November 2009

Financial Market Comments from Tim Hughes, Head of Sales Trading, IG Index.

In mid-morning trading, UK shares are lower, with the FTSE nudging back to the 5200 mark.

Shares in London have come under some pressure as traders focus on developments in Dubai.

The United Arab Emirates central bank commitment to providing liquidity for lenders has gone some way to help shore up confidence amongst investors.

In the light of this, today’s move in London could equally just be put down to a normal pullback after Friday’s rise.

We are likely to see a lack of direction ahead of the US open and a steady session on Wall Street should ensure that markets return to normality for the rest of the week.

Looking ahead to the US, at the moment we are expecting the Dow Jones index to start off around 30 points lower than Friday’s close.

The only economic release of any note today is Chicago PMI data – no doubt developments in Dubai will still be one of the major points of focus for traders, but barring any further bad news regarding the current debt situation, it is difficult to see any more significant weakness for shares at the moment.

Good Luck!

DB

The above comments do not constitute investment advice Clean Financial accepts no responsibility for any use that may be made of them.

Content provided by IG Index which is Authorised and regulated by the Financial Services Authority. FSA Register number 114059.

Financial Market Comments from Tim Hughes, Head of Sales Trading, IG Index.

In mid-morning trading UK shares are under pressure as markets remain jumpy.

We have already seen the FTSE 100 index trade in a 90 point range this morning as the fallout from the Dubai debt announcement continues.

After the initial volatility, shares in London have stabilised for now – but some traders are still far from certain that we have seen the last.

With US markets only open for half a day today – and no doubt many over there deciding to make a long weekend of Thanksgiving – we are going to have to wait till early next week to see if stock markets view this as a little local difficulty, or something more serious.

To keep some perspective, the FTSE 100 is still up by around 3% for the month and well above the 5000 mark that has proved to be such a strong floor recently.

Looking ahead to the US we are expecting the Dow Jones to start off around the 10,200 level – around 260 points lower than where it closed on Wednesday.

Spread betting carries a high level of risk to your capital. You may lose more than your initial investment. It may not be suitable for all investors. Only speculate with money that you can afford to lose. Please ensure you fully understand the risks involved and seek independent financial advice where necessary.

Good Luck!

DB

The above comments do not constitute investment advice Clean Financial accepts no responsibility for any use that may be made of them.

Content provided by IG Index which is Authorised and regulated by the Financial Services Authority. FSA Register number 114059.

Financial Market Comments from Tim Hughes, Head of Sales Trading, IG Index.

In early trading the FTSE is down more than 1.8%, with just half a dozen stocks posting gains so far.

Yesterday’s increase has been more than wiped out already this morning as the insurance sector, banks and mining stocks are all struggling.

Legal & General bore the brunt of a downbeat assessment of the FTSE’s insurance sector by Citigroup; the broker predicted that the current trend of increasing levels of poor quality capital in the sector might attract stricter regulation.

The other major drag on the UK index is widespread profit taking by investors in the mining sector – Kazakhmys and Antofagasta were down 4.48% and 4.38% respectively by 10am in London.

Rather than demonstrating a serious lack of fundamentals, today’s dramatic tumble can be attributed partly to investors taking money off the table in the run-up to the festive period.

While markets don’t look set to go into quite the freefall that a loss of almost 2% might indicate, we can probably expect a continued hesitancy over equities until the new year, as traders assess risks and plan longer-term strategies for when the markets are back in full swing.

Spread betting carries a high level of risk to your capital. You may lose more than your initial investment. It may not be suitable for all investors. Only speculate with money that you can afford to lose. Please ensure you fully understand the risks involved and seek independent financial advice where necessary.

Good Luck!

DB

The above comments do not constitute investment advice Clean Financial accepts no responsibility for any use that may be made of them.

Content provided by IG Index which is Authorised and regulated by the Financial Services Authority. FSA Register number 114059.

Financial Market Comments from Tim Hughes, Head of Sales Trading, IG Index.

The FTSE opened on a positive note this morning, with miners again leading the charge on the back of rising metal prices.

Despite a negative close on Wall Street last night, the FTSE started trading strongly today.

The end of the Dollar’s brief rally saw traders once more looking for safer alternatives – namely gold – and Randgold were the big winners, up 155p to 5195p, with Lonmin and Kazakhmys also doing well.

Elsewhere, the miners’ dominance was challenged by the world’s biggest catering company, Compass Group, after they reported full-year pre-tax profits were up 33% and saw their share price rise accordingly.

In the banking sector, Lloyds continued to rise after optimism about the successful take-up of their rights issue.

The big news today is the release of revised UK GDP data. The latest reading shows that the UK economy has contracted by 0.3% in Q3 – better than the preliminary reading of 0.4% last month, but still making this recession the longest in the UK since records began.

It is difficult to anticipate exactly how traders will respond to the news, with some in the City putting a positive spin on the story while others see it as having serious implications for the future.

Certainly the Pound will take a hit on the forex – it’s already struggling against the weakened Dollar and the Euro after the announcement – and we may see investors moving away from the currency market in their droves.

Whether this will mean even more gains for the all-conquering miners should become clear over the next few hours.

Spread betting carries a high level of risk to your capital. You may lose more than your initial investment. It may not be suitable for all investors. Only speculate with money that you can afford to lose. Please ensure you fully understand the risks involved and seek independent financial advice where necessary.

Good Luck!

DB

The above comments do not constitute investment advice Clean Financial accepts no responsibility for any use that may be made of them.

Content provided by IG Index which is Authorised and regulated by the Financial Services Authority. FSA Register number 114059.

Financial Market Comments from Tim Hughes, Head of Sales Trading, IG Index.

In mid-morning trading there is not much change for UK shares.

Trading in the UK started off with a bit of a wobble with share prices weaker following Monday’s strong gains.

As the morning has gone on, however, the market has regained its composure to end up fairly flat on the day so far.

As usual, the miners are adding to the volatility, with most – apart from Anglo American – off by around 1% so far today, but this is not too surprising as the sector gained strongly on Monday following the hike in commodity prices.

There’s not much else going on in the UK market so far today, and focus is going to be on some potentially market moving data due out in the afternoon and evening.

The US second estimate of GDP is expected ahead of the Wall Street open, and later in the session we’ll expect the release of the minutes from the latest Federal Reserve meeting.

It would take some big surprises in both of these releases to knock market sentiment at the moment and overall shares are still expected to move higher as the week goes on.

Ahead of the open there is little change in overnight trading for the US, and at the moment we are expecting the Dow Jones to start off broadly unchanged.

Spread betting carries a high level of risk to your capital. You may lose more than your initial investment. It may not be suitable for all investors. Only speculate with money that you can afford to lose. Please ensure you fully understand the risks involved and seek independent financial advice where necessary.

Good Luck!

DB

The above comments do not constitute investment advice Clean Financial accepts no responsibility for any use that may be made of them.

Content provided by IG Index which is Authorised and regulated by the Financial Services Authority. FSA Register number 114059.