Posts from — December 2009

Financial Comments from Simon Denham, Capital Spreads.

The potential huge cost of any agreement at Copenhagen has been seen off as self interest (naturally). That came to the fore…at the end. In reality the chances of the West cutting back to the emission levels suggested was quite limited – no matter what our politicians agree to.

Any signature would have possibly sent us into a thirty year industrial decline. The idea that the emerging nations would serve their citizens so badly as to restrict economic growth to such an extent by agreeing to the limitations was always fanciful.

For all of the woes waiting to happen due to climate change it is unlikely that economic straitjackets will ever achieve more than lip-service.

On the other hand the news of a lunatic trying to blow up an Amsterdam/Detroit flight might have sent the markets sharply lower as paranoia spreads once more across the globe. For once, traders seem to have held steady.

This might be the best indicator for immediate directional impetus. The failure of the sellers of US Index Futures on Sunday night/early Monday morning to get any traction at all was illuminating.

For more also see today’s Spread Trading News

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 Capital Spreads which is Authorised and regulated by the Financial Services Authority. FSA Register number 182110.

Financial Market Comments from Philip Gillett, Sales Trader, IG Index.

Heading into mid-morning the FTSE is up just over 40 points.

The seasonal cross-sector rally continues. Kazakhmys and Lonmin are among the miners performing well today and Barclays and HSBC are leading the way for the banks. Defensive stocks were in demand too, with BAT at the forefront.

The main story this morning was the unanimous decision by the Monetary Policy Committee to keep interest rates at their record low and maintain the QE programme at its current value.

The BoE is clearly keeping all its options open in order to protect the recovery process.

It’s difficult to read too much into this week’s gains, with volume low and a lack of key economic data. But it’s also difficult to ignore that the FTSE 100 is currently near its best intraday reading for the year.

Investors will be hoping this late rally continues into the New Year.

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 David Jones, Chief Market Strategist, IG Index.

Early morning trading has seen UK shares continue the momentum seen on Monday, with the FTSE 100 up by around 50 points so far.

We have seen a broad-based rally this morning in London with a variety of sectors continuing to lift the FTSE 100.

Keeping sentiment positive was the latest revision of the UK GDP figure for the third quarter – it is still negative but this revision shows the economy shrank by only 0.2%.

News that the Office of Fair Trading will not be furthering its investigation into bank charges has had little impact so far on the banking sector – but this area has struggled to catch the interest of investors in recent months anyway.

Looking ahead to the US open, we are expecting the Dow to start around 30 points higher than last night’s close.

The way stock indices are moving at the moment – although it is admittedly in low volumes – we could yet see a move to fresh highs for the recovery before 2009 is out.

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 Philip Gillett, Sales Trader, IG Index.

In mid-morning trading UK shares are higher, led by commodity stocks and pockets of strength in the banking sector.

The FTSE 100 has made a strong start to this short trading week with the index back up above 5200.

With the index on Friday moving back towards the lows last seen in the Dubai sell-off some investors obviously seem to think that this weakness has run its course. It could well be time for another run back to the highs of the year.

However, for the short-term at least, it seems unlikely that stock markets will make much progress.

Looking ahead to the US there is nothing on the economic calendar for today and, with volumes steadily dropping ahead of the holiday, most are happy to sit the next couple of weeks out and look at the markets with a fresh pair of eyes in 2010.

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 Anthony Grech, Market Strategist, IG Index.

In mid-morning trading UK shares have bounced back strongly, with the FTSE up by around 60 points.

The choppy patter of up one day down the next has continued in London today, with the FTSE 100 index clawing back a large chunk of Thursday’s losses.

Business confidence numbers for Germany have climbed more than the market was expecting and this seems to be lifting the mood towards equities at the end of the week.

US markets have also been lifted by the positive European sentiment.

At the moment we are expecting the Dow to start off around 70 points higher.

With nothing of any note on the calendar for the rest of the day, markets may well just end up trading in a tight range, consolidating the morning’s sharp moves.

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.