Opinion – Friday 21 February 2014

US Equity markets turned around yesterday afternoon closing the session with an average 0.6% gain as sentiment was boosted by US Manufacturing data and Facebook’s $19 billion deal for WhatsApp. After some poor Chinese and European Manufacturing data yesterday...

Opinion – Thursday 20 February 2014

The US Federal Reserve Minutes from the January 29-30 Meeting suggest that tapering will continue at a $10 billion pace at upcoming meetings unless the economy deviates substantially from its expected path. While a few participants thought that the Fed Funds rates...

Opinion – Wednesday 19 February 2014

Equity markets ended the day little changed despite some poor US economic data. The US NAHB Homebuilding Index plunged to 46 in February from 56 in January as the severe weather was again blamed for the fall. This index could fall further if the recent Home Sales data...

Opinion – Tuesday 18 February 2014

European Equity markets ended yesterday mostly higher and this theme has continued this morning after the Bank of Japan maintained its unprecedented programme of asset purchases at it latest meeting. The BoJ, in its latest statement release, also announced that it was...

Opinion – Monday 17 February 2014

The first cut of Euro-Zone December GDP, released after I posted last Friday, was reassuring as growth posted a 0.3% gain versus 0.2% expected led by the major economies of France and Germany. The Euro-Zone is  experiencing very gradual growth at this stage but at...

Opinion – Friday 14 February 2014

After another rocky start yesterday equity markets have again overcome some disappointing economic data to close higher, with the Dow and S&P closing up 0.4% and 0.6% respectively. The US markets were buoyed by Comcast’s $45 billion deal for Time Warner and...