Submitted Jul 27, 2011|From forexblog.oanda.com

All the fun was in the Aussie last night, with the doves being trounced by the hawks as inflation numbers pushed the currency to post a new float high. Why can it not be this easy to trade the dollar? There is no fundamental trading at the moment, ...

Submitted Jul 26, 2011|From forexblog.oanda.com|5 comments

Now that the pre-weekend optimism over the euro-zone debt solution has faded, the market is fully focused on Washington’s soap opera political circus, where irresponsible politicking is an art form. Capital markets continue to react negatively to ...

Submitted Jul 19, 2011|From forexblog.oanda.com

The Greek economic crisis continues to make headlines as Prime Minister George Papandreou attempts to maneuver the governments contentious “austerity” bill through the Greek parliament. As predicted, protests against the government’s plan to deliver ...

Submitted Jul 15, 2011|From forexblog.oanda.com|8 comments

Most analysts believe U.S. lawmakers will ultimately arrive at an agreement to lift the $14.3 trillion debt limit in time to avoid defaulting on upcoming interest and debt payments. And just in case the two sides need a little encouragement or ...

Submitted Jul 13, 2011|From forexblog.oanda.com

Positive Chinese and Japanese data surprise overnight is supporting the markets and trumps Moody’s downgrade of Ireland’s sovereign rating to sub-investment grade Ba1 or junk. All eyes will now be on Bernanke who will be stepping up to the plate at ...

Submitted Jul 12, 2011|From forexblog.oanda.com|29 comments

The massive contagion from the small periphery to the big bond markets of Italy and Spain has turned into ‘the’ real problem for policy makers. This is what happens when you treat the symptoms and not the cause. All along the Eurozone has needed ...

Submitted Jul 11, 2011|From forexblog.oanda.com

Stop me if you’ve heard this before, but Italian finance officials took great pains recently to state that the country is perfectly capable of dealing with the national debt on its own and that the idea of an emergency bailout is laughable. Some may ...

Submitted Jul 11, 2011|From forexblog.oanda.com

The market knows its in trouble when its rumored that the ECB is polling banks on the best way to handle a sovereign default. EU President Van Rompuy has called a special meeting today of senior European officials to discuss a second financing ...

Submitted Jul 8, 2011|From forexblog.oanda.com

The chanting may be louder and the protests more violent but like Greece, the UK is suffering through its own austerity program. However, unlike Greece which is having restraint forced upon it in exchange for emergency funding from the European ...

Submitted Jul 8, 2011|From forexblog.oanda.com

Investors, traders and dealers have suffered from FX whiplash at some point this week. The market has progressed from a potential Greek default, Portugal being downgraded, the PBoC and ECB tightening to end the week with a dismal non-farm payroll ...

Submitted Jul 7, 2011|From forexblog.oanda.com|7 comments

The dollar has consolidated ahead of the ECB rate announcement, with the market expecting the ECB to maintain its tightening bias and raise its policy rate by +25bps. The focus will of course be on Trichet’s press conference. Policy makers are ...

Submitted Jul 6, 2011|From forexblog.oanda.com

Sovereign debt contagion fears have resurfaced, with bank stocks suffering the brunt of investor selling this morning, after Moody’s downgraded Portugal’s credit rating and rumors that Ireland is now in the crosshairs, has virtually eliminated all ...

Submitted Jul 5, 2011|From forexblog.oanda.com|1 comment

Are we to see additional consolidation in the FX market between now and Friday? Perhaps the EUR bulls will eke out further gains ahead of the ECB meeting on Thursday, with option barriers at 1.46 touted as their initial target when Trichet is ...

Submitted Jul 4, 2011|From forexblog.oanda.com|2 comments

The good news is that with the approval of an 8.7 billion euro loan payment Greece will make its debt responsibilities later this month thereby avoiding an outright default. The bad news is that even with this rescue package, the intended debt ...

Submitted Jun 30, 2011|From forexblog.oanda.com|1 comment

Papandreou clinched enough votes to pass the first part of an austerity plan aimed at meeting EU aid requirements and staving off a default. The EUR did what most anticipated, rally up towards 1.45 as residual speculative shorts are closed. Now ...

Submitted Jun 29, 2011|From forexblog.oanda.com|1 comment

Time to vote. The market appears poised with their fingers on the sell button. Sell, sell, sell, seems to be the final solution on Prime Minister Papandreou’s austerity measures passing. There is no official set time for the vote and it only ...

Submitted Jun 28, 2011|From forexblog.oanda.com

The European Banking Authority (EBA) continues to court controversy with the way it is administering the recent round of bank “stress” tests. The testing process has been in progress since March and is designed to restore confidence in the European ...

Submitted Jun 28, 2011|From forexblog.oanda.com

Capital markets remain focused on the parliamentary vote in Greece and on the long-term funding program negotiations. In the near term, the key deadline remains the vote in the Greek parliament on austerity measures, scheduled for tomorrow. The ...

Submitted Jun 27, 2011|From forexblog.oanda.com|15 comments

A question that should be answered this week. The Greek parliament is due to vote on their socialists government’s austerity measures at this Tuesday-Thursday session. Capital markets expects the legislation to pass. However, Prime Minister ...

Submitted Jun 24, 2011|From forexblog.oanda.com

This week has been a massive blow to risk trading, with investors being side swiped from all continents. Europe with is Greek austerity concerns, Australasia being hit by a think tank opining on China that authorities are concerned over growth, ...