Here’s a snapshot of today’s markets:
It’s a bit of a break from selling for many investors around the world as some of the major markets are on the green at the moment, with the US markets up with a less than a percent following better than expected jobless claims numbers and Alcoa numbers, which were released after the close yesterday beating analysts’ expectations. The company’s CEO also provided a more hopeful outlook for the rest of the year, helping lift some of the metal producers today.
Also a day after the 9 nine firms to buy toxic assets from banks have been revealed, bank stocks are on the rise halfway through today’s trading session.
European markets are also affected by the news with the major markets up. It helped that the UK government maintained its quantitative easing program, saying there will be no addition to it just yet. Reuters also reported the German economy may have grown a bit during the second quarter.
Asian markets were up, with the Chinese reporting an impressive surge in its auto sales. Nikkei was one of the few but biggest loser after the strong show of the yen recently equated to worse exports for the already lagging economy.
On to the currencies front.
With the dollar as the base currency, many of the other currencies advanced against it today as market sentiment improves and equities move higher. On the sterling-dollar pairing, the greenback lost ground after the news that came out of the UK that there will not be additional funds in the quantitative easing program by the government. The pound has been under pressure the past several days in anticipation of a change in the £125bn number. From the FT:
By midday in New York, sterling rose 1.1 per cent to $1.6229 against the dollar while the dollar fell 0.7 per cent to $1.3965 against the euro and dropped 0.6 per cent to SFr1.0831 against the Swiss franc. The Australian dollar fetched 78.27 U.S. cents, up from 77.76 U.S. cents late Wednesday. The yen fell 0.2 per cent to Y92.87 against the dollar.
