Best of Thursday’s web
Global markets experienced another down day as woes over the euro zone crisis multiply. Today, we’ll look into a possible downgrade of Spanish banks, BRIC bear markets, and Colombian political violence.
Europe
Japanese yen and gold back in, U.S. dollar out
The Japanese yen is on the move as traders look for safe haven assets from deteriorating conditions in Greece, Spain and the euro zone generally.
Moody’s downgrading 21 Spanish banks, EUFN falls near 52-week low
The other shoe has dropped on the Spanish banking sector and the heel-print has “Moody’s” on it.
Russia’s economy in trouble as oil falls
As U.S. consumers applaud lower gasoline prices, our gain is someone else’s pain. As with any trade, there are two sides: stock markets that depend on the price of crude oil are feeling the pinch as prices move lower.
Russian economy holding its own despite oil’s dive
Global markets are getting caned, taking both oil prices and petroleum-dependent Russian stock prices down with them. This seems to be a simple kneejerk reaction; the Russian economy itself seems to be holding up more than well.
Trading today’s bounces in copper
Overnight trading in copper has now been confirmed by the U.S. session as another leg down. Copper has broken below the 2012 sideways trading channel to fuel even more fear that the global economy is falling back into recession.
Commodity prices and U.S. dollar waiting on 2pm Fed statement
Sour sentiment from Asian markets has continued into the euro zone session, sending commodity prices lower still as traders continue to exit growth-sensitive commodities like copper and crude oil, and into safe haven assets the U.S. dollar and Japanese yen.
Morning coffee brief
The world’s largest economy has now taken it on the chin in the last 9 out of 10 sessions with global and emerging market following. The old saying “sell and go away in May” seems to have been the right call for those that did just that. For the rest of us a healthy diet of risk off assets appears to be the name of the game.
Best of Tuesday’s web
American markets took a breather today as better-than-expected numbers from Germany outweighed reports from Eastern Europe that a number of countries had slipped into recession. Today, we’ll look into Russian GDP growth, Greek elections, and the future viability of the Latin American free trade agreement Mercosur.