Market Overview

For those who believe that Bitcoin (bitcoin), or some virtual currency akin to bitcoin, represents the future of human money, the latest news is … well, ambivalent.Although bitcoins themselves...

A fairly quiet day in the financial markets but a huge day for oil. With little news to move the market, U.S. 10-Year yields were down 3 bps, stocks closed virtually unchanged for the third day in a...

Oil prices extended its sharp decline and approached the extended targets currently residing around 72.65, as breaking this level pushes the price towards 70.00. Generally, the downside move remains...

Yen's decline extends today as a Japanese newspaper reported that prime minister Shinzo Abe would hold a press conference next week regarding the delay of the next sales tax hike. Abe could also...

The Australian dollar hit a high of US87.63 yesterday as another round of disappointing jobs data from the US hit the market. Initial jobless claims came in at 290,000 against an expected number of...

Summary and outlook Sentiment and leading indicators currently show a murky picture of the global economy. In the US, signals are mixed as ISM is still strong but demand data has weakened somewhat....

The big story in global markets Thursday was yet another leg lower in oil prices. As my colleague Fawad Razaqzada discussed earlier, WTI oil was testing key support in the 75.00-76.00 zone, while the...

Mean Reverting ProfitsEarlier this week I discussed the growing detachment between the stock market and the "real" underlying economy. One of the areas I touched on was corporate earnings that have...

Both Houses of U.S. Congress to vote on Keystone XL todayThe GBP dropped considerably against its peers yesterday, following Governor Mark Carney's revised forecasts downward regarding economic growth...

The Chinese data released this morning were slightly weaker than expected and suggest continued moderate downward pressure on growth. However, on a positive note, there was also signs of stabilisation...

The Russian central bank (CBR) has allowed the rouble to float increasingly freely since 2008-09 in a widening trading range. This week the CBR allowed the rouble to float freely. We take a close...

US retail sales are expected to rise 0.3% in tomorrow’s October report vs. the previous month, according to The Capital Spectator’s median econometric forecast. The prediction reflects a...

France is in a difficult position. It has not had a sufficient spur to reform, despite the platitudes by both Sarkozy and Hollande. The fall of the Berlin Wall was a great spur to Germany, though it...

The dollar was mixed in early European trading Thursday. It retained the gains vs GBP that it made following the dovish Bank of England inflation report yesterday, while falling against the commodity...