The Financial Fixed Odds update from David Evans, Market Analyst, BetOnMarkets.

 
FTSE 100 Trading

The FTSE 100 piled on the points yesterday, moving to within 16 points of 5,500, putting the 2010 high of 5,600 back in sight once again.

Will it make it there this time?

If we zoom out a little, we can see that the FTSE 100 has been trading in a channel since February and is now pushing towards the middle channel once again.

The centre of this channel just about intersects with 5,600, so will the FTSE 100 have enough momentum to push through this level?

For those that believe it will, a Fixed Odds One Touch Trade at 5650 might be one way to play this.

Conversely, if you think it won’t make it there, a No Touch trade at 5600 might be better.

Economic Announcements

Later today all eyes will be on US ADP Non Farm Employment change. This announcement is often seen as a warm up for the all important Non Farm Payroll due out on Friday.

ADP has been negative since July 2008, although the pace of decline has continued to lessen each month since the depth of the crisis in early 2009.

Analysts are predicting the number to be -15k, which will be the best level seen since 2008.

Keep your eye on the Dollar & Yen pairs around 13.15 for signs of an initial reaction.

In particular, the AUD/USD and USD/CAD pairs could be the ones to watch.

Other than this we have US manufacturing PMI at 15.00 and UK services PMI at 09.30.

Early Forex Moves

In early trading the Pound is enjoying its best day for a fortnight. This doesn’t come on any good news in particular, but rather the lack of bad news for once.

The GBP/JPY is up 0.32%, the biggest move of all currency pairs so far today.

Other than this, it’s a mixed bag across other forex pairs.

The EUR/USD is up slightly while the AUD/USD is pretty much breaking even.

This website content does not constitute investment advice. No individual contributor, contributing company, BetOnMarkets nor Online-Spread-Betting.com accept any responsibility for any use that may be made of the content.

The Financial Fixed Odds update from David Evans, Market Analyst, BetOnMarkets.

 
Early Forex Report:

This morning has started with the pound selling off once again. Although, so far, sterling is managing to hold above yesterday’s lows.

The morning’s main news item has been the Royal Bank of Australia raising interest rates to 4%.

Unlike last month’s shock no change announcements, this move surprised very few people and the Australian Dollar is trading down as traders weigh up the still cautious comments emanating from the central bank.

The Kiwi dollar actually heads up this morning’s top fallers.

Still to come today we have UK Construction data and the Canadian interest rate statement. No change is expected, but keep your eye on the US Dollar/Canadian Dollar Spreads for a reaction around 14.00.

Pound Suffers from More Bad News

Yesterday was quite a ride for forex markets with the British pound sinking to fresh new multi month lows against most other currencies.

The move was attributed to:

• A Sunday Times poll which points to the Conservative Party only having a narrow lead over labour
• News that Mortgage lending has slumped
• News that the Prudential was looking to take over parts of AIG – this would require the Pru to enact a large purchase of dollars and sell of Sterling

Whatever the reason, the pound doesn’t make for pretty reading.

However, it wasn’t all one-way traffic, especially against the euro, and traders retraced some of their initial moves. Also see Euro – Pound Spreads.

This website content does not constitute investment advice. No individual contributor, contributing company, BetOnMarkets nor Online-Spread-Betting.com accept any responsibility for any use that may be made of the content.

The Financial Fixed Odds update from David Evans, Market Analyst, BetOnMarkets.

 
Early Forex Report:

It’s a mixed bag so far out there this morning the dollar is the dominant currency this morning, but this theme varies across the various forex pairs.

At one end of the scale, the Australian dollar is actually up against the US dollar (Australian Dollar – US Dollar) with the New Zealand dollar riding on its coat tails.

At the other end of the scale, the British pound is once again the weakest currency, falling 0.45% against the dollar (GBP/USD).

The weakness in sterling isn’t isolated to the US dollar though with losses against the yen (Pound – Yen) and Euro (Euro – Sterling).

Other currencies such as the yen, euro and Swiss franc are all down slightly against the US dollar.

Later Today

Today’s standout economic announcements include UK manufacturing PMI at 09.30 and Canadian GDP at 13.30.

And keep your eye out for US Manufacturing PMI at 15.00

A Look at the Late Friday Currency Markets

There was little movement across the forex pairs on Friday with the notable exception of the British pound.

Revised GDP figures came in at 0.3% vs a predicted 0.2%.

While the UK government is the news, the market is telling its own story.

The GDP/USD was down 0.6%, the GBP/JPY off by 0.7% with the pound also down 0.85% against the euro.

Markets are looking at the bigger picture and still see a fragile economy.

There is more than economics at play here though as the GDP news may bolster Gordon Brown’s election chances, which in turn increased the likelihood of a hung parliament.

Markets desire clarity and hate the prospective confusion that a hung parliament could bring.

This website content does not constitute investment advice. No individual contributor, contributing company, BetOnMarkets nor Online-Spread-Betting.com accept any responsibility for any use that may be made of the content.