Market News

When investors and traders lose confidence in a country whether it’s in their economy or government, the country’s currency usually gets dumped. Here’s something I found today that makes me want to shake my head sometimes about some of the decisions the US government makes. It’s an interesting article from from AOL Money & Finance Udiscuss the United States Mint possibly ridding of the penny. Why?

Yesterday, the 11-member “Black Crack” Mafia, better known as the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) agreed in Vienna, Austria, to keep daily production quotas steady at 28 million barrels a day. Several of the greedier Black Crack dealers said that if prices kept falling, they would cut production. This pretty means expect oil prices …

This pair of maps show the global presence of Starbucks coffee shops and McDonald’s restaurants.

Common sense tells us that if US data comes out bad, shouldn’t the dollar fall? Right? Hello?

Here’s a cool side-by-side comparision on the blog, Economist’s View, of the latest FOMC statement with the meeting before. It’s interesting to see how hardcore economists like to dissect these things. I’ve attempted a dissection myself. My comments are in blue. June 29, 2006 Statement August 8, 2006 Statement For immediate release The Federal Open …

Here’s a pretty picture of interest decisions by the European Central Bank, Bank of England, and Federal Reserve since 1999. Source: Wachovia Corporation Economics Group Here are the predictions of rate moves from Wachovia economists for the rest of the year: They believe the Fed is done for the year. They also "believe that the …

According to the Fed Reserve Bank of Cleveland, here are the current market predictions for what the Fed will do during their August FOMC meeting: Notice on 06/26/06, there was a 90% probability that the Fed would hike rates to 5.50% in August. Here were the exchange rates at the time for the majors: EUR/USD: …

According to the Lundberg Survey, the US average for self-serve regular gasoline stood Friday at three dollars, one and a-half cents ($3.015).

Last Thursday, the dollar shot up because the private payroll processing firm ADP released their employment citing a ridiculous gain of 368,000 jobs for the month of June. This sounded all gravy until the real deal non-farm payrolls report came out with a "puny" number of 121,000. Talk about being off. Here’s a screenshot of …

Greetings forex traders! It might be a little early, but here are the current predictions for the September FOMC meeting.

Place your bets now forex traders. Here are the current market predictions on what the Fed will do during this week’s meeting and the next.

Here is a great blog post by Mish discussing whether the "dollar is toast". He writes about the four most reasons for the dollar being toast: 1. The Balance of Trade 2. The National Debt 3. The Savings Rate 4. Monetary Printing by the Fed He then takes a look at each one and sees …

There were definitely some exciting games at the World Cup this weekend. The U.S. team actually earned a point! And Brazil was Brazil. There’s only one thing more exciting than watching the World Cup games…it’s learning the economic effects of the World Cup! Read here why the world economy will benefit most from an Italian …

Here are the current predictions of what the Fed will do in their upcoming FOMC meeting this month. Get them forex trades ready!

The Fed hasn’t stopped beating the dead horse repeatedly saying that future interest rate decisions will be dependent on incoming economic data.

Let’s review last week’s release of US economic data and the market’s reaction after one hour of each release. Durable Goods Orders Last wednesday, we had durable goods orders. This report measures the monthly increase in new purchase orders placed with domestic manufacturers for hard goods. The actual number was waaaay below expectations.

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) says it expects a busy hurricane season in the United States this year. NOAA is predicting an above normal hurricane season, with 13 to 16 named storms, of which eight to 10 are predicted to become hurricanes, and four to six of those hurricanes are predicted to become …

Here are the latest predictions of what the Fed using the latest crystal ball reading technology from Carlson-Craig-Merck.

Here’s a great dissection by Wall Street Journal of the press release from the FOMC meeting today.

This chart shows the seasonal changes in price for gasoline. For the next five out of six months including this month, it looks like price will continue to rise. Bummer. According to an AP-Ipsos poll, Americans are driving less, trimming vacations and cutting back on heating and air conditioning. Seven in 10 say gas prices …