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FXLR - Live Room Summary - Mon 01 Mar 2010

A steady day in the room.  Some good chat.  But missed a decent Cable break.  Well done to those that took it. Total: +25 pips on the day.

Trades called and taken in the Live Room:
 
1.  EUR/USD: short, momentum @ 1.3527 (+16, +16).
2.  GBP/USD: short, momentum @ 1.4901 (+18, 0).

Happy Trading
FXLR Team

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FXLR Team

FTSE closes down as sell off starts, but is well off lows

What was called a global sell off this morning became just a poor day.  The headline shares were all firmly down, but had recovered from the lows of the session.  The financial and commodity stocks had the worst day. No support from Wall Street, either, as markets were weaker. The FTSE 100 closed was down nearly 69 points at 4,645, whilst the FTSE 250 closed down 241 points at 8,274, and for those that are interested, the FTSE Small Caps closed down 22 points at 2,557.

Over the pond, US stocks suffered early doors as well, this despite encouraging figures from the Empire State Manufacturing index. By the time London was closing, the DJIA was down some 170 points at 9,147, whilst the S&P 500 was down 22 points at 982, and the Nasdaq down nearly 50 points at 1,936.

Back here in London, Japan’s growth figure being below expectations for the last quesrter didn’t help. The Far East had a poor day, with sell offs across the board. This caused London to take a guide and the FTSE was down some 100 points in the first half an hour. UK banking shares were all down, with Lloyds Banking Group cloisng down some 4.5p at 95p, whilst RBS closed down 1.26p at 44.89p, and Barclays down 12.05p at 347.05p.

Is this now the start of the downturn…?

FTSE ends session firmly lower

The headline shares were weaker this afternoon, ending firmly lower, with commodities falling causing downward pressure to the index, and financial issues also adding to the woe. Wall Street was down early doors, ahead of the Fed policy meeting, so London just sulked and pulled back.

The FTSE 100 closed down 50 points at 4,671, whilst the FTSE 250 closed down 118 points at 8,302, and the FTSE Small Caps actually closed up 8 points at 2,541.

Over the pond, Wall Street was also down in morning trade, with the Federal Monetary Policy Committee deliberations starting being on investors’ minds.  By the time London closed, the DJIA was down nearly 105 points at 9,233, whilst the S&P500 was down 13 points at 993, and the Nasdaq down 27 points at 1,965.

Back here in London, the FTSE 100 losses accumulated during the afternoon session as weakening commodities and a falling crude oil price added pressure to an already fragile market.

On to the black stuff, with the price of oil dipping below US$70 bbl. This pushed down BP 3p to 512p, and BG Group 23.5p to 984.5p, but RD Shell closed up 16p at 1,549p.

FTSE takes a breather and ends session modestly lower

The bigger stocks pulled back today, as profit taking and reectn hype seems to have calmed down - even the euphoria over the banks all losing £4 bln each in 6 months. Commoditiy stocks didn’t have th best day today.  Wall Street started slow and weaker as well.  The FTSE 100 closed down 24 points at 4,647, whilst the FTSE 250 closed up 23 points at 8,266, and for those that are interested the FTSE Small Caps also closed up 23 points at 2,466.

Over the pond, US stocks were lower in their morning trade, with the ADP report that private-sector employment fell by an estimated 371k jobs in July. By the time London was closing the DJIA was down about 80 points at 9,240, the S&P500 down 8 points at 998, and the Nasdaq down 23 points at 1,988.

Back here in London, the main news were the interim results from Lloyds Banking Group, which weren’t the best, but one may have thought so at the reaction.  Lloyds reported a loss of £4bn in H1 til 30 June, with impairments surging to £13.4bn.  Most of this was attributed to the HBOS write-downs. The loss was actually less severe than many analysts had predicted, which reflected in the share price, which pushed up nearly 9p, or almost 10% on the day, to 93.2p.  Peers liked the reaction, with Barclays closing up 8p at 336.5p, RBS up 2.07p at 48.7p and Standard Chartered closing up 42p at 1,370p.

FTSE falls in afternoon trade

The bigger stocks didn’t have a good afternoon.  The FTSE closed down 11 points at 4,671, whilst the FTSE250 closed up 84 points at 8,242, and for those that are interested, the FTSE Small Caps closed up 37 points at 2,443.

Autonomy offsetting a mixed performance from financials. Standard Chartered was down on placing news and Legal & General suffered after slashing dividends.

Over the pond, by the time London closed, the DJIA was down nearly 3 points at 9,284, the S&P500 down nearly a point at 1,002, and the Nasdaq down 4 points at 2,005.  The commodities were weaker, and invetsors seem to take some profits.

Back here in London, the banks didn’t have a good day. Asia-biased Standard Chartered closed down 108p at 1,328p, after news of a planned placing to raise some £1 bln.  This despite a 10% increase in H1 profits.  Lloyds Banking Group closed down a penny at 84.27p, whilst HSBC closed down nearly 7p at 629p, but barclays bucked that trend after its figures, closing up almost 6p at 328.5p. RBS also had a better day, closing up 0.22p at 46.63p on news that it had done a deal on lots of its Asian banking with Australia’s ANZ.

The miners didn’t have a good day, as commodity prices fell.

FTSE UP AGAIN - The banks help more gains

It was a good day for the banks, with Barclays and HSBC posting some decent figures, as expected. The FTSE100 closed up 74 points at 4,668, whilst the FTSE 250 closed up 158 points at 8,158, and the FTSE Small Caps 14 points at 2,406.

Over the pond, Wall Street also started well, with July’s ISM factory data giving some confidence. As London closed, the DJIA was up some 80 points at 9,252, whilst the S&P500 was up nearly 10 points at 997, and the Nasdaq up 14 points at 1,993.

Back here in London, Barclays reported H1 profits up 8% at nearly £3 bln, and this depsite £4.6 bln of gross losses on credit market exposures as well as £3.3 bln of other bad debts. The bank said that profits were driven by the Investment Banking and Investment Management businesses, which reported overall pre-tax profit up 44% at £1.4 bln. HSBC was a bit more of a surprise, reporting a profit before tax of $5 bln during H1, which was down heavily from $10.2 bln last year, but was definietly better than expected. Barclays closed up 20.25p at 322.55p, whilst HSBC closed up over 30p at just shy of 636p. Other banks liked this, with Lloyds Banking Group closing up 0.25p at 85.25p, RBS up 1.56p at 46.41p, and Standard Chartered up 15p at 1,436p.

The commodities did well, with metal prices on the up, as was gold and oil.  The shiny stuff was up over $952 oz, whilst the black stuff was over US$70 bbl.

FTSE ends session higher yet again

The bigger companies had a good finish to the day, with telecoms giant BT Group and Rolls-Royce announcing some decent results.  With Wall Street opening positively it helped London have a good closing period. The FTSE 100 closed up 84 points at 4,631, whilst the FTSE 250 closed up 172 points at 7,934, and for those that are interested, the FTSE Small Caps closed up 6 points at 2,372.

Over the pond, a good morning for Wall Street.  US stocks did well in morning trade, with some better than expected economic data helping the feeling, despite jobs numbers not being so good. By the time London closed the DJIA was up 152 points at 9,223, whilst the S&P500 was up 18 points at 993, and the Nasdaq up 30 points at 1,999.

Back here in London, it was Telecoms group BT that had the best day, closing up over 14p at 126.9p after news that Q1 revenues rose 1% to £5.24 bln, which was better than forecast. The EBITDA was down 3% to £1.37 bln, but this didn’t concern investors.

Aero engine maker Rolls-Royce also had a goodd ay, closing up nearly 33p at 408p after announcing underlying pre-tax profits of £445m, up 9%, for the half year to 30June. The group also said its order book had increased by £2 bln to a record £57.5 bln during the 6 months.

The heavyweighht miners also did ok today, with Lonmin closing up 105p at 1,360p, Rio Tinto up 166p at 2,462p, BHP Billiton closing up 78p at 1,579.5p, and Kazakhmys up 45.5p at 833.5p.  Kaz did say that output is likely to be lower in the second half of the year, but should still meet targets. Antofagasta said that its copper production, at 218 tons, was ahead of budget in H1, helping the share price to close up some 54p at 762.5p.

Finally - A Downturn - or FTSE just dragged down by banks…?

The headline shares finished the day down and failed to break a record by posting a twelfth consecutive gain. We’re not surprised, of course.  It can’t just be the temptation for profit taking, surely?  The banks and commodity stocks had a poor day., pulling the Index down, but the run had to end sooner or later. News from the US was that there is falling consumer confidence in the US for July. The FTSE 100 closed down 57 points at 4528.

One to note was Yell Group, the publisher of the Yellow Pages Directory, which closed down some 7.5% today, down 2.5P to 30.25p. Barclays had said that it had sold nearly 1.9m shares, which brought its Yell holding down to just over 47m shares - now under 6% of the issued share capital.

We feel that the bear market rally has had its day now.

Another winning day!  The FTSE makes it ten gains in a row

The major shares had another good day, making it tenth successive winning day for the FTSE.  Mobile phone giant Vodafone had a fairly good update, and the financial sector gave the Index some firm support.  The utilities didn’t have such a good day, carrying on from the Ofwat news yesterday, and Wall Street had a rather fence-sitting start on this last tarding session of the week.  The FTSE 100 closed up over 16 points at 4,576, whilst the FTSE 250 closed up 51 points at 7,938, and for those that are interested the FTSE Small Caps closed up 20 points at 2,345.

Over the pond things weren’t so rosy during the morning session, with Amazon’s rather downbeat news causing a few jitters, together with some cautious stuff from Amazon.com, Microsoft and Ericsson.

By the time London closed, The DJIA was down about 32 points at 9,036, whilst the S&P500 was down 6 points at 970, and the Nasdaq down 24 points at 1,949.

Back here in London news from mobile phone giant Vodafone that its revenue was up 9.3% in the last quesrter, but was taking a hit during crunch times saw them close down 3.35p at 120. It was the exchange rate gains and acquisitions that helped the revenue figure.  Domestic revenue is down.