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The FTSE closed down over 85 points at 3,830.09 today, whilst the FTSE 250 closed down nearly 75 points at 6,049.14, and for those that are interested the FTSE Small Caps closed down over 11 points at 1,708.37.

Over the pond, by the time London stock market closed the DJI was down nearly 60 points at 7,124, whilst the S&P500 was down nearly 10 points at 743, and the Nasdaq down 5 points at 1,386.  News that the US government would be raising its stake in Citigroup to 36% sent some shockwaves around Wall Street.

Here in London Lloyds Banking Group said they’d be making a loss next year. The major UK banks all fell 17% to 22%.

Tullow Oil are looking for partners in Uganda. But Xstrata may struggle to get its $5.85 bln rights issue away, as shareholders may boycott it, and will be voting against the plans on Monday.

Betting Group William Hill announced plans of a £350m rights issue after faoiling to refinance its debt.  It scrapped its final dividend as well, which was expected.

Forex Live Room Roundup - 27th Feb 2009

London Session

- 2 Live Room trade calls today; 2 wins.
- No Intra-day trade calls.

GBP/USD – Short Call

- Live Room Call: Entry on the break of 1.4230
- Trade: Break of support level
- 1st Level: 1.4196, +34 pips (1/2 position)
- 2nd Level: 1.4190, +40 pips (1/2 position)
- Stop: 1.4255
- (Allow few pips for slippage on entry/exit levels)

AUD/USD – Short Call

- Live Room Call: Entry on the break of 0.6430
- Trade: Break of support level
- 1st Level: 0.6423, +7 pips (full position)
- Stop: 0.6455
- (Allow few pips for slippage on entry/exit levels)

We call our trades.  We tell you when we are going to trade.  www.marketbytes.com

Forex this morning in London saw some risk aversion across the board, really. The stock markets were down, as mentioned above, and the US dollar was far more attractive to investors.

The Euro zone data wasn’t good. The unemployment rate was up more than expected for January, reaching a 2-year high of 8.2%, worse than the 8.1% for December. Consumer prices slowed to 1.1% for Januray, whichw as well below the ECB target of 2.0%.

EUR/USD was down about -40 pips around the 1.2660 level as we approached the New York open. The 1.2630/20 lows reached overnight will continue to be support, but a break could see a fall to the 1.2550/00 level next.

On to the Yen. USD/JPY was down -30 pips to 97.50, whilst EUR/JPY was hit harder, down some -80 pips to the 123.50 area. Some long awaited profit taking on USD/JPY seems to be causing this pulle back.  It’s been quite a run.

USD/CAD was up some +60 pips to break the 1.2600 level.

As New York comes closer, we will be hearing some fairly important economic data that will affect the markets. The 2nd cut on US Q4 GDP is expected to show a downward revision to -5.4% from -3.8%, confirming that the doom and gloom is not only continuing, but worse than hoped.  News from Canada due shortly at 1.30pm UK time could see USD/CAD move further, especially if the figure comes in below the anticipated -5.1B decline for Q4. Also, Chicago PMI is due at 2.45pm UK time, as well as the University of Michigan consumer sentiment indicator at 2.55pm UK time.  Watch closely.

Live Room Roundup - 26th Feb 2009

Not such a great day today, but still finished up.
 
London Session

- 2 Live Room trade calls today; 1 win, 1 loss.
- No Intra-day trade calls.

USD/CHF – Short Call
 
- Live Room Call: Entry on the break of 1.1660
- Trade: Break of support level
- Closed: 1.1626, +34 pips (full position)
- Stop: 1.1687
- (Allow few pips for slippage on entry/exit levels)

GBP/USD – Short Call
 
- Live Room Call: Entry on the break of 1.4172
- Trade: Break of support level
- Closed: 1.4198, -26 pips (full position)
- Stop: 1.4198
- (Allow few pips for slippage on entry/exit levels)

Live Room Roundup - Wed 25 Feb 2009

It was a slow start this morning, with internet problems causing access to the LIve Room hard for our top trader.  No official Live Room calls were made during the session, but two intra-day trades were made.

London Session

- No Live Room trade calls today.
- 2 Intra-day trade calls; 2 winners, with as many as +233 pips on one of the trades.

Intra-day trades

GBP/JPY - Short trade closed (overall +190pips, for the records +95pips)

Opened Short: USD/JPY @ 140.48
Stop level: 141.90
Target level: 135.60
Closed: 138.15 (+233 pips)
1/2 closed at 139.01 (+147) and 1/2 at 138.15 (+233), overall +190 average. Traded half size so +95 pips (for the records)
EUR/JPY - Short trade closed (+33 pips)

Opened Short: EUR/JPY @ 123.85
Stop level: 124.65
Target level: 121.40
Closed: 123.52 (+33 pips)
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Forex Market Update - London Session

Internet problems gave us an unusual start, with the Room kicking off properly late, but just in time for some short trades and the USD became popular after the decent US stock market session yesterday. European markets were up 0.5% to 1%, but this still seemed rather lack-lustre. We expect the US to pull back on opening, as Obama’s promises to use the ‘full force of government’ will see some risk averse investment.

News from mainland Europe were the comments from some EU officials who said they are ‘concerned’ with the recent weakness in £STG, and how its negative implications will affect the Euro Zone and the €uro as a result. They said in a report that the recent fall of the Pound raises concerns about the actal state of the UK economy.  Whilst we can see that, we can also point out that the US economy isn’t doing too good, and Spain and others in Europe are struggling, and Eastern Europe hasn’t even really shown much reaction to all this so far.  But that’s by the by.

Anyway, after a false 20 pip edge up, Cable took a plunge.  Our beraish stance on Cable was right, with that 1.46 level reached a 2nd time before a heavy drop.  A couple of decent short trades, which are still running, are doing well.

GBP/USD was down some -175 pips and sitting near 1.4380/90 as we approach the New York session.

EUR/USD was down some -100 pips to the 1.2760/70 area, with the 1.2760 area looking fairly important as a support level, with the 100 MA nearby.  We could see a break of 1.2700, then further to fall from there if we break below.

JPY got stronger, and has been edging up on the quiet. It had been weaker, but the Japanese trade figures were better than expected, which helped the Yen. The overall bias for USD/JPY still looks higher, though, and we think that a break of 96.30/00 would see a further +100 from there.

Forex Market Update - London 24Feb09

It was fairly mixed this morning, with eyes and ears looking for the Fed Res statement in a while in the US.  Bernanke will will give his semi-annual tetimony to Congress later today. It will be a very bleak assessment, we are sure, but much of the bad news is probably already in the prices. But he will be availble for Qs and As afterw ards, so that could be interesting, possibly causing some spikes and volatile price action.

Here in London and in Euro Zone, the various stock markets were all down, albeit not as much as the 3.7% drop over the pond last night.  As mentioined in yesterday’s summary, US market future prices were at their worst levels for 12 years. Some trough feeders will be around, but can the bottom be called?  the US has always had higher P/E ratios, and investors are looking at fundamentals more now.  The DJI is at just above 7k, whcih is now at 50% of its peak at over 14,000 some 18 months ago. This assessment from Ben Bernanke is not expected to show any help to the wall Street.

During the London Session the pairs were mixed.

EUR/USD pushed up some +30 pips and was recently sitting near 1.2770/80, before New York kicks off.  Boycey and one or two others took a EUR-USD trade in the Live Room this morning on a level break, netting a nice gain.

USD/JPY was up +50 pips, carrying on from gains in the Asian session, and was at around the 95.80/90 area. Continued deterioration of the Japanese economy is now taking its toll on the ’safe haven’ stance of the Yen.  There were trades taken on the JPY in the room this moving, with a long trade taken on published level break being closed in two tranches.

EUR/JPY was up some +100 pips, sitting up at 122.50, with trades taken in the Live Room on the €uro being closed in two tranches, with one at +9 pips and the other up at +34, being closed too early at 1.2200.

USD-CHF was a good call in the Live Room, with a nice short trade proving to be succesful for Daps, adding to his 5 positive calls made yesterday.

Happy Trading.

Forex Live Room & Intra-Day Update - Mon 23Feb09

As usual, we had some good trades today.  It was a little worrying when hotcomm failed during the Live Room session, but we were in two trades at that point, which were in positive territory.  SMS and e-mail alerts helped show where profit was to be taken, just in case you hadn’t closed in profit already.

Live Room Trades - +38 & +37 pips.

Intra-day Trades - +48, +74 and +14 pips.

We call our trades here at Market Bytes Forex Live Room.  We stand by our performance.

Come and join the Pros.  www.marketbytes.com

London Session

- 2 Live Room trade calls today; 2 wins.
- 1 Intra-day trade call; 1 win.

GBP/USD – Long Call

- Live Room Call: Entry on the break of 1.4542
- Trade: Break of resistance level
- Closed: 1.4580, +38 (full position)
- Stop: 1.4517
- (Allow few pips for slippage on entry/exit levels)

USD/CAD – Short Call

- Live Room Call: Entry on the break of 1.2415
- Trade: Break of support level
- Closed: 1.2378, +37 (full position)
- Stop: 1.2440
- (Allow few pips for slippage on entry/exit levels)
Intra-day trades

EUR/USD - Short trade closed (+48 pips)

Opened Short: EUR/USD @ 1.2918
Stop level: 1.2970
Target level: 1.2740
Closed: 1.2870 (+48 pips)
3 Trades so far today.  Watch for those SMS messages and e-mails.  www.marketbytes.com

Pound Sterling Reaches the 1.46 Level As Forecasted - But Turns Back on Peak.

Last week in our forecasts we mentioned that the gap after the G7 would close and that we could see a rteurn to the 1.4602 level before a breaish pull back.  Well that’s what happened this morning. 

Whlst we had a technical problem when the US-based hotcomm software failed, we did see the levels reached before the interruption.  One we retraced from that level we saw it become the expected turn.  The US dollar soon recovered, with news that the US government will take an even larger stake in a major financial institution than had been rumoured helping the green back.

EUR/USD fell some -120 pips to just above the 1.28 mark. The pair came close to taking out the 1.30 resistance level, which does look to be a big medium term pivot point now. The 1.2765 low from last night looks to be a big support now.  With weakness, a break under 1.27 could be seen as well.

USD/JPY was up about +130 pips, taking out the January 94.65 barrier during this session. A daily close above 95.00 should see further advancing of the greenback this coming week, but do be careful for any hammer candle ’stoploss-checkers’.

Wall Street futures continue to show signs of investmnet returning, with the latest government financial input news helping here.  Well, for the moment, anyway.  London doesn’t look as positive as we type, and we expect a close down over here today.  Bailing out these massive institutions could give the wrong impression, really - almost rewarding failure.  The reaction to the banks’ bosses and staff bonuses has already been met with some serious comments, as we are aware. But don’t worry about the market reactions as the USD is still seen as risk averse, don’t forget.  We still remain bearish for Cable and the €uro.

This afernoon we see the Canadian retail sales figures for December, with a mark down expected.  A fall of -2.7% for December, after a -2.4% month in November is expected.  Any worse than that would see some short-term strength in USD-CAD, with that all-important 1.25 barrier coming in to play.