Archive for category Trading Markets
Euro Area Backs Greek Aid, Looks to New Bailout
Posted by Oksana Grebenjuk in Favourites, Trading Markets on Июль 4th, 2011
The euro area approved its share of a 12 billion-euro ($17.4 billion) aid payment for Greece and pledged to complete work in the coming weeks on a second rescue package for the cash-strapped nation to prevent a default.
Finance ministers agreed to disburse 8.7 billion euros of loans under last year’s 110 billion-euro bailout by July 15, rewarding Greek Premier George Papandreou for pushing an extra austerity plan through parliament. The International Monetary Fund is due to provide the rest of the July aid installment, the fifth under the 2010 package.
The spotlight now turns to a second bailout to which banks and insurers plan to contribute following German demands for taxpayer relief. Euro-area governments and investors will provide 70 percent of new aid that may total as much as 85 billion euros, with the IMF offering the rest, Thomas Wieser, an Austrian Finance Ministry official, said on June 30.
“The Greek authorities provided a strong commitment to adhere to the agreed fiscal adjustment path,” the 17 euro-area finance chiefs said in an e-mailed statement yesterday after a conference call that was joined by the IMF’s acting chief, John Lipsky, and European Central Bank President Jean- Claude Trichet. “The precise modalities and scale of private- sector involvement and additional funding from official sources will be determined in the coming weeks.” Read the rest of this entry »
Americans may hit gas again after reserve release
Posted by Oksana Grebenjuk in Favourites, Trading Markets on Июнь 29th, 2011
Going lightly on the gas pedal, getting a few dollars of gas rather than filling up, cutting out the cruising, and swapping the BMW for a Dodge Caliber — those are ways Americans are coping with gasoline prices well above $3 a gallon.
But people pumping gas on Friday from Miami to San Francisco saw prospects for lower prices thanks to President Barack Obama’s decision on Thursday to tap the country’s emergency petroleum stockpile as part of a global effort to bolster tight oil supplies.
The release of 30 million barrels from the U.S. Strategic Petroleum Reserve may not make people reschedule long summer road trips but could spell welcome relief for household budgets crimped by an anemic economic recovery.
While it might be a political move by Obama to help his re-election bid for 2012, as some speculate, most drivers seemed happy to get a break, even a small one. Jonathan Sifuentes, a 26-year-old power company employee, called the decision «the right thing to do» as he fueled up a Toyota Camry sedan on Miami’s outskirts.
«Everyone is hurting, with the economy, and unfortunately we do need gas to maintain our lifestyle, to go to work, to get groceries, to pick up our kids,» he said. Read the rest of this entry »
Obama takes flak for tapping emergency oil reserves
Posted by Oksana Grebenjuk in Favourites, Trading Markets on Июнь 28th, 2011
President Barack Obama took withering fire from the oil industry and Republicans for agreeing to release the nation’s emergency oil supplies, a decision that senior officials said was prompted by the need to prop up the ailing economy.
Critics blasted the release of 30 million barrels of oil — half of a global injection coordinated by the International Energy Agency — as an ill-timed misuse of reserves at a time when U.S. supplies are relatively high, despite the loss of Libya’s exports for the past three months.
Some OPEC officials went further, calling it a political ploy that ignored Saudi Arabia’s promise to step up production and the fact that oil prices had already fallen sharply. But the move fueled questions about the timing and catalyst for releasing the stocks, which in the past have been reserved to address abrupt disruptions like natural disasters.
The Obama administration was also concerned about tight markets ahead of peak demand in the summer, when many Americans take to the roads for vacations. The jump in gasoline prices earlier this year was hurting Obama’s support as the White House was gearing up for its re-election campaign. Read the rest of this entry »
Apple’s Jobs introduces iCloud
Posted by Oksana Grebenjuk in Trading Markets on Июнь 6th, 2011
Apple is hosting an event in San Francisco, where CEO Steve Jobs is expected to deliver details on the company’s upcoming iCloud service, the next iteration of its Mac OS X software («Lion») and iOS 5, the latest operating software for Apple’s mobile gadgets.
The company last week said Jobs, who is out on medical leave, would deliver the keynote address at WWDC, Apple’s Worldwide Developers Conference. What else is on tap? USA TODAY is filing updates from Apple’s event as they happen:
2:32 p.m.: Other iOS5 features include AirPlay Mirroring (which is nice), Wi-Fi sync to iTunes so now when charging at night it will find iTunes via Wi-Fi, also
nice. I’m surprised Apple didn’t mention this one as one of the top ten new features.
Developers get SDK seed today. And iOS 5 will ship to customers this fall.
Steve Jobs is back (finally) to talk iCloud.
«Do you like everything so far? I’ll try not to blow it.» Jobs says. Read the rest of this entry »
The Stupidity of Hope: Greece Is Still Going to Default
Posted by Oksana Grebenjuk in Favourites, Trading Markets on Июнь 2nd, 2011
Keeping in mind that the words “hope” and “Greece” should almost never be used in the same sentence, here would be the one exception: Let’s “hope” markets aren’t rallying on “hope” for “Greece.”
Hope, apparently, does spring eternal, however, and it seems as though despite all the evidence to the contrary, there are still people out there with money to spend who believe that Greece can be rescued yet from its seemingly intractable fiscal position.
How else to explain Monday’s surge in the euro and drop in the US dollar, which had been rallying on well-placed hopes that the periphery of Europe was sliding further into the debt abyss and ready to implode?
Irrationality, we now can conclude, comes in many forms. The latest form is in some weakly substantiated murmurs out of Germany that the core of the core of euro zone nations might be softening its stance towards a Greek bailout and is ready to ease its demands that the nation speed up its ultimately unavoidable debt restructuring.
Despite compelling evidence that Germany is in no political position to turn suddenly benevolent towards its free-spending weak sister to the south, the rally was on. Read the rest of this entry »
Falling Home Prices Hit Big Banks, Fannie, Freddie
Posted by Oksana Grebenjuk in Trading Markets on Июнь 1st, 2011
Home prices began double-dipping months ago, but now that S&P/Case Shiller has chimed in, it really must be so. This report is the most widely-followed home price index, equally quoted in bank boardrooms, Treasury Department back rooms, and Congressional Committees.
The report finds home prices in Q1 of this year are now 2.9 percent below the previous quarterly bottom in Q1 of 2009, effectively giving up all the gains of the past few years, which were of course fueled by the home buyer tax credit.
«Just about everybody agrees we’re going to miss the seasonally strong period in 2011, which we should be at the very beginning of right now with May, but nobody thinks that will make any difference,» says S&P’s David Blitzer. «Everybody’s now keeping their fingers crossed for 2012 and wondering whether people just don’t want to own homes anymore.»
Keeping your fingers crossed for the housing market is just the tip of the iceberg. Prices have now fallen, on this index, more than they did during the Great Depression. «On that occasion, the peak in prices was not regained until 19 years after they first fell,» notes Paul Dales at Capital Economics. Read the rest of this entry »
Best option for car shoppers: Postpone buying
Posted by Oksana Grebenjuk in Favourites, Trading Markets on Май 26th, 2011
Inventory shortages caused by the effects of Japan’s earthquake have led to rising prices for new and used vehicles, creating what one analyst describes as a ‘huge seller’s market.’ Attention all car buyers: The era of cut-rate financing, generous cash-back offers and big discounts is coming to an end.
With the effects of the earthquake in Japan rippling through the industry and causing shortages, prices are rising for both new and used cars, and fewer models and options will be available come summer, especially for the hybrids and fuel-efficient vehicles that Japan produces.
That’s prompted many experts to voice something rarely said in the sales-happy auto industry: With consumers facing the toughest market in recent memory, if you can, put off purchases until things sort out, probably early next year.
«If you don’t have an immediate need, you are probably better to wait and figure out where the market is headed,» said Jesse Toprak, an analyst with auto information company TrueCar.com. Read the rest of this entry »
Parmalat Investors Want 8% More From Lactalis to Support Bid
Posted by Oksana Grebenjuk in Trading Markets on Май 20th, 2011
Parmalat SpA (PLT) investors are holding out for at least 8 percent more from Groupe Lactalis of France in a takeover bid that would value Italy’s biggest dairy at 3.65 billion euros ($5.19 billion).
Parmalat shares have closed above the 2.60 euro-a-share offer every day since May 5 on expectations that Lactalis will have to raise its bid in order to succeed. The Laval, France- based company, the country’s biggest cheese-maker, has made the offer conditional on 55 percent of investors accepting it.
“Why would anyone tender to a 2.60 offer when they’ve been able to sell it above that level for several weeks now?” said Ben Rolfe, head of special situations at Tavira Securities Ltd. in Monaco. “Unless they waive the acceptance condition or increase the bid, it is doomed.”
Parmalat’s board said Tuesday that the Lactalis bid is too low and that it won’t recommend it to shareholders. Lactalis in March paid a group of activist investors 2.80 euros-a-share for a 15 percent stake in Collecchio, Italy-based Parmalat, raising its holding to 29 percent. On April 26, the Laval, France-based company announced a bid for the rest. The offer opens on May 23 and closes on July 8. Read the rest of this entry »
Crude Oil Declines After Stalling at Highest Level Since September 2008
Posted by Oksana Grebenjuk in Favourites, Trading Markets on Апрель 26th, 2011
Crude oil fell from the highest price in 31 months in New York after failing to maintain gains through a technical resistance level.
Oil slipped as much as 1.1 percent after reaching $113.48 a barrel, the highest price since Sept. 2, 2008. The gain breached a previous high of $113.46 set April 11.
“We hit that high, and people said that’s as high as we’re going to go today, so I’m going to take my profits,” said Carl Larry, president of Oil Outlook & Opinions LLC in Houston.
Oil for June delivery tumbled 87 cents, or 0.8 percent, to $111.42 a barrel at 10:15 a.m. on the New York Mercantile Exchange. Futures have risen 31 percent in the past year.
Brent crude oil for June settlement fell 94 cents, or 0.8 percent, to $123.05 a barrel on the London-based ICE Futures Europe exchange. Most European countries have a public holiday today for Easter Monday. Read the rest of this entry »
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Big Banks Easing Terms on Loans Deemed as Risks
6 Июль 2011Euro Area Backs Greek Aid, Looks to New Bailout
4 Июль 2011Americans may hit gas again after reserve release
29 Июнь 2011Obama takes flak for tapping emergency oil reserves
28 Июнь 2011
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