YTE Blog

China reported positive figures over the weekend, sending risk currencies higher. The Purchasing Managers’ Index, compiled by China’s logistics federation and the National Bureau of Statistics, rose to a one-year high of 53.1 in March from 51 in February. As Australia’s largest trading partner, Ch...

Last week, US government data beat all estimates when it reported that Non-Farm Payrolls rose by 243,000 in January. The official figures easily surpassed the 140,000 estimate by economists. Additionally, the unemployment rate came in at 8.3%, the lowest level in nearly 3 years. This also recorded ...

After intense negotiations at the recent World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, a deal with Greek bondholders seems imminent. In October 2011, the bondholders agreed to take a 50% cut in the face value of their bonds, worth more than 200 billion Euros. In simple terms, this means that bondhold...

What a week it has been for the Euro. Mid-week, ECB chief Mario Draghi gave a press conference, stating that the bank’s policy of extending low interest loans to financial institutions had been successful in stabilizing the region’s credit markets. Proof of his statement was seen in the recent Spa...

It’s good to be back in the currency market after a three week break. For my first article of 2012, let’s take a snap-shot of the world’s biggest economies to see how they fared for 2011. This can give us excellent insight into how they might perform at the start of 2012. According to the list by ...

There were two headlines late last week that caused a rally in the risk currencies. Firstly, it was the surprise announcement by the major central banks to boost liquidity. In a coordinated action to ease credit lending, six central banks agreed to reduce the cost of temporary dollar loans offered ...

It’s no secret in the markets now that traders and investors are highly concerned about the on-going debt crisis in Europe. However, what is that one crucial clue to give us a clear leading indicator that risk is off the table? The answer, is bond yields. By definition, a bond yield is the return...

Last week, the Monetary Authority of Singapore said that the global economy and financial system are at their most fragile state since the 2008 crisis, with the immediate outlook characterised by a high degree of uncertainty. Not the most encouraging words for traders and investors to hear, but rec...

The countries which make up the “PIGS” – Portugal, Italy, Greece and Spain, have new leaders. Portugal is headed by Prime Minister Pedro Passos Coelho, after Jose Socrates resigned in March. Greek Prime Minister resigned last week to make way for a coalition led by European Central Bank Vice Presi...

What was original a 2 day meeting between the European finance chiefs has now been scheduled for 6 days. With a final announcement scheduled for Wednesday, the lengthy Summit shows that the people in charge are committed to hammer out a solution for the on-going debt woes in Europe. There are essen...

  Risk currencies are having a brief rally this week due to three reasons: Better US Employment Bank of England increases Asset Purchases European leaders pledge banks recapitalisation Better US Employment US Non-Farm Payrolls rose by 103K in the month of September with private sector payrolls...

Finance chiefs meet in Luxembourg this week. The good news for the markets is that finance chiefs are meeting and discussing global issues more frequently. The bad news is that no concrete solution has been hammered out yet. In the process, markets are continuing their free-fall. The MSCI Asia...

We are officially in a bear market. The bloodshed in the markets last week was breath-taking, with more than US$3.4 trillion (s$4.4 trillion) erased from equity values and over US $1 trillion in the US equity market alone. Here’s a snapshot of some of the carnage: 1) The Dow Jones Industrial Aver...

Two news have taken centre-stage in the currency world – the trading loss of UBS, Switzerland’s biggest bank, and the announcement of a possible QE3 by the Fed this week. UBS said that its loss came from unauthorized trading over the past three months. The trader responsible for the loss was Kweku ...

When Lehman Brothers fell in 2008, the bankruptcy filing of USD640 billion was the largest ever filed in the history of the United States, far exceeding that of Enron and WorldCom. Three years on, the ghost of Lehman has returned, and the memories of a painful credit crunch are starting to surface ...

The median forecast of 86 economists called for an addition of 68,000 jobs. However, after the announcement by the US Labour Department, everyone was caught off-guard when the result showed a big fat zero. This was the weakest reading since September 2010, and meant that that the US economy failed ...

Over the weekend, Singapore voted in its next President, with Dr Tony Tan pipping Dr Tan Cheng Bock to the finish line by a mere 0.35 per cent of the popular vote. In the Forex Market, a different election of sorts was happening, with the primary candidate being the current Federal Reserve Chariman...

“The trend is your friend until it bends” goes the famous trading colloquial. Every trader worth his salt knows the importance of trading with the trend. However, there is one indomitable force in the Forex Market that can temporarily over-ride the theory of trend. That force is known as Central Ba...

It has been a roller-coaster ride in the Forex Markets at the start of this week. The main news that caused the big movements in the risk currencies was the fact that Standard and Poor’s downgraded the AAA rating of US debt. This is the first time that US assets have been downgraded since they won...

I was in Kuala Lumpur last week to speak in the International Rubber Conference 2011. Part of my message centred on how the US would increase its debt ceiling before the dreaded deadline of August 2. The whole of last week had the world riveted on the U.S. because it seemed that U.S. policymakers w...