February US Nonfarm payrolls are reported tomorrow. Typically it’s a snooze-fest in the markets for the 24 hours or so leading up to that report.
But the week’s been full of data points to give traders reason to stay awake.
The Reserve Bank of Australian and the Bank of Canada both announced monetary policy; RBA hiked 25 basis points, while the BOC sat on its hands.
Some analysts have the view that if Greece is stabilized it will prove the euro has passed a major test, and lead to a fresh new rally against the US dollar. Of course we can never say never when it comes to trading/investing, but it seems an unlikely course precisely because of the key element needed by Greece and the other states in fiscal jeopardyausterity.
From the very first hint at a government stimulus effort in the US, there were plenty voices in the opposition’s camp trying to point out the perversity of pumping money into an economy that was already awash with debt and over-leveraged. Then the argument of letting market forces play out as they may – bankruptcy, layoffs, price declines, whatever -- really took hold when the too-big-to-fail bailouts arose.
Ouch! The British pound got hammered this morning…and the euro ain’t acting as though the German/French plans to bailout Greece are going so well. Commodity currencies flat…but will likely take their cue from stocks again today.
GBPUSD Weekly: The pound tested its weekly trend line and key retracement level this morning i.e. 61.8% from the old high to the credit crunch low. Next stop 1.35—the credit crunch low? Or time for a bounce?
About two weeks ago, I unfortunately had to attend a funeral for my wife’s uncle. He was really a great person—fun, intelligent, and a man with real integrity and deep religious conviction. I admired him greatly. My father-in-law gold bug (MFL)—another of my real life heroes – drove with me on the trip to the funeral and back. So I quizzed him along the way about his deep convictions about gold.
