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Crucial Update :US Dollar Index ,EURO ,YEN ,GBP ,INR ,CAD ,AUD ,PESO ,WTI ,SPX 500 -Anirudh Sethi

The Japanese yen and Canadian dollar were the only major currencies to gain against the US dollar last week.  They are also the only major currencies to appreciate against the dollar so far this year.  US President Trump’s apparent playing down of the pressure to strike a partial deal with China before the 2020 election weighed on stocks and lifted the so-called safe-haven currencies ahead of the weekend.  When everything was said and done, from the attack on Saudi Arabia to the money market squeeze in the US and the Fed’s rate cut, the dollar remained mostly within well-worn ranges.
The exceptions were idiosyncratic.  Growth concerns, both globally and domestically, saw the New Zealand dollar fall to new four-year lows ahead of the weekend.  The RBNZ meets next week, and the market has about six basis points of easing, or about a 25% chance of a cut.  The Australian dollar fell in four of last week’s five sessions and the day rose was by 1/100 of a penny, according to Bloomberg.  Sterling had threatened to break high in the second half of the week, but Ireland’s Deputy Prime Minister helped put Juncker’s seeming optimism in context.  UK Prime Minister Johnson reportedly acknowledged that the EU is unlikely to agree entirely with his proposal at the critical summit in the middle of next month.  These developments pushed sterling a cent off the highest level since July (~$1.2580).
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Read Links and Update yourself

  • China turns tables on AAA debt time bomb nations (Bloomberg)
  • Gold at new record high after Saudi reserves double (FT)
  • Germany and France examine two-tier euro (Telegraph)
  • So that’s why investors can’t think for themselves (WSJ)
  • Failed AAA-deal rated Rembrandt spurs outcry (Bloomberg)
  • Medvedev sees chance for new world order (FT)
  • Amid the crisis, Wall Street touted BP stock (Reuters)
  • Gold reclaims its currency status as the global economy unravels (Telegraph)

 

Links worth reading

  • The secrets of the Afghan war released (WSJ)
  • BP set to announce Hayward departure (FT)
  • Must read: The death of paper money (Telegraph)
  • European Banking’s Next Focus Is Funding (WSJ)
  • U.K. Growth Forecast Cut on Budget Curbs, Ernst & Young to Say (BusinessWeek)
  • Taleb: Government Deficits Could Be the Next ‘Black Swan’ (BusinessWeek)
  • Deficits Don’t Matter as Geithner Growth Gets Lowest Yield (Bloomberg)
  • When will the US go the way of Rome (RCM)
  • BP downgraded to AA from AA+ by Fitch

    The first of many to come? The outlook would suggest so, after Fitch cut BP’s credit rating in response to its Deepwater spill dilemmas on Thursday — watch negative.

    As Fitch’s release suggests, it’s a further headache for BP:

    Fitch Ratings-London-03 June 2010: Fitch Ratings has today downgraded BP plc’s (BP) Long-term Issuer Default Rating (IDR) and senior unsecured rating to ‘AA’ from ‘AA+’, respectively, and placed the ratings on Rating Watch Negative (RWN). At the same time, Fitch has affirmed BP’s Short-term IDR at ‘F1+’. The ratings of BP Capital Markets plc’s senior unsecured issues, which are fully and unconditionally guaranteed by BP, have been downgraded to ‘AA’ from ‘AA+’ and placed on RWN. BP Capital Markets is BP’s wholly-owned indirect subsidiary.

    The downgrade of BP’s ratings reflects Fitch’s opinion that risks to both BP’s business and financial profile continue to increase following the Deepwater Horizon accident in the US Gulf of Mexico. The company has so far repeatedly failed to stop the resultant oil leak and has instead reverted to containment methods that are yet to be fully implemented and are subject to potential weather related disruption. Fitch notes that the drilling of relief wells also poses risks and additional time may be required for them to be fully effective. An additional factor supporting the downgrade is the 1 June 2010 announcement by US Attorney General, Eric Holder, that both a criminal and civil investigation has opened with respect to the oil spill that could have potential negative implications for BP’s financial profile. (more…)

    Democracy Failure Follows Market Failure

    Some very spicy comments from the Hungarian prime minister who basically tells the world to get lost (please admire effort to remain polite on his part). In so many words it’s not his fault, it’s the previous administration’s fault. Sounds familiar? Obama has used it at will, Greece has used it, I heard Sarkozy use it, and just about everybody else! Even Republicans who campaigned to “Drill baby drill!” now blame the BP fiasco on Obama. Needless to say political courage is something that no longer exists, and populism has been the only political program offered to us for now a solid 40 years. The natural extension is for a Prime Minister to just walk in and say: “You know what screw you guys, we will default, I am not taking back tax cuts that got me elected, I am not telling people who were promised early retirement that really it’s not feasible, I’m just not going to deal with any of this. Let’s just default and keep doing what we were doing”. In the same line of thought the French PM declared this morning that there is nothing bad about EURUSD at parity.

    If you think it’s bad to sell someone a mortgage they can’t pay, how about promising them a lifestyle they can’t afford! Washington has some nerve to blame the financial industry: “a house for every American” was their idea. Granted there is plenty of blame and jail time deserved at many financial institutions but it is true also for Congress. I used to think that over the past 40 years the commodity that was most devalued was human labor but I have changed my mind. A man’s word no longer has any value in most cases. Should the law be changed so that it holds our leaders accountable for their words? Why not, we would get a hell of a clean slate and something to be finally hopeful about. That is change I would believe in for sure. (more…)

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