Forex - Dollar gains as market braces for Federal Reserve decision

Investing.com - The dollar rose against most major currencies on Tuesday despite uninspiring economic indicators hitting the wire earlier, as investors viewed the safe-and-liquid greenback as the venue of choice to await the Federal Reserve's Wednesday announcement on interest rates and monetary policy.

In U.S. trading on Tuesday, EUR/USD was down 0.27% at 1.3748.

Uncertainty over the Fed's language and forward guidance on monetary policy kept investors camped out in safe-haven greenback positions on Tuesday despite lackluster economic data.

The Conference Board said its index of consumer confidence dropped to 71.2 in October from an upwardly revised reading of 80.2 in September.

Analysts were expecting the index to fall to 75.0 this month.

The data came on the heels of Commerce Department data showing that U.S. retail sales fell 0.1% in September, while core retail sales, which exclude transportation items and gasoline, rose 0.4%, both in line with expectations.

Separately, the Labor Department reported that the country's producer price index contracted 0.1% in September, defying gains for a 0.2% gain.

The data cemented expectations that the Fed will maintain its USD85 billion monthly bond-buying program for the near future, possibly into first quarter of next year, to safeguard U.S. economic recovery.

Asset purchases aim to spur recovery by driving down long-term borrowing costs, weakening the dollar in the process, though investors chose to remain parked in the greenback on Tuesday before digesting the Federal Reserve's language on Wednesday.

Expectations for the Fed to keep policy unchanged have also been priced into trading, which gave the greenback room to post modest gains on Tuesday.

Meanwhile, across the Atlantic, the pound found little support after the Bank of England said mortgage approvals rose to 66,735 in September from an upwardly revised 63,396 in August.

Analysts were forecasting a 66,000 reading.

The BoE said net mortgage lending ticked down to GBP1 billion pounds in September, from an upwardly revised GBP1.1 billion in August.

Meanwhile, net lending to individuals decreased to GBP1.4 billion in September from an upwardly revised GBP1.7 billion in August.

Analysts were forecasting increases of GBP1.2 billion and GBP2.5 billion, respectively.

The greenback was up against the pound, with GBP/USD down 0.59% at 1.6047.

The dollar was up against the yen, with USD/JPY up 0.48% at 98.15, and up against the Swiss franc, with USD/CHF up 0.35% at 0.8988.

The dollar was up against its cousins in Canada, Australia and New Zealand, with USD/CAD up 0.17% at 1.0463, AUD/USD down 0.98% at 0.9479 and NZD/USD trading down 0.61% at 0.8251.

The dollar index, which tracks the performance of the greenback versus a basket of six other major currencies, was up 0.38% at 79.69.

On Wednesday, markets will move on the Federal Reserve's announcement on monetary policy.

Also on Wednesday, the U.S. is to release the ADP report on nonfarm payrolls and official data on consumer price inflation.

Investing.com offers an extensive set of professional tools for the financial markets.
Read more News on Investing.com and download the new Investing.com Stocks & Finance App for Android!

08.10 | 0 komentar | Read More

South Korean industrial production fall more-than-expected

Investing.com - dustrial production in South Korea fell more-than-expected last month, official data showed on Tuesday.

In a report, Korea National Statistical Office said that South Korean industrial production fell to a seasonally adjusted rate of -2.1%, from 1.6% in the preceding month whose figure was revised down from 1.8%.

Analysts had expected South Korean industrial production to fall -0.4% last month.

Investing.com offers an extensive set of professional tools for the financial markets.
Read more News on Investing.com and download the new Investing.com Stocks & Finance App for Android!

08.10 | 0 komentar | Read More

Argentinian industrial production rises less-than-expected

Investing.com - dustrial production in Argentina rose less-than-expected last month, official data showed on Monday.

In a report, Instituto Nacional De Estadistic y Censos said that Argentinian Industrial Production rose to -0.2%, from -0.4% in the preceding month.

Analysts had expected Argentinian Industrial Production to rise to 2.5% last month.

Investing.com offers an extensive set of professional tools for the financial markets.
Read more News on Investing.com and download the new Investing.com Stocks & Finance App for Android!

08.10 | 0 komentar | Read More

Forex - Dollar firms on U.S. industrial output data, eyes Fed meeting

Investing.com - The dollar rose against most major currencies on Monday after industrial production data beat expectations though gains were limited as investors remained camped on the sidelines to await the Federal Reserve's decision on monetary policy on Wednesday.

In U.S. trading on Monday, EUR/USD was up 0.01% at 1.3807.

The Federal Reserve reported on Monday that U.S. industrial production rose by a 0.6% last month, above expectations for a 0.4% rise and the fastest increase in seven months.

The news gave the dollar some support, though investors remained cautious ahead of the Fed's upcoming two-day policy meeting that opens on Tuesday.

A string of disappointing economic reports has cemented expectations that the central bank will maintain the current pace of its USD85 billion in monthly asset purchases into early next year.

Asset purchases aim to spur recovery by driving down long-term borrowing costs, weakening the dollar in the process.

Still, the upbeat industrial output number gave investors some hope that sooner or later, the Fed will begin to taper the pace of its stimulus program, which would give the dollar support afterwards.

Elsewhere, industry data revealed that U.S. pending home sales fell 5.6% last month, down for the fourth consecutive month and well below market calls for a gain of 0.1%, which capped the dollar's advance somewhat.

The greenback was up against the pound, with GBP/USD down 0.03% at 1.6162.

In the U.K., Bank of England policymaker David Miles said Monday that raising interest rates before there was a 'meaningful' reduction in the unemployment rate would be "pretty catastrophic," which softened the pound.

Elsewhere, the pair shrugged off a Confederation of British Industry report that found just 2% of retailers reported an increase in sales in October, down from 34% in September.

The dollar was up against the yen, with USD/JPY up 0.24% at 97.64, and up against the Swiss franc, with USD/CHF up 0.18% at 0.8942.

The dollar was mixed against its cousins in Canada, Australia and New Zealand, with USD/CAD down 0.12% at 1.0439, AUD/USD down 0.02% at 0.9582 and NZD/USD trading up 0.31% at 0.8304.

The dollar index, which tracks the performance of the greenback versus a basket of six other major currencies, was up 0.04% at 79.29.
On Tuesday, the U.S. is to produce data on retail sales as well as its producer price index and a report on consumer confidence.

Investing.com offers an extensive set of professional tools for the financial markets.
Read more News on Investing.com and download the new Investing.com Stocks & Finance App for Android!

08.10 | 0 komentar | Read More

Forex - USD/JPY up in Asian trade

Investing.com - The U.S. Dollar was higher against the Japanese Yen on Sunday.

USD/JPY was trading at 97.58, up 0.19% at time of writing.

The pair was likely to find support at 96.94, Friday's low, and resistance at 98.48, Tuesday's high.

Meanwhile, the U.S. Dollar was down against the Euro and the British Pound, with EUR/USD gaining 0.04% to hit 1.3811 and GBP/USD rising 0.05% to hit 1.6176.

Investing.com offers an extensive set of professional tools for the financial markets.
Read more News on Investing.com and download the new Investing.com Stocks & Finance App for Android!

08.10 | 0 komentar | Read More

South Korean consumer confidence rises more-than-expected

Investing.com - The current level of consumer confidence in South Korea rose more-than-expected last month, official data showed on Sunday.

In a report, The Bank Of KOREA said that South Korean Consumer Confidence rose to 106, from 102 in the preceding month.

Analysts had expected South Korean Consumer Confidence to rise to 103 last month.

Investing.com offers an extensive set of professional tools for the financial markets.
Read more News on Investing.com and download the new Investing.com Stocks & Finance App for Android!

08.10 | 0 komentar | Read More

How do investors benchmark their bond funds?

Q: What do you benchmark your bond against? How do you know that this is a good bond fund performing efficiently?

A: There are two way to look at it. One is that when you invest in a bond fund the worst thing you should do is to look at historical return because these return already come in and they is no guarantee that this fund will deliver similar kind of return. Unlike equity, in a bond you need to look at simple thing that what is the current portfolio maturity and what is the current portfolio yield and if you invest in that product and have that kind of maturity yield and if you stay invested in that fund for that period then yield minus expenses you are going to get it.

If you look at liquid right now, liquid fund have a 60 days maturity, current portfolio yield is 10 percent plus, 25 bps expenses, you are going to get 9.75 to 10 percent for next 60 days. Similarly if you look at accrual products, which are one year plus kind of products where current yield is anything between 11 to 11.5 and 12 percent. You take 1.5 percent expenses, 10 percent plus kind of return you get, suppose you stay invested for one year period, so that is a way one need to look at.

Technically I can answer you that it has to be benchmark against the bond index and all that which for a normal investor doesn't matter. I think the real benchmark for a bond is to look at company FDs. If you have one year company FD, if you have three year company FD and you have product which is one year maturity or three year maturity then that product yield to maturity (YTM) has to be higher than the bank deposit.

08.10 | 0 komentar | Read More

Tax-free bonds: Is it a good bet?

Q: Explain all these spotlights that are there on the tax-free bonds. How much does that add to the reward that I get at the end of the tenure for which I am investing?

A: I am not a big believer of tax-free bond for simple reason that if you are a high net worth individual and you invest in mutual fund and you disinvest after one year, you just pay 10 percent long-term capital gain but when you invest in a tax-free bond, government take a calculation saying that all investors are in highest bracket. So, he starts from day one paying highest tax slab.

It is a tax-free bond, nice but in a ten year period you find many times capital losses in your books. So, if you have a mutual fund bond portfolio and you have a capital losses somewhere else then you can adjust these things which is not possible in tax-free bond, for instance if you are running a business; you have a business of investing and that you have some losses where many people keep having for various reasons. Now you have a taxable instrument like mutual fund or lower instrument like mutual fund, you can adjust those. So, I am not a big believer in tax-free bond and I do not think they serve much purpose to the investor but the lure of them is too high for many investors to avoid.

08.10 | 0 komentar | Read More

Argentinian retail sales falls more-than-expected

Investing.com - Retail sales in Argentina fell more-than-expected last month, official data showed on Friday.

In a report, Instituto Nacional De Estadistic y Censos said that Argentinian Retail Sales fell to a seasonally adjusted 23.0%, from 36.6% in the preceding month whose figure was revised up from 35.8%.

Analysts had expected Argentinian Retail Sales to fall to 25.9% last month.

Investing.com offers an extensive set of professional tools for the financial markets.
Read more News on Investing.com and download the new Investing.com Stocks & Finance App for Android!

08.10 | 0 komentar | Read More

Forex - GBP/USD slumps as bargain hunters view dollar as oversold

Investing.com - The pound moved lower against the dollar on Friday after investors viewed the greenback as oversold in wake of a soft U.S. consumer report.

In U.S. trading on Friday, GBP/USD was trading at 1.6170, down 0.20%, up from a session low of 1.6151 and off from a high of 1.6247.

Cable was likely to find support at 1.6116, Tuesday's low, and resistance at 1.6257, Wednesday's high.

The Thomson Reuters/University of Michigan final consumer sentiment index for October fell to 73.2 from 75.2 in September, worse than expectations for a downtick to 75.0.

The report added that inflation expectations ticked up to 3.0% in October, from 2.9% the previous month.

The data came after the Census Bureau said that U.S. core durable goods orders, which exclude transportation items, fell 0.1% in September, defying expectations for a 0.5% rise after a 0.1% decline the previous month.

Broad U.S. durable goods orders rose 3.7% last month, exceeding expectations for a 2.0% increase after a 0.1% rise in August.

Friday's lackluster data, which came in wake of weak labor-market data earlier this week, kept expectations going for the Federal Reserve to continue stimulating the economy with its USD85 billion in monthly bond purchases that drive down interest rates to spur recovery, weakening the greenback in the process.

The dollar, however, eventually reached levels that brought in the bottom fishers late Friday.

Meanwhile in the U.K., preliminary data earlier showed that the U.K. gross domestic product rose 0.8% in the third quarter, in line with expectations and up from 0.7% in the previous quarter.

The pound, meanwhile, was down against the euro and down against the yen, with EUR/GBP up 0.19% at 0.8535 and GBP/JPY down 0.08% at 157.47.

Investing.com offers an extensive set of professional tools for the financial markets.
Read more News on Investing.com and download the new Investing.com Stocks & Finance App for Android!

08.10 | 0 komentar | Read More