International Investment

Italy Enters Recession, But When Will It Leave?- by Edward Hugh : Barcelona

According to preliminary data from national statistics office ISTAT this morning Italy's GDP fell 0.3 percent in the second quarter compared with the first three months of the year and was unchanged year-on-year (ie zero percent annual growth). Final data and a detailed breakdown for the second quarter will be released on Sept. 10. In the first quarter, GDP rose 0.5 percent quarter-on-quarter and increased 0.3 percent year-on-year.
IG Index Daily Market Update 7/08/08-
IG Index Daily Market Update 7/08/08
New regulations on money flows-
For a couple of weeks now there have been rumors and reports about new foreign exchange regulations being put into place, partly to limit hot money inflows and partly, once these begin to reverse, to make it more difficult for money to leave. Yesterday SAFE announced a new set of measures. Today’s South China Morning Post says the following about the announcement:
IG Index Daily Market Update 6/08/08-
IG Index Daily Market Update 6/08/08
IG Index Daily Market Update 5/08/08-
IG Index Daily Market Update 5/08/08
Stock Trading News: Commodities Focus for 8/6/2008-
Alan Knuckman, President of Wizetrade® Commodities, recaps the previous trading day and discusses good trading opportunities and news for today's market. He utilizes the Wizetrade® Commodities (www.wizetrade.com) software to explore potential trading candidates. Trade Commodities with the Most Powerful Trend Recognition Trading Software. Visit Wizetrade Commodities® at The Wizetrade Group .
Will China Development Bank buy Dresdner?-
Falling oil prices in the international markets haven’t helped local stock markets as much as they had in the recent past. Oil fell earlier today to below $120 a barrel for the first time in three months, but the SSE Composite nonetheless dropped 51 points, or 1.9%, to close at 2690. As in the recent past, the decline was led by property developers and brokers, which is particularly striking since we received confirmation today of last week’s rumor that the PBoC would relax the lending caps by 5% for national commercial banks and by 10% for local commercial banks (who are presumed to be more likely to lend to the struggling SME sector). This means they can lend up to 105% or 110% of

Stock Trading News: Commodities Focus for 8/5/2008-

Alan Knuckman, President of Wizetrade® Commodities, recaps the previous trading day and discusses good trading opportunities and news for today's market. He utilizes the Wizetrade® Commodities (www.wizetrade.com) software to explore potential trading candidates. Trade Commodities with the Most Powerful Trend Recognition Trading Software. Visit Wizetrade Commodities® at The Wizetrade Group .

Stock Trading News: Commodities Focus for 8/4/2008-

Where Now for CEE and Baltic Currencies?-

Ever since the illusive credit turmoil began sentiment in the market place has been fickle and essentially, like the assets of which it consists, volatile. We started off with an adamant focus on downside risks to growth which then turned into a focus and fear of inflation. Now, as the cyclical data has turned for the worse in Europe and many places in Asia the focus seems to be reverting to growth. Now, I won't go into the whole decoupling v recoupling discussion at this point since I think that this dichotomy is a false one. It never was about de-coupling à la traditionelle but moreso about two interrelated points. The first would be the extent to which the world already has decoupled from the US in the sense that a key group of emerging economies are now set to ascend in economic prowess. The second would be the extent to which the de-coupling thesis always built on a fallacy.

RMB 10 trillion in the informal banks-

The stock markets had a bad day, with the SSE Composite dropping 2.1% to close at 2741.7. Part of the reason for the decline was concern that a roughly $1 billion upcoming share sale by China South Locomotive and Rolling Stock Corp. will draw a lot of liquidity from the market (stock sales tend to be vastly oversubscribed, with investors required to put up 100% of the bid amount in cash in their stock accounts), but the decline was hastened late in the day when reports came in of a terrible attack on a police station in Xinjiang province that left 16 policemen dead.

Market call 04/04/2008-

CFD, mercati finanziari, analisi, USA, crisi,

IG Index Daily Market Update 4/08/08-

IG Index Daily Market Update 4/08/08

Stock Trading Rumble: Mad Charts vs Jim Cramer 7/31/2008-

Using the stocks that Jim Cramer recently supported on his Mad Money show, Jared Levy, Chief Options Strategist for The Wizetrade® Group, analyzes the charts using Wizetrade® Stocks software and gives a 'thumbs up' or a 'thumbs down' to them, based on what the Wizetrade® Stocks charts reveal. Jared will also use Wizetrade® Stocks (available at www.wizetrade.com) to explore other potential trading candidates as well.

A better rating, but more derivative losses-

Standard & Poor’s have just raised China’s long-tem sovereign credit rating to A+, based on its strengthening external position. In part this reflects China’s strong fiscal position – in June according to a release today by Credit Suisse, China’s consolidated fiscal surplus for the previous twelve months reached RMB 443.5 billion, equal to about 1.5% of GDP (although needless to say I am worried about hidden expenditures that may one day show up as contingent liabilities). But the upgrade mainly means, I think, that China has accumulated so much in the way of foreign currency reserves that it will have little difficulty in repaying its very limited foreign-currency external obligations.

Export rebates, relaxed lending caps, and a new department at the PBoC-

The stock market started out badly today, dropping 1.8% during the first two hours of the trading day, before a press conference by Hu Jintao, stressing the need for growth, brought back optimism over government-engineered policies to boost growth. From its low the market surged 2.8%, to close at 2802, up 0.9% for the day. According to an article in today’s Financial Times:

Stock Trading News: Commodities Focus for 7/31/2008-

IG Index Daily Market Update 01/08/08-

IG Index Daily Market Update 01/08/08

IG Index Daily Market Update 31/07/08-

IG Index Daily Market Update 31/07/08

The world is upside down- “We live in an economic system in which a particularly good crop is often an economic disaster, and we restrict some of our agricultural productivity in order to ‘stabilise the market’, although there are millions of people who do not...

China’s Environmental Degradation: Socio-Economic Grounds for Concern-

China is the world’s most populous country and ranks fourth largest in terms of area. The economy, which is already huge, is also growing at a blistering rate. According to the International Monetary Fund, China’s economy is the second largest in the world in terms of Purchasing Power Parity, fourth largest in the world in terms of GDP, and the fastest growing economy with growth rates hovering around 10%. Unfortunately, all this prosperity comes at an immense price. China’s environmental problems are among the worst in the world, and are likely to only get worse. These environmental issues are a big problem for China because they have real socio-economic implications for the Chinese people and China’s economy. The goal of this article is to bring light to these environmental problems, display their socio-economic ramifications, and provide suggestions that will help China cope with these problems so that its economy can continue to prosper throughout this next century.

Companies need stable capital-

There is an interesting article in yesterday’s Xinhua headlined “Capital shortages top risk for China's SOEs.” This seems at first counterintuitive given China’s rapid reserve accumulation, but the explanation may be in the article itself. According to the article:

Stock Trading Fun: Lindsay's Hot Picks 7/29/2008-

Lindsay Hall, Wizetrade® National Trainer, brings you one stock today that she thinks will go somewhere tomorrow in the stock market. Lindsay also will announce the Wizetrade TV® Trade of the Day for June 19, 2008. Lindsay has also added a currency pair from Wizetrade® FOREX (formerly 4X Made Easy®) software that is setting up nicely for a potential trade. Watch Hot Pick's daily! And don't forget to click here The Wizetrade Group to sign up today for a Wizetrade TV® FREE 30-Day trial!

Stock Trading News: Commodities Focus for 7/30/2008-

Stock Trading Fun: Lindsay's Hot Picks 7/30/2008-

Lindsay Hall, Wizetrade® National Trainer, brings you one stock today that she thinks will go somewhere tomorrow in the stock market. Lindsay also will announce the Wizetrade TV® Trade of the Day for July 30, 2008. Lindsay has also added a currency pair from Wizetrade® FOREX (formerly 4X Made Easy®) software that is setting up nicely for a potential trade. Watch Hot Pick's daily! And don't forget to click here The Wizetrade Group to sign up today for a Wizetrade TV® FREE 30-Day trial!

Stock Trading Rumble: Mad Charts vs Jim Cramer 7/29/2008-

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IG Index Daily Market Update 30/07/08-

IG Index Daily Market Update 30/07/08

IG Index Daily Market Update 29/07/08-

IG Index Daily Market Update 29/07/08

German Consumer Confidence Slides Raising Eurozone Recession Fears- by Edward Hugh: Barcelona

German consumer confidence dropped to the lowest in more than five years entering August as the sharp rise in energy and food prices continued to weaken purchasing power and the economic outlook continued to deteriorate. The GfK forward looking consumer confidence index for August declined to 2.1, its lowest level since June 2003 (and down from a revised 3.6 in July).

The sub-index measuring income expectations decreased to minus 20 from minus 7.2, while the consumers' propensity to spend component fell to minus 26.2 from minus 23.7. Economic expectations dropped to minus 8 from 7.5.

Spanish Mortgage Lending Down Sharply In May, Bank Credit Ratings Increasingly Under Review- by Edward Hugh: Barcelona

Spanish house sales dropped sharply again in May for the fourth month running, official figures showed on Monday, and talk of price declines is now becoming much more general. House sales fell by 34 percent year-on-year in May and mortgage borrowing was down by 40.4 percent from a year earlier, according to the latest data from Spain's National Statistics Institute. The result is rather a shocker since many had obviously been clutching at straws following April's better-than-expected year on year decline in new mortgages of only 7.8%. Reality is, unfortunately, now starting to sink in.

The Baltics, Lithuania, and Eastern Europe ... redux-

THE weather deities are extraordinarily generous at the moment here in Copenhagen and being cooped up in a 17m2 studio does not exactly inspire to being a good protestant. However, financial markets and news streams are serving up a nice batch of data points and being the wonk I am, I am keeping tap; even if the beaches of Zealand have (and will be) frequented more than a couple of times.

New Guestbook Entry by jerry- Thanks for your reports on China macroeconomics. I have invested a third of my retirement funds in the renmimbi with the understanding that a currency peg cannot be sustained with a large China reserve buildup (with resulting pressures on internal money supply) and the US offsetting large current account deficit. My question is: how would a substantial increase in China PPI over the next 12-24 months change the macro dynamics of the renmimbi (ie. what does macro theory tell us about inflationary impact on the need to allow renmimbi appreciation)? Thank you for your insights.

See all guestbook entries.

Stock Trading News: Commodities Focus for 7/29/2008-

Stock Trading News: Commodities Focus for 7/28/2008-

IG Index Daily Market Update 28/07/08-

IG Index Daily Market Update 28/07/08

PBoC falls into line-

After Friday’s Politburo meeting it seems that the perception that there has been a shift in policy-making is nearly unanimous. The meeting’s focus on “stability” and “continuity” included as a major objective the maintenance of “sustained, stable, and relatively fast growth.” And although “preventing prices from rising too fast” continues to be described as an important policy goal, gone are the references to preventing overheating and maintaining the tightening bias in monetary policy.

New Guestbook Entry by Lei Zhang- Hi Professor Pettis,

I have a question about the relationship between GDP growth and equity market growth in the longer term. If you look at 5-yr and 10-yr stock market performance vs GDP growth, you will find that China has really lagged behind the Russia and Brazil although the latters are “energy play”. I guess there is a strong correlation between GDP and stock market growth. But I have not been able to run the regression to prove it. Do you know if there is a proven theory on that? If so, I think it’s a good time to allocate the assets to China instead of the other big emerging markets. Thanks for your time.

P.S. Your blog is insightful.

Lei

See all guestbook entries.

Automate Your Trading: Trade Trap for 7/25/2008-

Kevin Dixon, Market Strategist for the CommandTRADE® team, will examine the Wizetrade TV® list of Stocks on the Radar and then review the CommandTRADE® charts. He will evaluate them to attach the appropriate strategy to automate your trade. Take your trading to a higher level and 'automate' the process at the same time. Visit The Wizetrade Group to learn how to put your trading on 'cruise control.' Watch Command Central daily, Monday thru Friday on Wizetrade TV®! Sign up today for your FREE 30-Day Wizetrade TV trial at www.wizetradetv.com .

RMB appreciation is going to slow temporarily-

The very authoritative People’s Daily had a widely discussed front-page article yesterday calling for policy-makers to do the necessary to prevent the economy from slowing down. It implicitly criticized the anti-inflation policies of the PBoC by arguing that “The current performance of the economy is sending us a warning signal: when we fight inflation, we should prevent stagflation and an economic hard landing. Curbing inflation should not be at the expense of economic development.”

Automate Your Trading: The Automated Trader 7/25/2008-

Kevin Dixon, Market Strategist with CommandTRADE®, shows you how to set your trading day on 'cruise control' and 'automate' your trading day. Take your trading to a higher level and automate the process at the same time. (www.commandtrade.com) Visit The Wizetrade Group to learn how to put your trading on 'cruise control.' Watch Command Central daily, Monday thru Friday on Wizetrade TV®! Visit www.wizetradetv.com and sign up today for your FREE 30-Day trial!

Stock Trading News: Commodities Focus for 7/25/2008-

Automate Your Trading: Trade Trap for 7/24/2008-

The Eurozone - That Sinking Feeling?-

One need not be well versed in the art of reading entrails or posses any other kind of unworldly powers to see that the Eurozone economy may be about to head off over the cliff. Now, just as the Q1 GDP figure was something of a technical glitch due to the forward pushing of investment which made Germany ride an impressive 1.5% reading q-o-q, so is the corresponding Q2 figure likely to be a similar (negative) glitch. The only important question is the extent of the slowdown since without that we really cannot build any sound forecasts for an annual growth rate of the Eurozone not to speak of Germany itself.

Automate Your Trading: The Automated Trader 7/24/2008-

Stock Trading News: Commodities Focus for 7/24/2008-

Stock Trading Rumble: Mad Charts vs Jim Cramer 7/24/2008-

The Eurozone - That Sinking Feeling?-

One need not be well versed in the art of reading enthrails or posses any other kind of unworldly powers to see that the Eurozone economy may be about to head off over the cliff. Now, just as the Q1 GDP figure was something of a technical glitch due to the forward pushing of investment which made Germany ride an impressive 1.5% reading q-o-q, so is the corresponding Q2 figure likely to be a similar (negative) glitch. The only important question is the extent of the slowdown since without that we really cannot build any sound forecasts for an annual growth rate of the Eurozone not to speak of Germany itself.

We’re economic agents and we’re here to help-

“Nothing is more terrible than ignorance in action.” – Abraham Lincoln.

Hot money and inflation risks are still being downplayed-

In the first half of 2008, according to a Ministry of Commerce release today, investment flows from Hong Kong to the mainland rose by 95% over the same period last year, to $23.4 billion. Interestingly enough, the number of projects declined by 8.2%, to 6,900. I suppose it is possible that the average size of each project has more than doubled, but given the large number of projects, I think this is extremely unlikely. So why the discrepancy? According to an article in today’s Xinhua:

IG Index Daily Market Update 24/07/08-

IG Index Daily Market Update 24/07/08

Automate Your Trading: Trade Trap for 7/23/2008-

Stock Trading Fun: Lindsay's Hot Picks 7/23/2008-

Lindsay Hall, Wizetrade® National Trainer, brings you one stock today that she thinks will go somewhere tomorrow in the stock market. Lindsay also will announce the Wizetrade TV® Trade of the Day for June 23, 2008. Lindsay has also added a currency pair from Wizetrade® FOREX (formerly 4X Made Easy®) software that is setting up nicely for a potential trade. Watch Hot Pick's daily! And don't forget to click here The Wizetrade Group to sign up today for a Wizetrade TV® FREE 30-Day trial!

Stock Trading News: Commodities Focus for 7/23/2008-

IG Index Daily Market Update 23/07/08-

IG Index Daily Market Update 23/07/08

Automate Your Trading: Trade Trap for 7/22/2008-

Stock Trading Fun: Lindsay's Hot Picks 7/22/2008-

Automate Your Trading: The Automated Trader 7/22/2008-

Automate Your Trading: Trade Trap for 7/21/2008-

Stock Trading Rumble: Mad Charts vs Jim Cramer 7/22/2008-

Stock Trading News: Commodities Focus for 7/22/2008-

American-style crises versus Latin-American-style crises-

This news is four days old, but it is still worth noting that according to a Xinhuareport, the NDRC released a circular Friday to announce that, in an attempt to slow hot money, it will institute new controls to manage foreign investment inflows.

IG Index Daily Market Update 22/07/08-

IG Index Daily Market Update 22/07/08

A Year (Week) on the Wild Side?-

market.post%20header.gif

[Update: Brad Setser clarifies, in the comment section, his view on Sender's FT piece referenced below]

THE last week (or was that year?) has certainly been something of a ride hasn't? In fact, I thought it would be apt to reproduce this picture by the brilliant KAL who normally spices up the Economist with his imagery that lay serious claim to the adage that a picture tells more than a thousand words. This particular specimen and the ensuing headline were on the front cover in October 1997 when markets also took investors and observers for a roller-coaster ride. I think it is quite fitting in describing the feeling many a trader and market participant must have at the moment.

Investment Externalities and Investors' Search for Yield-

Many people have rules upon which they lead their lives and conduct their behavior; in fact, one could argue that most people would subscribe to this some way or the other. My readers should immediately be assured that I am not in the process of morphing Alpha.Sources into some kind of quasi philosophical column; nor would I dare embark on an account of the specific rules I live by myself. However, one very simple rule which I have found quite useful is what I have chosen to dub the "one paper a week" rule.

The ECB - Walking the Walk?-

As the proverbial end of the road nears for the ECB and the July meeting it is as if the market divinities have been trying their utmost to penetrate the ivory tower in Frankfurt. Of course, I am not sure that my readers have been sticking their heads into their Bloomberg terminals with the same vigour as I have, but I can tell you that the past week's news from the Eurozone has been devastating. Now, if you are confused I can understand. I mean, was this not exactly the point with the ECB's hawkishness in the sense that it would jolt the Eurozone economies to such an extent that inflation would squirm back below the 2% mark? Indeed it was but as I have been warning several times, the asymmetric nature of the current slowdown and ultimately its severity across the entire zone makes this a very dangerous policy choice.

The ECB - Walking the Walk?-

Fundamentals To Drive the Yen?-

Hot in on the heels of my paper on carry trade and risk aversion it seems as if the Yen is now reverting to those famous fundamentals. Consequently, we learned a few days ago how JPMorgan were telling their clients and the rest of us how the Yen is likely to decline to 114 as Japanese investors buy debt which is not denominated in Yen (i.e. depreciation due to outflows).

The yen may weaken to 112 per dollar by March 2009 as Japanese individual investors shift money into foreign-currency bonds from investment trusts, said Tohru Sasaki, chief currency strategist in Tokyo at JPMorgan Chase & Co.

Fundamentals To Drive the Yen?-

India Battles Between Inflation And Growth-- Rating Agencies Steadily Turn The Screw- India's inflation accelerated to the fastest pace in more than 13 years at the start of July, putting pressure on the central bank to continue raising interest rates following the two increases made last month. Wholesale prices rose 11.91 percent in the week to July 5, after gaining 11.89 percent in the previous week, according to the commerce ministry in New Delhi on Friday.

Russia's Consumption-Driven Inflation: Will It All End In Tears?- by Edward Hugh: Barcelona

Russia's inflation rate remained tantalisingly frozen at its highest in more than five years in June as energy and food prices continued to move on upwards. Russian consumer prices were up 15.1 percent from a year ago - matching the rate in May- according to data released earlier this week by the Federal Statistics Service.

Major Spanish Builder Suspends Trading As Consumer Confidence Plummets- by Edward Hugh: Barcelona

What Is The Risk Of A Serious Melt-Down In The Spanish Economy?- by Edward Hugh: Barcelona

Economists set themselves too easy, too useless a task if in tempestuous seasons they can only tell us that when the storm is long past, the ocean is flat again
John Maynard Keynes

'As far as I am concerned, this is ... the most complex crisis we've ever seen due to the number of factors in play'
Spanish Economy Minister Pedro Solbes speaking this week to Spanish radi o station Punto Radio

Spain Unemployment May 2008 and the Worsening Real Economy- by Edward Hugh: Barcelona

Unemployment rose in Spain last month for the first time in the month of May since 1979. The Spanish newspaper ABC notes in passing that the Spanish Economy Minister Pedro Solbes has finally managed to describe the situation as ‘serious ’.

The number of people unemployed in Spain increased by 15,058 in May to a total of 2,353,575, according to the Spanish labour office INEM yesterday. The number of registered unemployed at the end of May was thus up by 0.6% from the previous month.

By sector, unemployment in the services sector was down 0.2% and also dropped 0.1% in agriculture. On the other hand, unemployment in construction was up 4.6% and was also up 0.8% in industry.

Polish Central Bank Leaves Interest Rates Unchanged in May- by E

Are Spain's Bank's Facing A Short Term Liquidity Crunch?- by Edward Hugh: Barcelona

Brazil Central Bank Raises Interest Rates to 12.25%- by Edward Hugh: Barcelona

Food Prices, Farmland, Global Rebalancing and Rural Labour Shortages- by Edward Hugh: Barcelona

Ukrainian President Viktor Yushchenko said last week that he had agreed to let Libya grow wheat on 100,000 hectares of land in the Ukraine. In exchange, Libya promised to include the former Soviet republic in construction and gas deals.

With so many interesting debates going on the Demography Matters blog at the present time I find it hard to pull myself away, but I couldn't help getting drawn into the implications of the points raised by this article in the Financial Times about how the global pressure on food supplies and the rapid increase in prices is now leading to an equally rapid increase in the price of farmland in one country after another. And then, thinking about a country like Ukraine - with a declining population, rapidly falling unemployment, and growing labour shortages - I couldn't help scratching my head and asking myself, but just where are they going to get the labour force from to work all this extra land they want to cultivate?

Jitters In The Eurozone?- by Edward Hugh: Barcelona

Economic confidence across the eurozone has now started eroding steadily, with increasing signs that the growth slowdown is hitting the region’s manufacturing output and labour market, according to a number of indicators we have been seeing in recent days.

The European Commission’s eurozone “economic sentiment” index fell notably last month, dropping from 99.6 in March to 97.1 in April – the lowest level since August 2005. With the indicator regarded as good guide to growth trends, the reasonably steep decline pointed to a marked deceleration in economic activity, a deterioration which we are also seeing on other fronts like retail sales. If we look at the overall confidence indicator chart we can see that things have now been deteriorating steadily since last summer.

Serbia, Must What Goes Up Really Come Down?- by Edward Hugh: Barcelona

This post, which is to accompany Manuel's election coverage coming later t oday, may be considered an update on a previous extensive analysis of Serbia's economic and demographic dilemmas which I carried out at the time of the Presidential election in February (see the post itself for a more details on some of the issues raised here).

The "up" I in the title of this post is, of course, a reference to the recent sudden and dramatic rise in the annual rate of Serbian inflation - which after some years of steady reductions suddenly took off in June 2007, and has been climing sharply since, reaching a high of 15.8% in April 2008.

Monetary Chaos Breaks Out at the Ukraine Central Bank- by Edward Hugh: Barcelona

Does anyone happen to know offhand the "official" dollar rate of the Ukra inian currency, the Hryvnia? I am asking this question since clearly over at the central bank they are having difficulty deciding at the moment, since - like the legendary character Hydra - they seem to be speaking with two "heads" at the same time, and the only question I can ask is: would the real representative of the Ukraine central bank please stand up!

Automate Your Trading: The Automated Trader 7/21/2008-

Stock Trading News: Commodities Focus for 7/21/2008-

IG Index Daily Market Update 21/07/08-

IG Index Daily Market Update 21/07/08

The Danish Economy under the Loop-

There is certainly a lot of commotion at the moment not least surrounding ww.marginalrevolution.com/marginalrevolution/2008/07/parsing-paulson.html">the rescue plan to shore up the two biggest US mortgage lenders Fannie and Freddie Mae, but also, and if we stay in the US we had the collapse of IndyMac, in Spain Martina-Fadesa is in the ropes and in Denmark we have Roskilde Bank.

A Year (Week) on the Wild Side?-

market.post%20header.gif

[Update: Brad Setser clarifies, in the comment section, his view on Sender's FT piece referenced below]

Housing is still up, but rationing is spreading-

A report in today’s China Daily says:

Second-quarter housing prices in 70 large and medium-sized Chinese cities rose 9.2 percent year-on-year, said the National Development and Reform Commission and the National Bureau of Statistics on Monday. The rise was 1.8 percentage points less than in the first quarter.

Automate Your Trading: Trade Trap for 7/18/2008-

Stock Trading News: Commodities Focus for 7/18/2008-

Stock Trading Rumble: Mad Charts vs Jim Cramer 7/18/2008-

Tightness in the money market?-

The stock market raced up today, with the SSE Composite closing at 2778, 3.49% higher than yesterday’s close. Since investors are still digesting yesterday’s mix of good news and bad news – GDP slowing, fixed asset investment soaring, CPI down, PPI up – I suspect the main cause of the decline may have been the decline in oil prices to $130 a barrel.

IG Index Daily Market Update 18/07/08-

IG Index Daily Market Update 18/07/08

Stock Trading News: Commodities Focus for 7/17/2008-

Stock Trading Rumble: Mad Charts vs Jim Cramer 7/17/2008-

Stock Trading Fun: Lindsay's Hot Picks 7/17/2008-

Lindsay Hall, Wizetrade® National Trainer, brings you one stock today that she thinks will go somewhere tomorrow in the stock market. Lindsay also will announce the Wizetrade TV® Trade of the Day for July 17th, 2008. Lindsay has also added a currency pair from Wizetrade® FOREX (formerly 4X Made Easy®) software that is setting up nicely for a potential trade. Watch Hot Pick's daily! And don't forget to click here The Wizetrade Group to sign up today for a Wizetrade TV® FREE 30-Day trial!

June CPI suggests inflation is moderating, but PPI tells a different story-

As expected, the National Bureau of Statistics of China released a new set of economic numbers today. According to the release, CPI inflation year on year for June was 7.1%, its lowest level since January. It was 7.7% in May, 8.5% in April and 8.3% in March. On a month-on-month basis CPI declined by a little under 0.2% (following a 0.4% decline last month). This is more or less in line with expectations. The information is presented a little differently than it has been in the past, and I cannot back out the food and non-food components. I am hoping some cleverer analyst will be able to do so, but so far I haven’t seen anyone else provide a breakdown.

IG Index Daily Market Update 17/07/08-

IG Index Daily Market Update 17/07/08

Stock Trading News: Commodities Focus for 7/16/2008-

Stock Trading Rumble: Mad Charts vs Jim Cramer 7/16/2008-

Waiting for the man-

The stock market had another bad day today, with the SSE Composite trading more or less straight down to 2657, before rallying in the last 30 minutes to close at 2706, down 2.65% for the day. According to Bloomberg, China has overtaken Vietnam to become the world’s worst performing stock market year to date.

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