Facebook Inc. works on its plans to create a cryptocurrency allowing money to be transferred on Whatsapp, focusing on the remittances market in India first
Chinese stocks become one of the worst performers globally as the Shanghai composite and Shenzhen index fall over 20% and 30% respectively this year
US Futures show a slight incline in performance for stocks on Wall Street, following a fall for the second day in a row. Dow Jones Industrial Average suggests an opening gain over a
Markets fall as Fed raised US interest rate from 2.25% to 2.5%
At its lowest the Dow fell over 4% following the announcement (its lowest point in over a year) of which it has now seen a small retracement.
Asian markets we also affected, the Hang Seng was down 1.24% at close whereas the Nikkei lost 2.84%, a 15-month low
The announcement saw the dollar gain almost 0.5% against the dollar basket but as investors have fully digested the statements made by the Fed this now sits a
Fed on tap: It’s a commentary written on the fly this morning, as developments out of this morning’s US Federal Reserve meeting are being digested by markets. The Fed has hiked rates just as they were expected to do, with market participants now trawling through the fine print in the Fed’s commentary. We were expecting a “dovish hike”; what we got looks like a “less-dovish than-expected-hike”. The dot plots were revised as presumed: the Fed has told the markets that it expects interest rates to
Bitcoin could have bottomed as its priced stabilized after the big disappointment it gave earlier this year. As the cryptocurrency has corrected 80-90% multiple times in the past, the slump this year could only be another bump in the road. However, scalability issues flog the currency as its promoters try to entail it in the real economy. Is the crypto market ready for another roller-coaster?
Oil temporarily bottomed after falling 7%, amidst concerns over the strength of global trade. Wes
US Fed watch: The US Fed meeting has been kickstarted and the markets are shuffling around in anticipation. US equities at time of writing are putting in a mixed performance, though al major Wall Street indices remain trading below key technical levels. It comes following a day in which Asian and European markets sold-off in sympathy with Monday night’s rout in North American shares. A desire for safety has supported a bid in US Treasuries: they are higher across the board. Interest rates trader
On the back of client feedback we now offer the possibility to customise the RSI levels on desktop and mobile devices. To do so, click on the RSI label once you have enable the indicator on your chart. This will open a dialog box that will allow you to change the levels (which are set at the default levels of 30/70), as well as customise the period and the colour of the lines.
What is RSI?
The Relative Strength Index is a momentum indicator that measures the magnitude of recent price c
The FOMC will begin its 2 day meeting today, with the markets expecting a 25 basis points interest rate increase upon its announcement on Wednesday, which would make this its fourth hike this year.
Homebuilder sentiment in the US declined in December to its lowest point in over 3 years, and could be an early indication of an economic softening.
Theresa May has announced that the "meaningful vote" for her Brexit Withdrawal Agreement is due to be held in the third week of January, a
Written by Kyle Rodda - IG Australia
ASX yesterday: The ASX200 put in a very respectable day's trade yesterday. It was looking gloomy at the outset. Market participants were preoccupied with the economic struggles in China and the Friday sell-off on Wall Street. However, the 32-point drop forecast for the Australian market didn't materialise, providing scope for the index to cling-on to the 5600-mark, and forge gains throughout the day. The Australian session ended with the ASX200 1.00 per
Please be aware that due to year end market factors we are seeing significant moves in the funding rates for most FX pairs. This has been observed across the market, although some pairs are looking to be worse affected than others (most notably if you are short US dollars). These factors include financial institutions balancing their books before the end of the year, putting a strain on certain currencies.
You can see overnight funding charges on FX pairs by using the link to the right. Thi
Theresa May is coming under increasing pressure from MPs to stop the gridlock on Brexit negotiations.
The pound is expected to see further volatility until at least mid-January as the unknown future of Brexit continues.
The Dollar continued to trade at a 19-month high on Monday as concerns over slowing economic growth have reduced the appetite for riskier stocks and currencies and have backed the greenback as a safe-haven.
The price of bitcoin has fallen below the cost to mi
Another Week, Another Set of Brexit Scenarios
It seems the weather patterns behind the Brexit seem to changing at a more rapid clip – always ending up back ‘in irons’ (pardon the nautical terminology) as the clock steadily winds down to the March 29 separation. This past week, was particularly momentous with the Prime Minister’s proposal supposedly going to vote in Parliament; but May decided to pull the vote before the allotted session as it was clear it would be voted down handily. And, c
Expected index adjustments
Please see the expected dividend adjustment figures for a number of our major indices for the week commencing 17 Dec 2018. If you have any queries or questions on this please let us know in the comments section below. For further information regarding dividend adjustments, and how they affect your positions, please take a look at the video.
NB: All dividend adjustments are forecasts and therefore speculative. A dividend adjustment is a cash neutral ad
Written by Kyle Rodda - IG Australia
2018 reaches a climax this week: It’s effectively the last serious trading week of the year, and the economic calendar reflects that. Indeed, there’ll be a handful of days between Christmas and New Years to keep across, but with little news and thin trade, it’s tough to imagine anything coming out of them. The markets are still ailing, with the bears firmly in control of price action. There’s so many risk-events coming up this week, traders with a bearis
European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker stumped Theresa May's effort to renegotiate on a key Brexit withdrawal point, namely the Irish Backstop.
China's reported industrial output and retail sales growth missed expectations. Industrial output growing by only 5.4% in November the slowest rate of increase in almost three years.
Asian Stocks fell as China's economy shows weakening. Shares in Hong Kong and Japan led declines, Japan Topix index sliding 1.5% and Shanghai Compo
Written by Kyle Rodda - IG Australia
A (relatively) settled session: It’s been a soft day for global equities. With almost exactly two-hours to go in the US session at time of writing, another modest rally has apparently been faded by traders. Indications are that Wall Street will close lower. If proven true, this will punctuate a mixed day for Europe, and quite a solid day for the Asian region. The former found little impetus to be bid higher, while the Asian session showed the ebullience
Prime Minister Theresa May won a vote of no confidence in her leadership of the Conservative party last night. The results showed that Mrs May won the vote by 200 to 117, securing 63% of the total votes, she is now immune from any further vote's of no confidence for a year.
GBP has fallen back from Wednesday's highs despite Theresa May successfully defending her leadership as investors believed she would win by a larger majority, the pound is currently trading at $1.2617 against the dolla
Written by Kyle Rodda - IG Australia
What’s making headlines: There’s an hour and a half to go in the US session and global equities are up. Let’s assume they finish that way – there is plenty of room for clarification (and rationalization) late-on, if need be. Traders have taken the new green shoots in the trade-war and spun them into a positive narrative. Sure, the old green shots lay trampled below the new ones, but perhaps this time around the positivity will be given a chance to thrive
This indicator emphasizes volume by weighing prices based on the amount of trading activity in a given period of time, where prices with heavy trading activity get more weight than prices with light trading activity.
The VWMA has several advantages over a ‘simple’ WMA (which calculates an average of the closing price of ‘n’ number candlesticks giving the same weight to each one). With the volume weighted moving average (VWMA), the closing price of the day with the greatest volume gets a hig
Asia stocks were higher Wednesday morning; Nikkei 225 rising over 2%, ASX 200 up by 1.25% and Hang Seng Index around 1.36%. This was followed by the news of China to cut US car tariffs from the planned 40% to 15%, the same tax charge on car imports from other countries
May traveled on Tuesday back to Europe to try and gain a few more concessions from the European side, in regards to the Brexit deal. It is rumoured that 48 letters of no longer supporting May have been sent. May to face a v
Written by Kyle Rodda - IG Australia
The pattern continues: Wall Street indices have been swinging about madly again. The pattern continues: an open, a rally or fall, then a retracement or recovery. Today we’ve had an open, a rally, then retracement, then a recovery again. There were stories behind this price-action. Everything that happened overnight appeared perfectly explicable. One wonders though if the swings in trading activity are being overly attributed to headlines. Or perhaps it’s
Trading in Asia was mixed as US shares stabilized overnight. In the meanwhile, the ongoing discussions between China and the US adds uncertainty. The bottom performer among major Asian indices was the Nikkei, which fell 0.45%.
Oil climbed higher amidst resuming hopes following the 1.2 million barrels per day production cut agreed by OPEC+. However, concerns that the US could much further increase its shale production and the slowing global economy could make the output cut less effective.
Written by Kyle Rodda - IG Australia
Day 1 of 5: Monday looks like it may be one of those days where Wall Street hesitantly pulls itself up out of the dirt in the final hours of trade. There is just under two-hours to go in the US session, and at a high level, things appear not-too-bad. Let's return to America a little later. Whichever way we happen to end the first 24 hours of trade for the week, heightened risk, growth fears and bearishness is still driving sentiment. There has been no sh
The Dow will open lower today than its open price for the year following weak jobs data and the resulting sell-off of FAANG companies.
US Non-farm payrolls grew by 155,000 on Friday, missing estimates of 198,000 whilst unemployment is near record lows at 3.7%
Chinese markets had a poor start to the week following missed trade estimates for November. The Hang Seng has fallen 1.41%, the Shanghai composite by 0.84% and the Shenzhen composite by 1.15%
The European Court of Justi
