The British Pound tumbled near year-to-date lows and took the dubious honor of worst-performing major currency on the week, falling almost four percent against the surging Japanese Yen. Disappointing UK PMI Manufacturing survey numbers capped a difficult week for the British Pound, and indeed the stage is set for further declines into an important week ahead.
In previous months, these pages have warned of slowing global growth and cited crude as the leading indicator. Crude plummeted nearly 18% in May compared with just a little over a 6% decline in the S&P 500. Reitterating the stance that crude is the leader (the ‘tell’ if you will) in the next wave of develeveraging, equities probably have much more downside in the coming months.
Breaking News Out of Italy
The US Dollar (ticker: USDOLLAR) traded lower against the Australian Dollar and other high-risk counterparts on a modest improvement in financial market sentiment, but overall momentum left it poised for modest gains against the Euro and British Pound. It was a quiet start to the trading week as highly-anticipated events over the weekend failed to produce material breakthroughs or shifts in financial market sentiment.
On yet another day selling on fears of the euro zone the afternoon has produced a couple of 52 week highs
U.S. futures take it on the chin after the U.S. weekly jobs report
U.S. J0bless Claims
This stock market has problems. Problems indeed! With what appeared to be an oversold bounce this morning was shattered on more negative news from the ECB cutting funding to certain Greece’s banks not to mention the FOMC statement about highlighting several members saw the need for additional stimulus causing the bulls packing once again.
After Greek leaders announced that they failed to form a government, guaranteeing at least one more round of elections, higher yielding currencies and risk-correlated assets entered a free fall. The EURUSD fell to its lowest level since January 17 overnight while the AUDUSD dropped to its lowest level since December 15. Similarly, global equity markets have sold off sharply in the aftermath, with Asian shares being hit the hardest.
Breaking News – Fed Minutes
