[B]Fundamental Headlines[/B]
[I]• Home Prices Rise Across U.S. – Wall Street Journal
• U.K. Consumer Lending Slows – Wall Street Journal
• Microsoft and Yahoo close to partnership– Financial Times
• China Sparks Drop in Emerging-Market Stocks; Oil, Commodities, Ruble Fall – Bloomberg
• Repsol Seeks Brazilian Oil Revival as Chinese Weigh Buying Argentine Unit – Bloomberg[/I]
[B]EURUSD [/B]– French producer prices unexpectedly rose by 0.6% in June versus forecasts of a 0.1% drop. However, we saw the annualized reading dip to -8.7% from -8.5% as upside pressure are still far from appearing. However, a 12.8% jump in refinery production costs will raise some red flags. Meanwhile, Italian business confidence rose to 71.7 from 69.8, which was the highest level in eight months. Rising confidence among businesses should translate into a slowdown in job losses and increased capital investment which could lead to the region returning to growth by the end of 2009 which could lead the ECB to start considering tightening. Discuss the topic and your trade ideas in the EUR/USD Forum.
[B]GBPUSD[/B] – U.K. mortgage approvals rose to their highest level in fourteen months, as banks gave out 47,584 loans which surpassed median estimates of 47,000 and marked the fifth straight month of improvement. However, net lending to consumers missed expectations of 0.3 billion with a print of 0.01 billion as banks remain reluctant to part with funds. This ould limitthe scope of an economic recovery whoch could force the BoE to add to their quatitative easing measures. Discuss the topic and your trade ideas in the GBP/USD Forum.