Industrial production in U.K. marked its worst streak since 1980 as the outputs dropped another 1.0% in February after sliding 2.7% in the previous month. Weakening demands from home and abroad lowered the annualized reading to -12.5% from a revised reading of -11.6% in January, which is the largest annual decline since the series began in 1949.
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Fundamental Headlines[/B]
[I]• Short Sellers Squeezed All Around[/I] – Wall Street Journal
[I]• Time Warner Seeks Leeway for AOL Assets[/I] – Wall Street Journal
[I]• Tokyo to launch record fiscal stimulus[/I] – Financial Times
[I]• GM Said to Speed Up Bankruptcy Preparations as Board Crafts Savings Goals[/I] – Bloomberg
[I]• Soros Says Gain in U.S. Stocks Is ‘Bear-Market Rally’ [/I]– Bloomberg
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GBPUSD [/B]– Industrial production in U.K. marked its worst streak since 1980 as the outputs dropped another 1.0% in February after sliding 2.7% in the previous month. Weakening demands from home and abroad lowered the annualized reading to -12.5% from a revised reading of -11.6% in January, which is the largest annual decline since the series began in 1949. In addition, manufacturing output fell 0.9% from previous month after contracting 3.0% in January, and pushed the annualized figure to -13.8% from a revised reading of -12.9%. The data continues to reflect a dour outlook for Europe’s second largest economy, and despite the extraordinary efforts taken on by U.K. policy makers, economic activity is likely to weaken further as Bank of England Governor Mervyn King expects 1Q GDP to contract at levels much like what we’ve seen in the fourth quarter, which was the biggest drop in nearly three-decades. Discuss the topic and your trade ideas in the GBP/USD Forum.
[B]EURUSD[/B] – The final 4Q GDP reading for the Euro-Zone showed that the economy contracted 1.6% from the previous quarter, which crossed the wires weaker than the expected, and marked the biggest drop in growth in at least 13 years. The growth reading was revised down from the preliminary release which showed a 1.5% drop in growth, while the annualized rate fell 1.5% from the previous year to post its first full-year decline on record. The breakdown of the report showed household consumption contracted 0.3% from the third quarter while the investment spending plunged 4.0%, which was the largest decline since the series began in 1995. Discuss the topic and your trade ideas in the EUR/USD Forum.
