Wednesday 11 July 2012

USA

US economy

  • No decision from the Federal Open Market Committee’s 19-20 Jun 2012 meeting on how to fix the US economy. There was limited support for QE3 in the Jun 2012 minutes, because it will have only a limited effect, because the problems in USA are not solvable by monetary policy. QE3 ain’t gonna happen today – it will take more bad news on employment for the Federal reserve to fire its last silver bullet.
  • The trade deficit for May 2012 was down 3.8% to $48.7bn from $50.5bn in Apr 2012. The May result was in line with expectations.

Commodities

  • Gold Futures (Aug): $1,576/oz, down $4.10 from $1,580/oz
  • Oil Futures (WTI LSC Aug – NY trading): $85.81/barrel, up $1.90 (2.3%) from $83.91/barrel

Treasury yields

Fitch Ratings has re-affirmed its AAA rating on USA government debt.

  • 30-year: 2.62%, up 2 points from 2.60%
  • 10-year: 1.52%, up 2 points from 1.50%
  • 5-year: 0.64%, up 2 points from 0.62%

Share market indices

A fifth straight day of losses.

  • S+P 500: 1,341 -0.00%
  • DJIA: 12,605 -0.38%
  • NASDAQ: 2,888 -0.49%

Tech stock price movements

  • Nokia [NYSE:NOK]: up 5.56% to $1.90
  • Hewlett-Packard [NYSE:HPQ]: up 3.04% to $19.69
  • Substantial falls (more than 2.0%)
  • PORTFOLIO

    Portfolio index

    :-( We underperformed the market again today.

    • Portfolio Index (USD): 1.058 -0.68%
    • AUD 1.00 = USD 1.0308 +0.68%
    • Portfolio Index (AUD): 1.026 -1.35%

    NASDAQ

    • Apple [AAPL] $604.43 -0.62%
    • Amazon [AMZN] $218.37 -0.51%
    • Google [GOOG] $571.19 -1.81%

    NYSE

    • Linkedin [LNKD] $101.08 +1.56%
    • VMware [VMW] $81.78 -0.78%