31st August 2007
Unsurprisingly, Bernanke didn’t give the game away today despite Traders anxious to hear his remarks.
Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke did pledge that the central bank would act as needed.
With the usual stance of tempering investor’s expectation levels Bernanke did promise Fed action.
31st August 2007
The Bernanke Jackson Hole speech to be held today is making traders wait before placing big bets until they hear the outcome. The concern is that Bernanke will not take action which will not be good for stocks.
In an attempt to recognise responsibility for helping with home ownership costs in the US President Bush has put forward his own plans.
There is still no certainty on the USD but flows maybe supportive also revisions to the US GDP figures were disappointing.
If Bernanke acts today the bias will be put back on the USD.
31st August 2007
Higher borrowing costs have caused a UK residential property group chairman to warn that buy-to-let investments may no longer yield sufficient returns to be a viable.
Andreas Panayiotou the chairman of the Ability Group (Property development company) said in an interview that long term investors would still make money but that many were just joining the market with little experience and because others told of high rewards.
Rising house prices and static rental prices has caused the yield to go to record lows and the return on investment will always be proportional to the value of the property.
Andreas also believes that house prices are currently overvalued by at least 20% and are of course affected by the Bank of England Interest Rate rises over the last year. So basically prices need to drop to bring returns above the cost of funds.
30th August 2007
Mortgage applications in the US have dropped for a second week in a row and any further financial news from the finance sector has only caused more concern.
The hedge fund from the UK Cheyne Financial may have to liquidate over 6 billion dollars of assets due to losses in the commercial paper market.
The Dow though has rallied.
30th August 2007
After a weak start in the US Stock market (Thomson Financial London) has finally stabilised. Tomorrow there is expected to be an announcement from Ben Bernanke the Federal Reserve Chairman that rate cuts are likely. Financial markets are pricing for a rate decrease to happen as early as next month following the aftermath of market turmoil in August.
Risk assessment is always necessary for normalisation to take place in the financial markets.
30th August 2007
USD are bidding ahead of major US figures.
EUR selling off as market participants reduce bets that the ECB will hike rates on the 6th of September. Carry trades are lowering.