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Dollar, Euro, Pound & Yen

22:37 Tuesday 20 July, 2010

The UK's public sector net debt as a percentage of GDP rose to a record 63.9% in June, according to official data Tuesday. Tim Linacre, CEO of Panmure Gordon, Trevor Williams from Lloyds TSB Corporate Markets and Damian Reece from Telegraph Media Group discuss.

22:33 Tuesday 20 July, 2010

Ground-breaking on new housing units fell sharply after a federal tax credit for buyers expired, putting the housing sector back in the dumps where it was a year ago, according to Commerce Department data released Tuesday.

After a 15% drop in May, housing starts fell another 5% in June to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 549,000, the lowest level in eight months, the Commerce Department estimated.

The decline was larger than the 3% decline to 575,000 starts that economists surveyed by MarketWatch had expected. The government's estimate of starts for May was revised to 578,000, down from the 593,000 originally reported.

22:29 Tuesday 20 July, 2010

Goldman Sachs Group Inc. said second-quarter profit dropped 82 percent, missing analysts’ estimates on a slide in trading revenue, five days after settling U.S. regulators’ fraud allegations. Revenue and profit were the lowest since the fourth quarter of 2008.

Net income fell to $613 million, or 78 cents a share, from $3.44 billion, or $4.93, a year earlier, New York-based Goldman Sachs said in a statement today. The average estimate of 21 analysts surveyed by Bloomberg was for earnings of $1.99 per share, with estimates ranging from 77 cents to $4.34. Some of the analysts didn’t include costs of the settlement.

Lloyd Blankfein, Goldman Sachs’s chairman and chief executive officer, is working to restore the firm’s reputation after agreeing to pay $550 million to settle the Securities and Exchange Commission’s fraud accusations. The bank’s bigger competitors, including JPMorgan Chase & Co., last week also reported lower trading revenue as market gyrations reduced clients’ willingness to take on risk. Concern that the U.S. economic rebound will stall and reform legislation will crimp profits at finance companies have weighed on their stocks.

“The clouds over the financial industry remain thick,” said Michael Farr, president and founder of Washington-based Farr, Miller & Washington LLC, who manages more than $650 million. Farr, who sold his Goldman Sachs stock when the SEC suit was filed on April 16, said he’s considering buying again.

12:25 Tuesday 20 July, 2010

Discussing whether gold is a good hedge against inflation or just worthless rock, with James Altucher, Formula Capital and Don Luskin, Trend Macro.

12:20 Tuesday 20 July, 2010

Hong Kong shares opened modestly higher Tuesday as banks and resource companies got support from Wall Street gains overnight. The Hang Seng Index added 0.3% to 20,150.08, and the Hang Seng China Enterprises Index rose 0.6% to 11,375.70.

Mainland Chinese shares extended their strong gains from the previous session amid hopes that Beijing may not introduce any fresh tightening measures in the near term, with the Shanghai Composite Index rising 0.8% on top of Monday's 2.1% jump.

12:13 Tuesday 20 July, 2010

Japanese stocks fell after U.S. home-builder confidence sank. The yen depreciated on speculation the central bank will weaken the currency.

The MSCI Asia Pacific Index lost 0.1 percent to 115.24 as of 11:42 a.m. in Tokyo. The Nikkei 225 Stock Average dropped 1.2 percent in Japan, where markets were closed yesterday for a holiday. Futures on the Standard & Poor’s 500 Index were little changed. The yen depreciated to as weak as 87.08 per dollar as in Tokyo from 86.69 in New York yesterday. It reached 86.27 per dollar on July 16, the closest it’s come this year to the 14- year peak of 84.83 reached on Nov 27.

Investor concerns grew after the National Association of Home Builders/Wells Fargo confidence index dropped to the lowest level since April 2009. Economists predict a government report due later today will show U.S. housing starts fell in June. International Business Machines Corp. and Texas Instruments Inc. reported sales that missed analyst estimates.

“Investor sentiment is mirroring an overreaction to economic data,” said Seiichiro Iwamoto, who helps oversee $35 billion in Tokyo at Mizuho Asset Management Co. “Market sentiment was also hurt by disappointing U.S. corporate earnings.”

09:33 Tuesday 20 July, 2010

Discussing whether gold is a good hedge against inflation or just worthless rock, with James Altucher, Formula Capital and Don Luskin, Trend Macro.

08:01 Tuesday 20 July, 2010

Will the US and Europe hinder China's growth? Donald Straszheim, of the ISI Group, and Ian Bremmer, of the Eurasia Group, discuss.

07:57 Tuesday 20 July, 2010

International Business Machines Corp., the world’s biggest computer-services company, reported sales that missed analysts’ estimates as demand for services slowed and the falling euro weighed on revenue.

Revenue last quarter rose 2 percent to $23.7 billion, the Armonk, New York-based company said today. Analysts on average estimated $24.2 billion, according to a Bloomberg survey.

Services signings declined 12 percent to $12.3 billion, suggesting corporate customers are still delaying projects. It’s the second straight quarterly decline in contracts for services, which makes up more than half of IBM’s total revenue.

“We had a significant decline in contract extensions as a number of large deals rolled out of the quarter,” Chief Financial Officer Mark Loughridge said on a conference call. He said that contract extensions have “little to no benefit to near-term revenue” and IBM increased new business signings.

07:52 Tuesday 20 July, 2010

U.S. stocks advanced, while Treasuries retreated, as optimism about corporate earnings overshadowed a slump in homebuilder confidence. European equities fell for a fourth day.

The Standard & Poor’s 500 Index gained 0.6 percent to 1,071.25 at the 4 p.m. close in New York. The Stoxx Europe 600 Index fell 0.8 percent. The yield on the 10-year Treasury note climbed 0.05 percentage point to 2.97 percent, rising for the first time in four days. Oil snapped a three-day slump and the euro rose on speculation stress tests will show strength in the region’s banks. Gold declined to an eight-week low.

Microsoft Corp. rallied 1.4 percent to help lead technology stocks higher after UBS AG increased earnings estimates, while Halliburton Co. surged on profit and sales that topped analysts’ projections. Stocks fell earlier, and the two-year Treasury yield matched a record low of 0.5765 percent, as a gauge of homebuilder sentiment slid to the lowest in more than a year.

“These numbers that have been coming out for the second quarter have been pretty good overall,” said Hayes Miller, the Boston-based head of asset allocation in North America at Baring Asset Management, which manages $43.8 billion. “For now, for the most part, our expectation would be the second half of the year would be pretty good.”

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