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Dollar, Euro, Pound & Yen

22:40 Wednesday 21 July, 2010

The UK is seeing higher-than-expected inflation because of the weakness in the pound and inflation should reduce as the pound recovers, Charlie Morris from HSBC Global Asset Management told CNBC Wednesday. Reinhard H. Schmidt from Johann Wolfgang Goethe University, House of Finance, spoke to CNBC about the bank stress tests.

22:32 Wednesday 21 July, 2010

Oil futures gained on Wednesday as traders awaited U.S. government data on petroleum inventories and assessed corporate-earnings reports.

Crude oil for September delivery rose 82 cents to $78.40 a barrel in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange. The contract earlier rose to an intraday high of $78.61 a barrel.

Natural-gas futures for September rose 4 cents, or 0.9%, to $4.61 per million British thermal units.

22:26 Wednesday 21 July, 2010

European stocks and U.S. futures rose after results from Morgan Stanley, Fiat SpA and Apple Inc. beat analysts’ estimates and Reckitt Benckiser Plc agreed to buy SSL International Plc. Copper gained, and the yen strengthened.

The Stoxx Europe 600 Index rallied 1.8 percent at 8:15 a.m. in New York as eight stocks advanced for every one that declined. Futures on the Standard & Poor’s 500 Index increased 0.4 percent. The yen appreciated against all but one of its 16 most-traded peers. Copper climbed for a third day and refined sugar declined for the first time this week.

U.S. futures extended gains after Morgan Stanley and Wells Fargo & Co., the biggest American home lender, reported better- than-expected earnings. Fiat said today it returned to profit on increased truck sales, while Reckitt’s 2.54 billion-pound ($3.9 billion) purchase of SSL brings total deals in Europe to $368 billion this year, 6.8 percent higher than the same period in 2009, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. Of the 65 companies in the S&P 500 that reported since July 12, at least 54 topped earnings forecasts.

15:09 Wednesday 21 July, 2010

As China begins to see the initial impact of its tightening, Qu Hongbin, chief China economist at HSBC Global Markets, says Beijing needs to be very careful in managing its policy going forward. He speaks to Thomas Byrne of Moody's Sovereign Risk Group & CNBC's Bernard Lo.

15:05 Wednesday 21 July, 2010

Stocks were lower on Tuesday as another batch of earnings reports showed weak revenues and more signs of a struggling housing market appeared. Neil Hennessy, portfolio manager and CIO of Hennessy Funds, and David Goerz, CIO of Highmark Capital, shared their market insights.

“People just lost complete hope and perception of what’s happening out there,” Hennessy told CNBC. “People forget that things aren’t as bad as we perceive them to be.”

In the meantime, Goerz said while the economy is in “great shape,” weak consumer confidence continues to weigh on investors.

“We’ve got very strong exports, so business confidence is okay [but] investor sentiment has become a real-time indicator of how people think they ought to perceive the economy,” he said.

“We think stocks are extremely cheap at 12 times earnings—we’re going to get 35 percent earnings growth this year.”

14:59 Wednesday 21 July, 2010

Asian shares traded broadly higher Wednesday, with the exception of Japan. Japanese equities looked set to extend their losing streak, as morning gains evaporated in the face of a rising yen. The Nikkei Stock Average and Topix index were each down 0.4% in afternoon trade, as exporters lost ground.

11:43 Wednesday 21 July, 2010

Discussing the four things that people are overlooking in the markets, with Milton Ezrati, Lord Abbett; Gary Shilling, A. Gary Shilling & Co. and CNBC's Bob Pisani.

11:39 Wednesday 21 July, 2010

The People's Bank of China and the Hong Kong Monetary Authority Monday agreed to ease yuan-denominated trade further in Hong Kong, marking another big step to internationalize the Chinese currency.

Under a revision of the Settlement Agreement that the PBOC signed earlier with the HKMA, the two central banks agreed that companies in Hong Kong would now be able to trade in yuan -- also known as renminbi -- without limits.

At the same time, both individuals and corporations will be able to conduct yuan payments and transfers through Hong Kong banks.

"Following the revision of the Settlement Agreement, there will no longer be restrictions on banks in Hong Kong in establishing [yuan] accounts for -- and providing services to -- financial institutions," HKMA Chief Executive Norman Chan said in a statement.

11:33 Wednesday 21 July, 2010

Asian stocks rose as technology companies were boosted by Apple Inc.’s better-than-estimated earnings, while the dollar weakened ahead of testimony to Congress by Federal Reserve Chairman Ben S. Bernanke.

The MSCI Asia Pacific Index gained 0.3 percent to 115.76 as of 10:57 a.m. in Tokyo, with about two stocks advancing for each one that declined. Futures on the Standard & Poor’s 500 Index lost 0.2 percent after the gauge climbed 1.1 percent yesterday. The dollar traded near a two-month low versus the euro and was at 87.24 yen in Tokyo from 87.51 yen in New York yesterday.

Equities were boosted after Apple posted a 78 percent surge in third-quarter profit as customers flocked to the new iPad tablet computer. Bernanke gives his semi-annual report on the economy to Congress today and tomorrow amid diminishing expectations that interest rates will rise soon.

“The global economy is slowing down, but concern about a double-dip recession is fading,” said Hiroichi Nishi, an equities manager in Tokyo at Nikko Cordial Securities Inc.

07:47 Wednesday 21 July, 2010

CNBC's Bertha Coombs discusses the day's activity in the commodities markets and looks ahead to where oil and gold are likely headed tomorrow.

07:42 Wednesday 21 July, 2010

Shares of Apple Inc. bounced more than 3% higher Tuesday evening after the technology industry giant posted a surge in quarterly profit and sales, but Yahoo Inc. shares slid as the Internet search firm's sales came in lighter than anticipated by Wall Street.

Apple shares climbed 3.2% to $260.48 in heavy volume. The company said its fiscal third-quarter profit was $3.25 billion, or $3.51 a share, compared with $1.83 billion, or $2.01 a share, in the year-ago period. Revenue leapt 61% to $15.7 billion. Analysts polled by Thomson Reuters had expected earnings of $3.11 a share on revenue of $14.75 billion.

Yahoo's stock dropped 4.9% to trade at $14.45 following the company's report that net revenue in the second quarter was $1.13 billion. Analysts polled by FactSet Research had pegged net revenue at $1.16 billion. Net income at Yahoo rose to $213.3 million, or 15 cents a share, from $141.4 million, or 10 cents a share, in the same period last year. Analysts had expected earnings of 14 cents a share.

07:37 Wednesday 21 July, 2010

U.S. stocks rose, erasing an early slide, and Treasuries pared gains as higher oil and copper prices fueled a rally in commodity producers and banks climbed amid speculation the Federal Reserve will take steps to spur the economy. Apple Inc. rose 2.6 percent before reporting earnings.

The Standard & Poor’s 500 Index climbed 1.1 percent to 1,083.48 at the 4 p.m. close in New York after tumbling as much as 1.3 percent earlier. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. recovered from a 2.8 percent slump to gain 2.2 percent. The 10-year Treasury yield slipped to 2.95 percent after falling to 2.89 percent earlier, while the two-year yield was little changed at 0.58 percent after setting a record low in the morning. Copper jumped the most in three weeks and oil topped $77 a barrel.

Nine of 10 industries in the S&P 500 advanced as traders speculated Federal Reserve Chairman Ben S. Bernanke may tomorrow announce plans to stimulate the economy. Commodity producers and homebuilders, which defied the earlier slump, led gains in stocks after better-than-estimated 2.1 percent growth in building permits spurred optimism in the outlook for demand.

“The market is getting a boost here on a story from somewhere that the Fed is going to announce that they will stop paying interest on reserves where they are currently paying 0.25 percent,” said Peter Boockvar, equity strategist at Miller Tabak & Co. in New York. “This would be the Fed’s attempt to force banks to lend money instead of parking it at the Fed. In my opinion, this is the last bullet in the gun of the Fed and therefore is not going to be used so soon.”

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