Market News

Asian stock markets mostly fell Monday following Wall Street's Friday decline. Concerned investors awaited news of the timing of a U.S. rate hike while early Chinese gains evaporated and the yen dropped.

European shares moved up at the end of the trading day as the euro lost ground on news that Greece’s debt situation can be contained once again.

Positive PMI data from the Eurozone helped to lift the Euro higher against the Dollar, but whether that support endures remains to be seen.

While all eyes are focused on the Fed for a September interest rate increase, the latest quarterly reports are sending signals to the contrary.

The situation in China, in spite of the infusion of cash funds from the Peoples Bank of China, has whetted investors’ appetite for carry trade and safe haven currencies, i.e. the Euro and Japanese Yen.

The difference in global time zones often plays to investors’ advantage, allowing them to trade almost 24/7 on markets all over the world and traders can jump in long before Wall Street wakes up for its morning session.

Both the Euro and the Japanese Yen edged higher in London trade after the release of a number of Chinese manufacturing surveys suggested further cooling of the world’s second biggest economy.

What goes down must come up when it comes to oil prices. Oil prices were up nearly 9 percent Monday, continuing a rally in which the commodity rose more than 27 percent, the biggest three-day gain in 25 years.

With stock market volatility once again on the rise, the Dollar was broadly lower as FX traders trimmed their bets against carry trade currencies. Asian equities fell earlier this morning, with the Nikkei in Japan losing 1.3%.

In what may sound like a cry for help, central banks across the globe are reaching out to their American counterparts to finally take the step of raising interest rates. Their message is clear: We are ready. Do it now.

The week ahead looks like it is going to be a very crucial and pivotal week, as we will get a lot of key U.S. data that is likely to determine whether or not the Federal Reserve will raise rates later in the month of September.

More surprises in the oil market as crude oil futures rose on Friday after rallying to their biggest one day rally in six years the day before.

At the close of trading on the New York Stock Exchange today, a key technical measure indicated that a bear market in stocks is almost mathematically certain to begin at the weekly close on Friday for the first time since August 2011. This occurred despite today’s highly positive close and very bullish finish.

Now that some calm has resumed among the global equity markets, the stampede toward safe haven currencies has reversed trend. As a result, the Japanese Yen suffered some losses versus the US Dollar.

Stock markets are never 100% predictable. But most analysts watching the global markets could not have foreseen the volatility that has occurred these past few days with colossal swings up and down that have left investors flummoxed as to where to turn.