Stocks and Dollars

The dollar was generally weaker across the board overnight as month/quarter-end position adjustment induced some volatility. US data was also below forecasts adding to the dollar’s woes with the ADP employment change coming in at a negative rather than the +40k consensus estimate. This may question the bullish expectations for…

The highlight of the day is on the manufacturing data that is to be released from major economies which support overall growth in Europe. The euro zone and Germany are releasing their manufacturing sector data showing that the expansion will remain unchanged while in the United Kingdom will leap slight…

It has been a big bear day for the JPY across the board on signs Asian economies are picking up damping demand for the Japanese and US currencies as refuges. The BOJ’s Tankan survey showed confidence among Japanese large manufacturers was -14 (expected -14; previous -24) in Q1, the strongest…

The reading of Japan’s Tankan Index has improved, but it is still by negative for the first quarter of year 2010, which reflects a slight improvement in the economy and confidence increasing. The indicator is to support the BOJ view of seeing the economy recover. Therefore, we may see the…

The Eur/Usd is trading back towards the 1.3550 area, and the same place where the pair failed over the last three days of trading. A break above this level would signal that the pair’s near-term price action has switched to long. However, the medium to long-term outlook remains to the…

Parity to be traded during the week remained at similar levels. Short term may actually talking about a narrow band. Bottom of the tape several times before, we’re testing the 1.3393 level. 1.3393 reductions are broken can be considered as buying opportunity. In the upper level is 1.3540. Positive trend…

Douglas Estadt submits:

Delcath Systems (DCTH) is a biotech stock that does pose some risk, but with Phase III results just around the corner, we couldn’t help but take a look and ended up buying. They develop and manufacture devices to give high doses of chemotherapy and other cancer therapies directly to diseased organs or areas of the body.

Their PHP system (which is their leading candidate product) is in phase III clinical trials. This system allows physicians to deliver higher doses of chemotherapy directly to the liver at 100x as much as IV doses. They offer a minimally invasive approach to targeted areas that causes much less side effects than current chemo treatments. More importantly, the procedure can be repeated for follow up treatment without the high risk to patients associated with repeating other cancer therapies.

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The Pragmatic Capitalist submits:

Curious timing here for the largest sell-off in several weeks (amazing that a 0.33% sell-off is “large” in this environment). There have been rampant rumors of window dressing, prop desk trading and risk asset purchases on the back of the Fed’s MBS program in recent weeks and as the quarter comes to a close and the Fed’s purchasing program ends the buying appears to have died down substantially.

Whether this is a sign of things to come or not has yet to be seen, but it is certainly curious. The market appears strenuously overbought and is pricing in very optimistic earnings and economic data in the coming weeks. Nonetheless, investors have been very complacent in recent weeks.

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