Stocks and Dollars

Aussie has risen during the day and is now trading just above 1.0950. The overall picture is bullish and a further rise to 1.1000-25 looks likely. We see strong Resistance in 1.1000-25 region and a pull back is possible from this Resistance region. The pull back from this Resistance in

The forex markets have been predictably quiet this morning as the dollar slide continues. The dollar index is now below 73.00, which has pushed up the euro, yen and Swiss dollar crosses. The euro has frog leaped over the 1.4850 mark and now looks fairly comfortable at 1.4860/70 with 1.4900 then 1.5000 the next targets.

Given how closely tied Canada’s export sector is to the U.S., much of the weakness in Canadian economic activity in February can be explained by the sharp slowdown in U.S. real GDP growth in the first quarter of this year. However, as Fed Chairman Bernanke noted yesterday, the soft U.S.

After yesterday’s GDP report, today’s personal income and expenditure data offered up details on the evolution of spending over the first three months of the year. The story this morning was in the positive revisions and the acceleration in services spending.

Services spending, which accounts for 65% of the total, in

The US Fed has more than tripled its balance sheet since 2008, and US public debt has followed suit. Meanwhile, the broader money measure, as a benchmark for baseline money in the economy, has remained stable. The point here is not rehash the well publicized fact that the Fed has

Personal consumer expenditure (PCE) in March rose 0.6%, which was slightly stronger than the 0.5% gain expected. The gain followed a solid upwardly revised 0.9% gain in February (originally reported as up 0.7%). The gain in January was revised up as well to 0.5% from 0.3% previously. On a volumes

GDP output unexpectedly fell by 0.2% in February, decidedly slower than the 0.5% pace recorded in both December 2010 and January 2011. Forecasters anticipated that the level of GDP would hold steady. Goods-producing industries’ output slumped 0.6% while the service-producing industries’ output was unchanged in the month.

Lasting grief for the dollar from December through April has delivered consecutively weaker closes for the dollar’s value against a basket of its major trading partners. Growing risk appeal outside of the United States has turned to a mild concern that the world’s number one economy is possibly losing its