Asian stocks gain overnight (MSCI Asia pacific up 0.4%) after opinion polls of Greek voters eased concern that the country will exit the Euro zone. Commodities also climb with Oil rising 0.8 and copper up 1%. US markets closed today (Memorial Day) !!
Summary from Compass Directions for 28 May 2012
"The European debt crisis continued to dominate headlines as the Euro slumped to record its biggest weekly fall this year. The crisis deepened as Greece's anti- international bailout party gained in opinion polls and the situation in Spain deteriorated. The Commodity Futures Trading Commission released figures that showed that hedge funds and other speculators increased their new short positions to a record high last week of 195,361 contracts compared to a figure of 173,869 for the previous week. The common currency was dragged lower as Standard and Poor's cut the credit rating of 5 Spanish banks and the Bankia group sought almost $24 billion in government aid. The Euro fell more than 2% in the course of the week to trade below 1.2500 and opens the week at 1.2570.
More evidence of a slowing in China heavily impacted on the fortunes of currencies of countries linked to growth in the world's second largest economy. The Australian dollar and the New Zealand dollar were heavily impacted with the Australian dollar falling below 0.9700 at one stage to record a six month low as Chinese banks may miss their loan targets for the first time in 7 years. The USD continued to surge with the Dollar Index hitting its highest levels since September 2010 at 82.46. The Swiss France fell more than 2% against the Dollar on speculation that the Swiss National Bank would move to increase taxes on deposits to further devalue the nation's currency. The Brazilian real rose against the Dollar as the central bank intervened to arrest the fall in the worst performing currency this year and the yen depreciated as Fitch cut the nation's credit rating.
US equity markets were dominated by the disastrous listing of the social network Facebook. The company's shares closed the week below $32.00 after having listed at $38.00 and is now the worst performer, after the first five days of trading, for the 10 largest deals of the past decade. The S&P 500 index closed 0.2% lower in Friday at 1,317 but managed its first weekly gain since April. European markets closed up by around 0.25% on Friday. Asian markets fell for the fourth consecutive week, recording their longest streak of falls in six months as the MSCI Asia Pacific looks headed for a monthly loss of more than 10%. The Topix recorded it longest run of weekly losses since 1977.
Commodity prices closed the week flat on Friday with the CRB unchanged for the day at 281.95. WTI crude gained by 0.2% to $90.86 as consumer confidence in the US gained. Precious metals held firm with gold rising 0.73% to $1,571 while silver gained 0.8% to $28.28. Soft commodities were broadly higher with wheat continuing to gain while copper rose 0.6%."
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