United States
Fluctuations in currency marketsLast week was relatively calm and experienced moderate fluctuations in the currency markets, while focusing attention on what will result of the meeting of the Federal Reserve and the European Summit as well as news about lowering the credit rating of sovereign debt. Against this background, the euro was trading within the range 1.3498 - 1.3130. The pound sterling, has reached its highest level during the week 1.5910 against the dollar and the lowest level of 1.5453, and the numbers affected by weak employment and closed at the end of trading on Friday evening to 1.5535. On the other hand continued to trade the Japanese yen within a relatively narrow range (84.50 - 82.80) against the U.S. currency, while the Swiss franc has strengthened his position against the dollar up to 95.50 and he had seen earlier in the week trading at 98.55. Finally, he arrived during the week the Australian dollar to parity with the U.S. currency before falling back to 0.9870 in late trading on Friday.
Finance Committee of the marketAs expected on a large scale, the Federal Reserve kept interest rates at their current level of near zero and reiterated his commitment to keep interest rates at their current level and exceptionally low for a longer period of time. In addition, the Council said that economic activity remains slow, so do not allow to reduce the level of unemployment, and reiterated his commitment to buy $ 600 billion of bonds in order to stimulate growth and create new jobs.
High inflationReports indicate that issued during the week that consumer product prices and productivity have risen slightly during the month of November in what could be interpreted as evidence that the activity of the largest economy in the world started to accelerate, the prices of consumer goods by 0.1% for the fifth consecutive month and prices of goods core up 0.1% in the first progress recorded by this index after three months of stable performance. The price of capital goods, increased by 0.3% compared to expectations of a hike of 0.2%.
Decline in claims for unemploymentU.S. economy showed new signs of an accelerated process of recovery, the number of initial claims for compensation for job loss at 3,000 claim for up to 420.000 claim, this performance is consistent with the downward trend for the number of such claims. It should be noted that the moving average for the past four weeks fell for the sixth straight week to its lowest level in two years.
Retail SalesRetail sales for the fifth consecutive month in November, and attributed this performance mainly to the wave of shopping during the holidays, which adds increasing evidence to achieve a significant improvement in the rate of economic growth during the last quarter of the year, where sales rose by 0.8% in November , which is slightly more than was expected.
Housing marketRecord the number of housing starts in November rise higher slightly than expected, but an unexpected drop in the number of permits for new housing construction in the coming period (up to the lowest level since the year and a half year), reflecting continued weak housing market, even after that the gains of economic recovery became more pronounced. The increased operations of the new housing construction increased by 3.9 percent to an annual rate of 555.000 units after taking seasonal factors into account, compared to expectations that this number of 550.000 units. The new building permits declined in number by 4.0% to 530.000 units during the last month, the lowest level of this index since April 2009 and attributed this performance to the survival rate of unemployment at the level of unemployment at 9.8% and continue to put pressure on this sector, which is still fragile .
The euro areaEU summit
Leaders of EU countries over two days last week to discuss ways to address the debt crisis still raging flames two years ago after being hit from both Greece and Ireland, and began to threaten to spread to Spain and Portugal. The European Central Bank decided to raise its capital base to almost double to help provide protection against losses to the institution with the continuation of its purchase of bonds of different Member States in their efforts to address the crisis of sovereign debt. And will raise the European Central Bank headquarters located in Frankfurt, capital of 5 billion euros to reach 10.76 billion euros as of December 29.
Reduce the credit rating by Moody'sTo remind investors that the problems of the general budgets of the governments of the euro area is not over yet, the rating agency Moody's to reduce the degree of the sovereign credit rating to Ireland five points from AA2 to BAA1 on Friday.
The agency had said earlier in the week that it is working to consider reducing the potential for the classification of Spain's Aa1, and said she was concerned about the need for Spain of much of the funding for the debt to the concern on the status of its banks burdened by debt, said Moody's that it does not exclude recourse Spain's request for assistance through the "facilities of the European financial stability."
Sectors of industrial production and servicesServices sector growth was larger in the euro zone this month, much slower than expected. The manufacturing sector, which was until now the main engine of economic recovery, it recorded a growth rate higher than previously thought. And inferred from the performance of the purchasing managers index for the services sector in the euro area and which is based on surveys of about 2,000 business enterprise, ranging from banks and restaurants, this indicator fell to 53.7 points in December, compared to 55.4 points in November. Is still the cursor over the line 50.0, a level that separates contraction and growth, and since November 2009, but the current level is still below the level at which it unanimously markets, which is 55.2 points. The purchasing managers index for manufacturing sector, rose in December to 56.8, its highest level since April, compared to 55.3 points in November.
United KingdomHigh rate of inflation
The number of Britons unemployed according to the scale of the ILO for the first time six months ago, during a period of three months to October, which marks the continued fragility of the labor market, the number of unemployed persons to 35.000 up to 2.5 million people during the three months to the beginning of October, as the unemployment rate rose for the first time in six months to arrive unexpectedly to 7.9%, a rate higher than market expectations that the rate rises to 7.7%.
High rates of retailRetail sales in Britain in November, stronger performance than expected and before the season starts, the main shopping occasion of the festivity of birth, only sales rose by 1.1% per year, its strongest since July, compared to 0.3% in October, while the observers expect an increase of 0.7%.
InflationInflation rose in the United Kingdom in November by more than expected, which reinforced the view that it is not likely to apply more of a monetary easing in the coming months, the prices of consumer goods by 3.3% during the last month, its strongest in six months , note that among the market had expected an increase of 3.15%, on the back of rising costs of food and clothing.
Japan
Index "Tankan" of industrial production
Witnessed a period of three months to December fell institutions' confidence in Japan's industrial production for the first time in nearly two years, according to the poll, "Tankan" prepared by the Bank of Japan, affected by high rate of the yen and a slowdown in exports on the other. The main index, which measures the confidence of large industrial companies reached +5 points in December, a reduction from its level of +8 points in September, and this was the first decline for the index in seven consecutive quarterly periods.
World NewsStandard & Poor's raised China's classification
The Standard & Poor's last week raised the credit rating of China on the basis of the small size of the debt burden of the Chinese government "and the exceptional growth opportunities," the second-largest economy in the world, in the words of the Agency. And thus be equally credit classification of new long-term, a AA-(after the adjournment of the + A) by Standard & Poor's with a degree of classification by Moody's which upgraded China's sovereign rating one notch last month.__________________
Fluctuations in currency marketsLast week was relatively calm and experienced moderate fluctuations in the currency markets, while focusing attention on what will result of the meeting of the Federal Reserve and the European Summit as well as news about lowering the credit rating of sovereign debt. Against this background, the euro was trading within the range 1.3498 - 1.3130. The pound sterling, has reached its highest level during the week 1.5910 against the dollar and the lowest level of 1.5453, and the numbers affected by weak employment and closed at the end of trading on Friday evening to 1.5535. On the other hand continued to trade the Japanese yen within a relatively narrow range (84.50 - 82.80) against the U.S. currency, while the Swiss franc has strengthened his position against the dollar up to 95.50 and he had seen earlier in the week trading at 98.55. Finally, he arrived during the week the Australian dollar to parity with the U.S. currency before falling back to 0.9870 in late trading on Friday.
Finance Committee of the marketAs expected on a large scale, the Federal Reserve kept interest rates at their current level of near zero and reiterated his commitment to keep interest rates at their current level and exceptionally low for a longer period of time. In addition, the Council said that economic activity remains slow, so do not allow to reduce the level of unemployment, and reiterated his commitment to buy $ 600 billion of bonds in order to stimulate growth and create new jobs.
High inflationReports indicate that issued during the week that consumer product prices and productivity have risen slightly during the month of November in what could be interpreted as evidence that the activity of the largest economy in the world started to accelerate, the prices of consumer goods by 0.1% for the fifth consecutive month and prices of goods core up 0.1% in the first progress recorded by this index after three months of stable performance. The price of capital goods, increased by 0.3% compared to expectations of a hike of 0.2%.
Decline in claims for unemploymentU.S. economy showed new signs of an accelerated process of recovery, the number of initial claims for compensation for job loss at 3,000 claim for up to 420.000 claim, this performance is consistent with the downward trend for the number of such claims. It should be noted that the moving average for the past four weeks fell for the sixth straight week to its lowest level in two years.
Retail SalesRetail sales for the fifth consecutive month in November, and attributed this performance mainly to the wave of shopping during the holidays, which adds increasing evidence to achieve a significant improvement in the rate of economic growth during the last quarter of the year, where sales rose by 0.8% in November , which is slightly more than was expected.
Housing marketRecord the number of housing starts in November rise higher slightly than expected, but an unexpected drop in the number of permits for new housing construction in the coming period (up to the lowest level since the year and a half year), reflecting continued weak housing market, even after that the gains of economic recovery became more pronounced. The increased operations of the new housing construction increased by 3.9 percent to an annual rate of 555.000 units after taking seasonal factors into account, compared to expectations that this number of 550.000 units. The new building permits declined in number by 4.0% to 530.000 units during the last month, the lowest level of this index since April 2009 and attributed this performance to the survival rate of unemployment at the level of unemployment at 9.8% and continue to put pressure on this sector, which is still fragile .
The euro areaEU summit
Leaders of EU countries over two days last week to discuss ways to address the debt crisis still raging flames two years ago after being hit from both Greece and Ireland, and began to threaten to spread to Spain and Portugal. The European Central Bank decided to raise its capital base to almost double to help provide protection against losses to the institution with the continuation of its purchase of bonds of different Member States in their efforts to address the crisis of sovereign debt. And will raise the European Central Bank headquarters located in Frankfurt, capital of 5 billion euros to reach 10.76 billion euros as of December 29.
Reduce the credit rating by Moody'sTo remind investors that the problems of the general budgets of the governments of the euro area is not over yet, the rating agency Moody's to reduce the degree of the sovereign credit rating to Ireland five points from AA2 to BAA1 on Friday.
The agency had said earlier in the week that it is working to consider reducing the potential for the classification of Spain's Aa1, and said she was concerned about the need for Spain of much of the funding for the debt to the concern on the status of its banks burdened by debt, said Moody's that it does not exclude recourse Spain's request for assistance through the "facilities of the European financial stability."
Sectors of industrial production and servicesServices sector growth was larger in the euro zone this month, much slower than expected. The manufacturing sector, which was until now the main engine of economic recovery, it recorded a growth rate higher than previously thought. And inferred from the performance of the purchasing managers index for the services sector in the euro area and which is based on surveys of about 2,000 business enterprise, ranging from banks and restaurants, this indicator fell to 53.7 points in December, compared to 55.4 points in November. Is still the cursor over the line 50.0, a level that separates contraction and growth, and since November 2009, but the current level is still below the level at which it unanimously markets, which is 55.2 points. The purchasing managers index for manufacturing sector, rose in December to 56.8, its highest level since April, compared to 55.3 points in November.
United KingdomHigh rate of inflation
The number of Britons unemployed according to the scale of the ILO for the first time six months ago, during a period of three months to October, which marks the continued fragility of the labor market, the number of unemployed persons to 35.000 up to 2.5 million people during the three months to the beginning of October, as the unemployment rate rose for the first time in six months to arrive unexpectedly to 7.9%, a rate higher than market expectations that the rate rises to 7.7%.
High rates of retailRetail sales in Britain in November, stronger performance than expected and before the season starts, the main shopping occasion of the festivity of birth, only sales rose by 1.1% per year, its strongest since July, compared to 0.3% in October, while the observers expect an increase of 0.7%.
InflationInflation rose in the United Kingdom in November by more than expected, which reinforced the view that it is not likely to apply more of a monetary easing in the coming months, the prices of consumer goods by 3.3% during the last month, its strongest in six months , note that among the market had expected an increase of 3.15%, on the back of rising costs of food and clothing.
Japan
Index "Tankan" of industrial production
Witnessed a period of three months to December fell institutions' confidence in Japan's industrial production for the first time in nearly two years, according to the poll, "Tankan" prepared by the Bank of Japan, affected by high rate of the yen and a slowdown in exports on the other. The main index, which measures the confidence of large industrial companies reached +5 points in December, a reduction from its level of +8 points in September, and this was the first decline for the index in seven consecutive quarterly periods.
World NewsStandard & Poor's raised China's classification
The Standard & Poor's last week raised the credit rating of China on the basis of the small size of the debt burden of the Chinese government "and the exceptional growth opportunities," the second-largest economy in the world, in the words of the Agency. And thus be equally credit classification of new long-term, a AA-(after the adjournment of the + A) by Standard & Poor's with a degree of classification by Moody's which upgraded China's sovereign rating one notch last month.__________________
