Month: February 2013

Music exec Davis says in memoir that he’s bisexual; DiCaprio calls for ivory trade ban in Thailand; Anne Hathaway honored at the 15th Annual Costume Designers Guild Awards.

Cliffs Natural (CLF) was upgraded at J. .

Builder confidence in the market for new single-family homes was virtually unchanged in February with a one-point decline to 46, according to the National Association of Home Builders/Wells Fargo Housing Market Index. Economists expected the index to climb to 48.

Alpha Natural (ANR) had its numbers increased by Credit Suisse (CS) as the company has been reducing its cash costs. A $10 price target was issued with a neutral rating.

Baxter International Incorporated (BAX) maintained its quarterly dividend of 45 cents per share. The dividend is payable on April 1, 2013 to shareholders of record as of March 8, 2013.

In trading on Tuesday, packaging & containers shares were relative leaders, up on the day by about 2.3%. Leading the group were shares of Sealed Air (SEE), up about 13% and shares of Libbey SC (LBY) up about 2.1% on the day.

Investors are kicking off the new holiday shortened trading week with all eyes on the consumer as they await key economic data, as well as more signs of clarity from the Fed with regards to future monetary policy. Good morning this is Sayoko Murase with the Week Ahead Market Report for February 19, 2013.

Actors Jude Law and Rooney Mara explore society’s relationship with the pharmaceutical world through their new film ‘Side Effects,’ and talk about preparing for the movie.

By CountingPips.com

The latest weekly Commitments of Traders (COT) report, released on Friday by the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC), showed that large futures speculators decreased their overall short positions against the US dollar for the first time in four weeks.

Non-commercial large futures traders, including hedge funds and large International Monetary Market speculators, trimmed their short bets against the US dollar to a total of $3.02 billion as of Tuesday February 12th.

Last week’s data is a decline from a total short position of $9.15 billion that was registered on February 5th, according to the CFTC’s COT data and trader position calculations by Reuters, which calculates the dollar positions against the euro, British pound, Japanese yen, Australian dollar, Canadian dollar and the Swiss franc.

The dollar has been in an overall short position against these currencies since December 4th 2012 when the overall short positions equaled $1.03 billion.

Individual Currencies Large Speculators Positions:

The individual currency contracts against the US dollar last week saw increases for the Japanese yen and the Swiss franc while the euro, British pound sterling, Australian dollar, New Zealand dollar, Canadian dollar and the Mexican peso all had a decreasing number of contracts compared to the previous week.

EuroFX: Large trader and speculator sentiment for the euro declined last week after advancing for four consecutive weeks. Euro positions decreased to a long position of 24,181 contracts in the data reported for February 12th following the previous week’s total of 37,952 net long contracts on February 5th. Open interest was at 239,566 contracts from the previous week’s open interest of 251,236.

Euro spec positions were at their highest level since July 5th 2011 on February 5th and have now been on the positive side against the dollar for five consecutive weeks after spending just about all of 2012 on the negative side.

The Commitment of Traders report is published every Friday by the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) and shows futures positions data that was reported as of the previous Tuesday (3 days behind).

Each currency contract is a quote for that currency directly against the U.S. dollar, a net short amount of contracts means that more speculators are betting that currency to fall against the dollar and a net long position expect that currency to rise versus the dollar.

(The graphs overlay the forex spot closing price of each Tuesday when COT trader positions are reported for each corresponding spot currency pair.)

GBP: British pound sterling positions fell sharply again last week to decline for a fourth consecutive week and to an overall short position for the first time since September. British pound speculative positions dropped to a total of 16,776 net short contracts on February 12th following a total of 1,174 net long contracts that were reported on February 5th. Open interest was at 167,100 contracts from the previous week’s open interest of 165,369.

Pound speculator positions are now at their first short position since September 11th, 2012 and have fallen to the lowest level since June 19, 2012 when positions equaled 17,153 short contracts.

JPY: Japanese yen speculative contracts improved last week for a second consecutive week. Japanese yen positions edged up to a total of 61,306 net short contracts reported on February 12th following a total of 68,413 net short contracts on February 5th. Open interest was at 215,036 contracts from the previous week’s open interest of 217,709.

Yen bets are now at their smallest short positions level since November 20, 2012 when shorts totaled 51,389 contracts.

CHF: Swiss franc speculator positions improved last week after declining for three consecutive weeks. Speculator positions for the Swiss currency futures rose to a total of 4,552 net long contracts on February 12th following a total of 3,876 net long contracts as of February 5th. Open interest stood at 41,850 contracts from the previous week’s open interest of 43,585.

CAD: Canadian dollar positions decreased slightly again last week to decline for a fourth consecutive week. Canadian dollar positions declined to a total of 26,565 net long contracts as of February 12th following a total of 27,761 net long contracts that were reported for February 5th. Open interest levels equaled 140,109 contracts from the previous week’s open interest of 141,807.

Canadian dollar speculator positions are currently at their lowest level since August 7th, 2012 when long positions totaled 19,122 contracts.

AUD: The Australian dollar positions decreased sharply last week to fall for a third consecutive week. Aussie speculative futures positions dropped to a total net amount of 54,114 long contracts on February 12th after totaling 80,940 net long contracts as of February 5th. Open interest was at 163,745 contracts from the previous week’s open interest of 180,781.

Australian dollar contracts are now at their lowest level since October 30, 2012 when long positions equaled 52,090 contracts.

NZD: New Zealand dollar speculator positions decreased last week after increasing slightly the previous week. NZD contracts fell to a total of 21,338 net long contracts as of February 12th following a total of 22,700 net long contracts on February 5th. Open interest registered at 35,107 contracts from the previous week’s open interest total of 37,058.

The New Zealand dollar speculator positions have been over the 20,000 long contracts threshold for five consecutive weeks.

MXN: Mexican peso speculative contracts declined again last week to fall for a fourth straight week. Peso positions declined lower to a total of 124,579 net long speculative positions as of February 12th following a total of 141,502 long contracts that were reported for February 5th. Open interest measured at 169,726 contracts from the previous week’s open interest of 181,131.

Peso speculative positions are now at their lowest level since December 4, 2012 when long speculative positions equaled 118,962 contracts.

Article by CountingPips.com – Forex News & Market Analysis

This seventh trading week of 2013 comes to a close with investors pondering if markets are overbought and ready for a correction. Hi.