Author: FX_Trdr

Daniel Day-Lewis makes Oscar history with his third best-actor award; Jennifer Lawrence trips up the stairs as she collects her best-actress prize; ‘Identity Thief’ moves back to number one at the US Box Office.

President Obama said he’s looking for good partners, when he addressed the National Governor’s Association. Association Chairman Gov. Jack Markell read a poem that included a joke about the upcoming sequester budget cuts.

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 traders increased their bets in favor of the US dollar last week and pushed the American currency into an overall long position for the first time since December 4th.

Non-commercial large futures traders, including hedge funds and large International Monetary Market speculators, registered an overall US dollar long position of $1.481 billion as of Tuesday February 19th. This was a change from a total short position of $3.02 billion that was registered on Tuesday February 12th, 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.

Individual Currencies Large Speculators Positions:

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

Individual Currency Charts:

EuroFX:

EuroFX: Large trader and speculator sentiment for the euro declined last week for a second straight week as euro positions fell to a position of +19,103 contracts in the data reported for February 19th, This follows the previous week’s total of +24,181 net long contracts on February 12th.

Euro spec positions have been on the positive side against the dollar for six consecutive weeks since turning bullish on January 15th.

GBP: British pound sterling positions decreased once again last week to decline for a fifth consecutive week. British pound speculative positions dropped to a total of -23,365 net contracts on February 19th following a total of -16,776 net contracts that were reported on February 12th.

Pound speculator positions, on February 12th, fell over to their first short position since September 11th 2012 and last week declined to the lowest level since March 12th, 2012 when positions equaled -41,848 contracts.

JPY: Japanese yen speculative contracts declined last week after improving the previous two weeks. Japanese yen positions decreased to a total of -65,891 net contracts reported on February 12th following a total of -61,306 net short contracts on February 5th.

CHF: Swiss franc speculator positions declined last week to fall over the short side for the first time since November 2012. Net positions for the Swiss currency futures dropped to a total of -675 contracts on February 19th following a total of +4,552 net contracts as of February 12th.

CAD: Canadian dollar positions fell lower last week to decline for a fifth consecutive week. Canadian dollar positions dropped to a total of +19,379 contracts as of February 19th following a total of +26,565 net contracts that were reported for February 12th.

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

AUD: The Australian dollar continued their decrease last week to fall for a fourth consecutive week. Aussie speculative futures positions fell to a total net amount of +43,981 contracts on February 19th after totaling +54,114 contracts as of February 12th.

Australian dollar contracts are at their lowest level since October 16, 2012 when long positions equaled +38,444 contracts.

NZD: New Zealand dollar speculator positions advanced last week to reach their highest level in over a year. NZD contracts rose to a total of +24,693 net long contracts as of February 19th following a total of +21,338 net long contracts on February 12th.

The New Zealand dollar positions just surpassed their 2012 high level reached on December 11th at +24,600 contracts and have been over the +20,000 long contracts threshold for six consecutive weeks.

MXN: Mexican peso speculative contracts decreased last week to decline for a fifth straight week. Peso positions fell lower to a total of +116,165 net long speculative positions as of February 19th following a total of +124,579 contracts that were reported for February 12th.

Peso speculative positions are now at their lowest level since November 27, 2012 when long speculative positions equaled +93,858 contracts.

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.)

Article by CountingPips.com – Forex News & Market Analysis

This eighth trading week of 2013 comes to a close with investors sending stocks higher after two days of losses after an announcement by the Federal Reserve that stimulus measures may soon be halted. Hi.

As the saying goes, there are many possible reasons for an insider to sell a stock, but only one reason to buy — they expect to make money. So let’s look at two noteworthy recent insider buys.

In trading on Friday, construction materials & machinery shares were relative leaders, up on the day by about 2.2%. Leading the group were shares of Gibraltar Industries (ROCK), up about 8.5% and shares of Patrick Industries (PATK) up about 8.2% on the day.

The Bureau of Labor Statistics announced that consumer prices was unchanged for the second consecutive month in January due to falling gasoline prices and stable food prices. For the twelve months through January, cosumer prices increased by 1.6 percent.

UnitedHealth Group (UNH) was upgraded by Oppenheimer (OPY) from perform to outperform with a price target of $66 as the firm believes that the the current stock price is an attractive entry point despite a pessimistic outlook. Shares are lower by about a tenth of a percent.

Bargain hunters are wise to pay careful attention to insider buying, because although there are many various reasons for an insider to sell a stock, presumably the only reason they would use their hard-earned dollars to make a purchase, is that they expect to make money. Today we look at two noteworthy recent insider buys.

In trading on Thursday, cigarettes & tobacco shares were relative leaders, up on the day by about 0.1%. Leading the group were shares of British American Tobacco Plc Adr (BTI), up about 1.1% and shares of Philip Morris International (PM) up about 0.8% on the day.