Royal Max Brokers

According to a report published by the UK Bureau of National Statistics, the level of inflation in the country rose in August. The Consumer Price Index went up 4.5% in annual terms compared with July growth of 4.4%, and inflation was up 0.6% in the monthly dynamic. This time, 34 analysts guessed right with their predictions on this figure. Last week, the Bank of England decided to leave the country’s interest rate unchanged. Experts believe that this was not an easy decision for the Bank’s leadership to make. On the one hand, the UK’s economy needs the support of a low interest rate, but on the other hand, inflationary pressure twice the amount of the target level is interfering. After the inflation figure was released, the British pound garnered support. The results of yesterday’s auction of Italian government bonds were quite obvious: investors are still very careful and are demanding even more profits. Demand for Italian bonds was as low as...

President of the European Central Bank Jean-Claude Trichet announced at a press conference on Thursday that the Euro zone’s economic development will move at a much slower pace than had been predicted, while inflationary risks weakened for the medium term outlook. ECB economists revised their predictions on the Euro zone’s GDP growth downward. At the moment, ECB experts are expecting GDP growth in 2011 to be 1.4%-1.8%, although in June they had predicted 1.5%-2.3%; predictions on GDP growth for 2012 are currently 0.4%-2.2% versus June’s forecast of 0.6%-2.8% growth. Market players immediately took these announcements into consideration and directed them against the European currency, which lost more than 150 points against the US dollar after the start of the press conference. RoyalMaxBrokers experts noted that, while Trichet didn’t tell the market what it wanted to hear, he also didn’t signal that the central bank would refrain from raising the interest rate in the future. Trichet noted at the monthly press conference that...

The Chicago Mercantile Exchange has again raised margin requirements on gold after the price on the most popular hedging asset reached the psychological $1900/oz mark. The increase in margin requirements, as previously expected, was followed by a drop in gold prices by more than 7%. Now the minimum deposit to trade gold futures will increase 27% to $9,450 per contract on speculative operations with 100 ounces of gold. The margin requirements were already increased by 22% on August 11. A spokesman for the CME explained that the decision was made after interest in gold purchases increased sharply on August 18 to a record 1.263 million contracts. Gold prices rose 24% for 2011, continuing 11 years of continuous growth as the unstable global economic situation increased demand for the precious metal as a means of preserving capital for investors the world over. The IFO Institute reported at 12:00PM (Moscow Time) that confidence among German businessmen dropped to its lowest point of the...