Finance News

Natural gas prices fell on Thursday after the EIA report showed natural gas stockpiles rose below expectations, where natural gas stockpiles increased by 55 billion cubic feet, slightly below the expected increase of 60 BCF, and compared with the prior rise of 73 BCF. Moreover, Tropical Storm Katia strengthened and could be upgraded to a Hurricane, which raised concerns over the outlook for supply from refineries in the Gulf of Mexico, which also added more momentum to natural gas prices. Traders will continue to examine the Tropical Storm Katia, and whether it will affect supply from the Gulf of Mexico, since if that proves to be the case, we should expect natural gas prices to rise further.

Gold prices were slightly lower on Thursday, where rising optimism in markets boosted demand for higher yielding assets, and accordingly, reducing demand for safe assets including gold, which put gold prices under pressure, nonetheless, rising speculations of QE3 put also downside pressure on the U.S. dollar, which limited the losses for gold, since gold is seen as a hedge against a weakening dollar. Traders will be eyeing more data from the U.S. labor market with the jobs report, and if the data signals more weakness, traders are likely to increase their bets of QE3, which should provide gold prices with bullish momentum overall. Friday September 02: The United States will be releasing its most-awaited jobs report at 12:30 GMT, where the change in Nonfarm payrolls is expected to decline to 75 thousand jobs from 117 thousand jobs in August, while the Unemployment Rate is expected to linger at 9.1%. 

Crude oil prices rose on Thursday after the U.S. economy released its ISM Manufacturing report, where manufacturing activities eased better than median estimates in August, nonetheless, crude oil were still higher, as rising speculations of QE3 continued to boost demand for risky investments including crude oil. Traders will be eyeing more data from the U.S. labor market with the jobs report, and if the data signals more weakness, traders are likely to increase their bets of QE3, which should provide crude oil prices with more bullish momentum. Friday September 02: The United States will be releasing its most-awaited jobs report at 12:30 GMT, where the change in Nonfarm payrolls is expected to decline to 75 thousand jobs from 117 thousand jobs in August, while the Unemployment Rate is expected to linger at 9.1%. 

Natural gas extended the gains on Wednesday after weather forecasts showed temperatures will be higher than average, which boosted speculations of rising demand for power-plant fuel. Moreover, Tropical Storm Katia strengthened and could be upgraded to a Hurricane, which raised concerns over the outlook for supply from refineries in the Gulf of Mexico, which also added more momentum to natural gas prices. Traders will continue to examine the Tropical Storm Katia, and whether it will affect supply from the Gulf of Mexico, since if that proves to be the case, we should expect natural gas prices to rise further. Also, traders will be eyeing the EIA report for natural gas inventories on Thursday. Thursday September 01: At 14:30 GMT, The EIA will release the weekly natural gas storage change for the week ending August 26, and expectations show natural gas stockpiles increased by 60 billion cubic feet, compared with the prior rise by 73 billion cubic feet.

Crude oil prices rose on Wednesday despite the huge rise in crude oil inventories according to the EIA report, which showed crude oil stockpiles increased by 5.3 million barrels well above expectations, nonetheless, crude oil were still higher, as rising speculations of QE3 continued to boost demand for higher yielding assets including crude oil. Traders will be eyeing more data from the U.S. labor market with the weekly jobless claims, in addition to the ISM manufacturing, and if the data signals more weakness, traders are likely to increase their bets of QE3, which should provide crude oil prices with more bullish momentum. Thursday August 01: From the United States the data will start at 12:30 GMT with the weekly jobless claims after they rose 417 thousand last week. The ISM Manufacturing is due at 14:00 GMT for August and expected to contract with a drop below 50 at 48.5 from 50.9. 

Gold prices were slightly lower on Wednesday, where rising optimism in markets boosted demand for higher yielding assets, and accordingly, reducing demand for safe assets including gold, which put gold prices under pressure, nonetheless, rising speculations of QE3 put also downside pressure on the U.S. dollar, which limited the losses for gold, since gold is seen as a hedge against a weakening dollar. Traders will be eyeing more data from the U.S. labor market with the weekly jobless claims, in addition to the ISM manufacturing, and if the data signals more weakness, traders are likely to increase their bets of QE3, which should provide gold prices with bullish momentum overall. Thursday August 01: From the United States the data will start at 12:30 GMT with the weekly jobless claims after they rose 417 thousand last week. The ISM Manufacturing is due at 14:00 GMT for August and expected to contract with a drop below 50 at 48.5 from 50.9. 

Natural gas prices rose on Tuesday after forecasters signaled that Tropical Storm Katia could approach the Gulf of Mexico, which might affect supply from refineries, where the National Hurricane Center signaled Katia may be near hurricane intensity, and accordingly, natural gas prices rose on supply fears. Traders will continue to examine the Tropical Storm Katia, and whether it will affect supply from the Gulf of Mexico, since if that proves to be the case, we should expect natural gas prices to rise further.

Gold prices rebounded to the upside on Tuesday, as pessimism dominated markets over the outlook for global growth after worse than expected data from all around the globe, especially consumer confidence in the United States after it fell sharply in August, which boosted demand for lower yielding and safe assets, providing gold prices accordingly with bullish momentum. Traders will be eyeing key data on Wednesday, especially the ADP employment report, which could provide some hints ahead of Friday’s Non-farm payrolls, and if the ADP shows weak employment, we should expect gold prices to extend the rally on Wednesday.

Crude oil prices fell on Tuesday, as pessimism dominated markets over the outlook for global growth after worse than expected data from all around the globe, especially consumer confidence in the United States after it fell sharply in August, which weighed down on demand for higher yielding assets, pushing crude oil prices to drop. Traders will be eyeing key data on Wednesday, especially the ADP employment report, which could provide some hints ahead of Friday’s Non-farm payrolls, and if the ADP shows weak employment, we should expect the crude oil prices to drop further. Wednesday August 31:                                                         At 12:15 GMT the United States will start with the signals for Friday’s jobs report with the ADP Employment Change for August which is expected to show 103 thousand private added jobs following 114,000. Canada will release the GDP estimate for the second quarter, where Canada’s growth is expected to be flat in Q2 after an expansion of 3.9% in Q1, while the economy is expected...

The heads of the world’s central banks gathered in Jackson Hole, Wyoming last week and seemed to agree that monetary policy itself cannot maintain global economic growth. Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke spoke in favor of adopting a “good, active housing program” in order to turn around the depressed US housing market and warned lawmakers against taking any moves that may negatively affect short-term growth. This statement seemed to refer to attempts by the Republicans in Congress to cut the budget proposed by President Obama’s democratic administration. Ewald Nowotny, member of the European Central Bank’s governing council, also sent a clear signal to Eurozone governments that they should broaden the authority of their regional financial aid funds. “A big part of the economic policy which supports stable economic growth in the long-term perspective is located outside the central bank’s authority,” Bernanke said. For his part, head of the European Central Bank Jean-Claude Trichet said that “there is huge potential to reform...