p. 1

january 16th 2012 published by ibtimes news from our partners fnarena join rudi s journey it s a different game in 2012 peter switzer is the u.s economy decoupling from europe 2012 back in the black steel price upturn expected in 2012 nasdaq the one to watch airview feature out with 2011 in with the same in 2012 investors big investors gloomy on eurozone deals rationalisation in pipelines economies china india japan face tougher 2012 outlook europe rba explains its concerns for australia gold gold price firm amid further european downgrades s&p downgrades euro zone s efsf bailout fund video precious metals post gains amid greek default fears djia euro shares stabilize post-downgrade greek back in crisis center djia global shares euro steady after s&p downgrades but outlook weak global markets overview european markets european stock markets rose monday as the french government successfully sold treasury bills and investors shrugged off last week s news that standard poor s downgraded the credit ratings of nine euro-zone nations including france italy and spain the pan-european stoxx 600 index gained 0.8 to end at 251.12 after spending most of the session swinging between small gains and losses france which was stripped of its prized triple-a credit rating sold treasury bills monday with borrowing costs declining from levels seen a week ago the french cac-40 index rose 0.9 to 3,225 with shares of semiconductor firm stmicroelectronics nv rallying 7.2 french bank shares also posted gains societe generale sa climbed 1.3 credit agricole sa gained 1.1 while bnp paribas sa rose 1.6 the u.k s ftse 100 index climbed 0.4 to 5,657.44 as media and publishing company pearson plc rose 2.7 the biggest loser in the ftse 100 was cruise firm carnival plc its shares dropped nearly 17 in london after the company s costa concordia ship ran aground off the coast of italy friday resulting in the deaths of at least five people lundin petroleum ab s shares fell 14.3 in stockholm after the swedish oil and gas firm said that oil resources at its avaldsnes discovery off the coast of norway may be lower than first estimated germany s dax 30 index rose 1.3 to 6,220.01 supported by a 3.6 gain for car maker daimler ag and a 2.6 rise for rival bmw ag goldman sachs monday reiterated its conviction buy recommendation on bmw and fiat spa and added daimler to its conviction-buy list the broker also upgraded premium tire maker pirelli c spa to buy and added it to its conviction-buy list in addition goldman upgraded italy s truck and agricultural-equipment firm 1

[close]

p. 2

january 16th 2012 published by ibtimes fiat industrial spa to buy and french auto group renault sa to neutral in milan fiat jumped 7 fiat industrial rose 3.9 and pirelli climbed 4.9 in paris renault gained 2.9 asian markets asian stock markets fell monday with mainland chinese stocks falling for a fourth-straight session as a string of euro-zone downgrades from standard poor s and stalled debt talks in greece thrust europe s crisis back into the spotlight japan s nikkei stock average fell 1.4 south korea s kospi declined 0.9 china s shanghai composite shed 1.7 hong kong s hang seng indexlost 1 and taiwan s taiex shed 1.1 with president ma ying-jeou s election victory unable to dent the europe-inspired gloom ratings agency standard poor s cut france and austria s triple-a credit ratings by one notch friday in addition to also lowering the ratings of italy spain malta slovenia slovakia,portugal and cyprus meanwhile greece s talks with private-sector creditors broke down friday several financial firms lost heavily across asia nomura holdings dropped 2.8 and mitsubishi ufj financial group shed 2.7 in tokyo shinhan financial group gave up 2.1 in seoul and chinatrust financial holding fell 4.2 in taipei shares of china life insurance fell 3.3 and ping an insurance group lost 2.5 in hong kong in shanghai the two stocks shed 0.5 and 1.2 respectively shipping shares also suffered notable losses kawasaki kisen kaisha dropped 3.8 in tokyo and hanjin shipping fell 1.6 in seoul while hong konglisted china cosco holdings shed 3.8 in hong kong and 2.2 in shanghai china southern airlines slumped 8.6 and air china shed 5.1 in hong kong aftercitigroup downgraded the stocks to sell in shanghai they fell 2.5 and 1.7 respectively european-exposed exporters posted steep losses in japan as the euro sank to a fresh 11-year low against the japanese yen mazda motor dropped 3.1 while sony gave up 2.3 commodities base metals closed mostly higher amid relatively subdued trade on the london metal exchange monday as investors looked ahead to a busy schedule of economic data the following session at the close lme threemonth copper was 1.1 higher at $8,089 a metric ton while aluminum was 0.9 higher at $2,162.50/ton with many u.s market players away from their desks for the martin luther king jr holiday trading activity was rather muted monday despite early losses on the back of friday s credit rating cuts by standard poor s australian dollar outlook the aud is slightly higher this morning currently trading just above usd1.0300 despite a fairly lacklustre offshore session due to the closure of us markets as they celebrate martin luther king day australia it seems that despite the downgrades by standard and poor s the night before and further downgrades to the european financial stability facility it did little to affect the markets with many believing that the downgrades have been better than expected the efsf was downgraded from aaa to aa as the continuing sovereign debt crisis plagues the region yesterday during our local session saw the release of the anz job advertisements which is a good indicator to current employment conditions total job ads were 2.6 lower than the previous december month in 2010 and the first negative annual growth since february 2010 this indicates that we are set for a higher unemployment rate in 2012 with anz expecting the unemployment rate to rise modestly to 5.5 by the middle of the year all eyes will be on the employment figures which are due out on thursday today chinese data will be the big market mover as the fourth quarter gdp results are released at 1pm aedt majors in europe investors are also waiting on news out of greece following the recent downgrades we don t expect much news to come out until officials from the imf eu and ecb meet on friday to further their discussions with private sector creditors as mentioned above the main focus of today s trading session will be the chinese gdp data which isdue out expectations are for a decrease in growth below 9 which will be the first time this has happened since q2 2009 other chinese data due out today includes industrial production and retail sales 2

[close]