Gold "beware": Better than expected initial jobless claims at 390.000

The number of US citizen filing for unemployment benefits fell last week  to the lowes figure recorded in 7 months. They printed at 390.000 (in seasonally adjusted data), down 10.000 from last week's figure. There were 398.753 initial claimants under state programs, without any adjustments, in the week ending with November 5, an increase of 29,106 from previous week. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics the official number of unemployed citizen is still at 13.9 million, adding up to an unemployment rate of 9.0%. There is simply not enough job creation and not in the right sectors.

Weekly FOREX outlook: USD/HUF, USD/JPY and GLD

Provided that Berlusconi does not surprise us in a negative way, this week's investor sentiment should switch from from the European debt crisis to the US structural problems. The day of 23rd of November is closer and closer and by that date the leading American parties will have to decide on $1.2 trillion in spending cuts over the next decade. If the budgetary supercommittee fails to reach an agreement, the US budget crisis circus may repeat itself. So the limelight switches to US.

...and it's Yentervention time !

The Bank of Japan has unilaterally intervened on the FOREX market to devalue the YEN last night. After reaching pre-World War II levels, the yen was brought back to 79.15 where the chart turned into a horizontal line for a few hours (signaling a great support level), then trending downwards to the 78.8 level. The devaluing of the Japanese Yen would arguably stimulate the exports and the external demand of Japanese products, but is not a sustainable move since they have large current account and balance of trade surpluses

Next week's FOREX trading outlook

This week has been a hectic trading week, with most of the FOREX currency pairs behaving like in a bee hive. The global turmoil was enhanced by the two major news: first is the agreed haircut of 50% of the Greek debt and the subsequent leverage of the EFSF and the second one is the systematic dump of US Treasuries by the foreign investors (the latest to join the party is the Norwegian sovereign wealth fund which dumped all US Treasuries and all US mortgage backed securities). What is in store for us next week?

FOREX market, why u so mean ?

Trading on the Foreign exchange market has been a bumpy ride, and the highest possibility is that it will get even bumpier. Most of the currency pairs surprised investors some way or the other: the EUR/CHF Swiss Bank intervention, the EUR/USD sharp drop then rebound on  EFSF news, the USD/JPY fat finger and the expected Japanese easing, the USD/HUF breakout of its channel and imminent retest of channel resistance, etc. It's been a looong month.