Is it time to long USD/JPY ?

With the European Union debt deal talks and the US primaries under way, there is little space left for news regarding the second biggest debtor country: Japan. The ugliness contest between the dollar and the euro, seized the news and took the limelight away from the real contestant: the Japanese yen. In the last months the Japanese currency has been slowly appreciating in value against the dollar from 81.11Yen to what is now 76.36Yen. Bank of Japan is most probably going to intervene in the market again, and then traders will be able to fade the intervention again, locking in profits on both ways.

Bernanke expands ZIRP till mid 2014

During the yesterday's Federal Open Market Committee meeting, FED's chairman Ben Bernanke adjusted downwards the US growth outlook and extended the Zero Interest Rate Policy until mid 2014. He didn't mention any further large scale asset purchases except  "Operation Twist" and rolling over of the current portfolio and he didn't mention any unemployment targeting (a widely expected figure).

Apple Inc posts record revenues and profits

Apple, the Cupertino based company, cut through analyst forecasts like a hot knife through butter, today, after it reported quarterly revenues of $46.3 billion, and Earnings per share of $13.87 (diluted shares). Comparing this with Q3  2010, when the company disclosed revenues of $26.74 with a net profit of $ 6billion. This quarter's net profit of $13.06 billion is more than the entire yearly profit of Google, one of its main competitors. Shares jumped to a maximum of 10% in the pre-trading market, and are now hovering around 6.43% in the green. 

IMF seeks to boost half a trillion more in firepower

The Internationaly Monetary Fund issued a statement today, suggesting that it will try to raise close to $500 billion in new funds from cash rich countries like Brazil, China, India and the oil exporters to lend to the eurozone countries in financial difficulties. The question here is, where are they going to shore up this cash-pile, taken that, the countries mentioned have their own little pesky internal issues: China still is at the brink of a real estate collapse and India is going through a massive devaluation of its ruppee.

Financials slump as Citi and JP Morgan miss estimates

Shares in the third biggest US investment bank slumped 5.80% today after it announced that its revenues fell 7% Q/Q to $17.2 billion, and $0.38 earnings-per-share on expectations of $18.5 billion, and $0.52 EPS. This comes after the disappointing Q4 results of JP Morgan, which followed the same pattern: a loss in the debt valuation adjustment (DVA), lower investment bank fees, loss on the trading division all covered by an offsetting release from loan loss reserves.

LTRO liquidity tsunami floods back to the ECB with little effect

The so-called Draghi put, more formally named "Long Term Refinancing Operation", through which the European Central Bank is offering almost unlimited liquidity with 3 years maturity at 1% yield, has proven unsuccessful at supporting the sovereign bond market. The big plan was that, by offering massive amounts of low cost financing to banks and financial institutions, they will park some of this excess cash into European debt instruments. Instead of this, it turns out that banks have chosen to deposit the funds back at the ECB and conduct small carry trades at the short end of the yield curves.