Top Forex Stories

Stronger confidence, rising commodity prices, improved ratings (where Goldman Sachs raised Kia’s Motors rating to “buy” from “neutral” and a merger bid from Singapore Exchange Ltd for ASX Ltd (which runs the dominant stock exchange in Australia), managed to push the Asian stocks to the upside, where the MSCI Asia Pacific Index rose by 1.3% to 131.60 at 16:07 in Tokyo. Nikkei 225 Nikkei 225 fell today after the yen rose again against the dollar which drove exporting companies shares down. The index retreated today by 0.27% or 25.55 points closing at 9401.16. From 225 shares, 67 advanced, 140 declined and 18 unchanged. Sectors leading the decline were consumer goods that lost 8.64 points, the industrials that lost 7.79 points and health care that lost 7.12 points. Lagging shares today Kyocera Corp which fell by 1.73% closing at 2662 yen, second was Shin-Etsu Chemical Co Ltd which fell by 3.73% closing at 1522 yen. Third was Softbank Corp which fell by 1.20% and closed...

By Angela Moon NEW YORK (Reuters) - U.S. stocks could see big swings to the downside next week on any remotely "bad" news since volatility indexes are at levels considered too low. Investors also will face a blizzard of earnings, which many analysts believe will continue to support the rally that began early this month. But any disappointments in either earnings or outlooks could, of course, trigger a sharp sell-off. What's more, the market is likely to continue to garner support from investors' hopes that the Federal Reserve will take more steps to stimulate the economy, in what's known as "quantitative easing" or "QE2." The Fed is expected to unveil its initial commitment under QE2 at its November 2-3 meeting. The Chicago Board of Options Exchange (CBOE) Volatility Index, or VIX <.VIX>, a gauge widely used to measure investors' anxiety levels, fell 2.54 percent on Friday to close at 18.78, its lowest level since April. The VIX, which rose to near 50 in May,...

By Helen Chernikoff NEW YORK (Reuters) - Investors who have been snapping up foreclosed homes are backing off in the wake of the U.S. foreclosure fiasco, driven by sagging inventory and fears over legal title, and some economists say the trend could hurt the overall housing market. With foreclosed properties accounting for a large portion of housing sales, and investors accounting for a large portion of buyers -- particularly in some key markets with very high foreclosure rates -- the implications for the broader economy could be serious. Investors who would buy, rehabilitate and then sell or rent foreclosures were playing a "huge role," in helping to clear the market, said housing economist Tom Lawler. But many of those investors are now staying on the sidelines. "We're like a plane flying around in a holding pattern, waiting to land," said Tony Alvarez, an investor in southern California who is currently renting out 40 former foreclosed homes. "Nothing is going on, and why? Fear has taken...

The world's leading economy saw its shares closing in green today as cheerfulness was spread across the stocks markets after that the third quarter financial results posted at Boeing Co. and Yahoo! Inc came out cheerful and higher-than-estimated, indicating clearly that the recovery did not strongly affect the performance of huge corporations of the country while it is speculated that the Federal Reserve will inject more money into the economy.   Indices performance came as follows:   The Dow Jones Industrial Average index gained 129.35 points or 1.18% to close at 11107.97 levels, the index reached the highest point at 11152.88 and the lowest point at 10970.89, By closing 27 shares inclined while 3 shares declined. The index added and slashed points based on the performance of the upcoming stocks; the stocks adding the most points to the index were Boeing Co stock as it inclined $2.31 or 3.35% to add 17.48 points and close at $71.36, then came Caterpillar Inc share as it inclined...

Wells Fargo & Company reported today its third quarter earnings for the year 2010 where managed to beat analysts' estimations by reporting better than expected diluted earnings per share at $0.60. The company reported total revenues of $20.87 lower than both previous quarter of $21.39 Billion and year earlier quarter of $22.47 Billion, yet the company managed to record net income of $3.34 or $0.60 diluted earnings per share which is higher than both prior and year earlier quarters' net income, and also higher than the estimated $0.564 diluted earnings per share. Wells Fargo & Company's Tier 1 Capital ratio is 10.9% higher than year earlier of 10.6% and quarter earlier of 10.5%, while its Tier 1 Common Equity ratio is 8.0% higher than year earlier of 5.2% and quarter earlier of 7.6% while its current Price/Earnings stands at 10.36.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The Federal Deposit Insurance Corp said on Friday that U.S. regulators closed seven more banks, bringing the total so far this year to 139. The biggest was Hillcrest Bank of Overland Park, Kansas, which had approximately $1.65 billion in total assets and $1.54 billion in total deposits. Regulators also closed First Arizona Savings, Scottsdale, Arizona; First Suburban National Bank, Maywood, Illinois; First National Bank of Barnesville, Barnesville, Georgia; Gordon Bank, Gordon, Georgia; Progress Bank of Florida, Tampa, Florida; and First Bank of Jacksonville, Jacksonville, Florida. A newly chartered bank subsidiary of NBH Holdings Corp, Boston, Massachusetts, will assume all of the deposits of Hillcrest Bank. The new NBH subsidiary, also called Hillcrest Bank, also agreed to purchase essentially all of the failed bank's assets, the FDIC said. First Arizona Savings had approximately $272.2 million in total assets and $198.8 million in total deposits. At the time of closing, the bank had an estimated $1.8 million in uninsured funds. The FDIC said it was unable...

Oct 24 (Reuters) - The Group of 20 major economies vowed to avoid competitive currency devaluations and shifted more power to emerging economies at the IMF, taking steps that analysts viewed as important for averting trade wars and promoting flexible exchange rates. Following is a summary of reserves reports issued by analysts about the G20 communique and outcomes following the gathering of finance ministers and central bankers.  --------------------------------------------------------- THOMAS STOLPER, CHIEF CURRENCY STRATEGIST, GOLDMAN SACHS, LONDON "The outcome of the G20 meeting clearly shows progress in the global rebalancing policy debate. In particular the FX relevant sections have become a lot more prominent and all the key issues have found some mention, including current account positions, protectionism, capital controls and exchange rate flexibility. "At the same time, this is not a Plaza-style statement that signals a broad agreement on the role currencies have to play in the global rebalancing. Just taking the first sentence of the FX bullet, the language is not tight enough to...