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In a move made to compete with Skype and possibly Apple, Google is now offering a feature which allows users to use the phone to contact one another via Gmail. It will be interesting to see if Google will provide better reception than that of the iPhone. And if it eventually provides the ability to use this from a mobile phone, then it will truly compete with the iPhone as a service provider.
For now, the feature is only available in the US, but once it is available throughout the world, it will be interesting to see how this will affect the price of Google stock. Advanced investors may be able to take advantage of binary options and game the news ticker, watching carefully for when Google makes the feature available worldwide and when it expands features. You can see our previous entry written in March for more of an explanation on how to use this strategy to make a return on your investment.

Of course, not everyone agrees that China will be growing so fast. A couple of major problems loom: China’s GDP has indeed been growing rapidly in the last 30 years, but that could be because it has a while until it reaches a high rank. Chinese GDP is still below the 100th rank in the global economy. Another factor making it difficult for China to climb to the top is the state of the current global economy, the decrease in demand for exports and the rise of unemployment.
Some experts even feel that China’s GDP will fall in the next few years. Hedging might be a great binary options and forex strategy for traders of forex and binary options for those who are cynical about the Chinese takeover of the world.

What this means for traders:
Traders might want to pay attention to the Asian currencies, in particular the yuan, the Chinese currency which the Chinese government decided earlier to peg to the dollar (see our previous post). This in turn makes Chinese exports more expensive, but imports cheaper. Be on the lookout for trades connected to rises in production expense and major companies such as Wallmart and Target, who have overseas factories. Other companies which have been cheaper alternatives to American products, such as Toyota and Honda, may also present good binary options opportunities.

What this means for trade operators:
Chinese stocks and markets are a new opportunity for traders. The Asian market will also be influenced by its #2 neighbor. Read more about online trading in the binary options market.

China has beat Japan as the second-largest economy in the world. With an average GDP growth of 10% for the last 30 years, a population of 1.4 billion, first place in the world’s and consumption and production of coal, steel and energy, and the world’s largest exporter and second-largest importer of good, the country stands a chance at becoming number one soon. (It is also ranks first-place in the world in coal production).

Other news in China is the country’s allowing foreign investors to invest in the Chinese market. A pilot program will allow foreign investors to buy bonds in the Chinese market using Chinese currency.
Shanghai is set to become a world leader in finance by 2020. As a result, they are tapping into corporate investment abroad and could allow foreign companies to sell shares in Shanghai as early as next year. Rumor persists that Shanghai may allow foreign investment in yuan-dominated private equity and venture capital funds as well in the near future.

Since the yuan ended its peg against the dollar on June 19 it has risen by .5 percent. Announcement of the end of the peg causes a 4.8 percent increase in Hong Kong yuan deposits in June. China is now making it easier for yuan transactions between banks and companies in Hong Kong as well as those transferring cash in order to buy wealth-management products.
The rise of the yuan currency combined with rising sentiment about China’s future could make it a good short-term investment for binary options and forex traders.

Markets Pulse is proud to announce its launch of a new binary options site in partnership with FXTrade. FXTrade is one of the leading online forex companies in Japan, allowing traders to invest in online forex options, and now online binary options. This is the first time a binary options platform is being integrated into an existing forex site and we are excited about this groundbreaking development. See our site at: http://demo2.fxtrade.co.jp.

If you’ve seen “Love and Death,” there’s a quote there about wheat. As the story takes place in Russia, it is suitable for a country who is the world’s top exporter of grain.

Russia’s five-month drought brought a ban on wheat exports. As Russia is one of the main producers of wheat, this is has driven up the price of wheat to its highest in two years on August 5. The price of corn is related to the price of wheat, as both are used for animal feed. Traders who find that grain futures are soaring may instead choose to invest in soybeans and corn, although corn is rising along with rice.

What this means for you:
Traders might want to capitalize on this market trend for short-term binary options. Traders can place trades on wheat and hedge it with trades on soybeans and corn, perhaps more stable investments.
Operators might want to add more instances of commodities options to their sites for traders to benefit.

Best Month in a Year
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One great way to make binary options work to your advantage is to trade based on monthly and quarterly earnings reports. Options can be predicted to rise or fall shortly before these news releases. If you do the research you can capitalize on these movements in the market. But more on this strategy at a later posting. Now let’s concentrate on our monthly report.
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Stocks did better this month than they have in an entire year. Sixteen of the thirty DOW stocks ended higher at the end of July, including Home Depot (up 1.6% at $28.51) and Boeing (up 1.4% at $68.14). Intel (down 1.7% to $34.46) and Merck (down 1.7% to $34.46) ended lower than expected.

Stock Market Summary

DOW- ended at 10,466 points, rising 7.1% for the month. Earlier in the day the DOW fell almost 120 points, but it ended a point below the day’s opening. It ended with a fall of .01% for the day.

Nasdaq Composite Index– ended three points higher, at 2,255.

DAX- Germany’s DAX index rose .2%.

IBEX- Spain’s IBEX fell 1.2%.

Nikkei- Japan’s Nikkei stock average fell 1.6%.

S&P 500- ended at the same rate at 1,102, rising 6.9% for the month and .01% for the day.

News Events of the Month-

Technology News-

Research in Motion (RIMM) shares jumped 3.3% to $57.53 after announcing its plans to release a tablet competing with Apple’s iPad in November, the “Blackpad.” In addition, it will announce a rival to the iPhone next week.

Economic News-

The US government reported slow growth in the period of April to June, with a GDP of an annual rate of 2.4% in the 2nd quarter compared with the 2.5% predicted by economists.

Spain’s credit rating is likely to be cut, as it faces mounting unemployment at 20% and rising debt.

Congress voted on a $2 billion cash for clunkers program, a new program offering Americans a cash incentive for trading in gas guzzling automobile for fuel efficient alternatives. This program should help stimulate the automobile industry.

Currencies-
The dollar rose against the British pound and Euro but fell against the yen.

Savings and Consumer Spending-
Consumer sentiment for July rose to 67.8 and not the expected 66.5.

Commodity Market
Oil, gold, and copper all rose in price.
Gold- $13.30 to $1,181.70 per ounce.
Copper- up 2.15 cents to $3.3115 a pound, up 12% for July.
Oil- closed at $78.95, up 4.39% from last month.

Employment
Increased to 9.6% from 9.5% for last month for the US market.
Private employers added 90,000 jobs to the payroll, an improvement since June.

Sales and Manufacturing
Manufacturing activity slowed to its lowest level since December. Reports of Midwest manufacturing rose to 62.3 this month from 59.1 for last month.

Stock Markets Summary – These are the quotes from the end of the day on Friday
Dow Jones Industrial Average – ended at 9,686.48, a 5% drop for the week.
S&P- Dropped 4.79 points, a drop of 5% for the week.
NASDAQ- Dropped 9.57 points to 2,091.79.

These are the major events from this month:

Wall Street Reform Bill was drafted, and is expected to pass through Congress and reach the President in July.

G20 Summit agreed to get deficits of important countries’ governments under control.

Currencies
The dollar index ended last week at 84.41, reaching its lowest level in two months.

Savings and Consumer Spending
Spending rose slightly higher in May compared to April, suggesting increased consumer confidence. Savings also rose compared to last month.

Commodity Market
Oil- Crude oil prices for August fell to $77.96 a barrel.
Gold- COMEX gold’s August contract fell $16.60 to $1,239.20 per ounce. Gold futures rose a dollar in expectation of the holiday weekend.

Employment
The jobless rate decreased by .2%, from 9.5% in June from 9.7% in May.
Nonfarm payrolls for June fell by 125,000, whereas private payrolls for June increased by 83,000, which is an improvement from the 33,000 private payrolls that were added last month.
New claims for unemployment benefits unexpectedly rose by 13,000 in the week ended June 26 to 472,000, the Labor Department said, a sign that companies remain reluctant to hire.

Sales and Manufacturing
Retail sales fell in May for the first time in eight months. The manufacturing index fell 3.5 points in June to 56.2, the lowest level this year.

Housing
Home sales declined last month to 300,000, a 32.7% decrease from 446,000 the previous month.

Binary options really came of age in 2008, with the addition of them to the Chicago Board of Exchange (CBOE) and the North American Derivatives Exchange (NADEX). Since then, their popularity has exploded among both the financial trading and gaming industries.
Once offered in these major financial exchanges, they became a part of the exchange market and brought government regulations and taxes.

In traditional trading, traders predict the precise value of stocks in the future, buying a contract for that amount. The expiration date can be set several months or weeks in advance. As the price increases or decreases, the owner of the future can buy more futures contracts or sell them. With binary options, contracts expire much more quickly, and traders simply wait out the trade until the time of expiry instead of buying and selling up until the time of expiry. Although it is much less flexible for traders, it is also much simpler. Some more experienced traders see binary options as a means for beginning traders to get experience trading in the traditional market. Then again, many experienced traders are now getting involved in the binary options market!

With its exponential increase in popularity we have witnessed the same principles of binary options trading applied to fixed-odds gaming on the weather, television shows, sports, and political events. There are hundreds of online sites with fixed-odds gaming of different teams and events from all over the world.

In an unprecedented move, China announced that they would ease the peg of the Chinese yuan, or Renminbi (RMB) to the dollar and allow the currency to move more freely.

This move will increase the value of China’s currency, making exports more expensive. In the past, the lower value of the yuan and the cost of foreign workers low, making it an excellent place for American companies such as Walmart and Target to have overseas factories. Now these companies will take a hit with rising prices of production, whereas companies exporting to China, such as General Electric and Caterpillar, will see a rise in sales as their products become cheaper in the Chinese market.

Now, Western products will become more attractive as a cheaper Chinese alternative becomes unavailable. In addition, foreign worker strikes, unthinkable in the past, are occurring in various Chinese factories of American companies such as Toyota and Honda. If workers succeed in increasing worker pay, it will cause an additional rise in the cost of Chinese products.

China is continuing to monitor its currency to allow the rise to happen gradually and dissuade traders from buying currency and easily profiting.

The Chinese market is likely to rally in response to the change. It could be a good time to watch this market or options affected by it, either indirectly or directly, and come to our site and invest.

Oil Prices

Among the different developments likely to influence oil prices for both the short and long-term future are:

Obama’s decision to delay drilling near Alaska until 2011

Increasing general restrictions on rigs and platforms in US territories

Regulations causing fewer jobs than expected for the future

Increased demand for oil during the summer months

Chinese gasoline demand is weak in light of increased sales for vehicles in 2010

When crisis like these happen in the markets, it can be a good time to invest in binary options.
Oil prices this past week rose in light of the public’s sentiment that the world economy is recovering. Crude oil rose to $78 dollars a barrel, in spite of a greater than expected supply of US crude stockpiles, according to the US Energy Information Administration. Oil prices are expected to rise further as the summer progresses and demand for oil increases.

BP Stock Prices

BP stock has risen more than 9% as budgeting of $20 billion has been set aside for a clean-up policy. BP insists that they will find companies who carry responsibility for the disaster and have them pay their due. BP seems to have enough money to carry the financial burden of cleanup, according to most sources. In addition to the cleanup costs, Obama has said he will demand that an additional fund be set up to compensate those affected by the oil spill.

Today’s announcement that day-to-day operation will be handled by managing director Robert Dudley, who is experienced in handling sensitive assignments for BP in Russia and Africa could also affect stock prices.