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Indices rose Friday, with the S&P closing at 1,065, a 1.7% increase. The DIJA rose by 165 points or 1.7%, ending at 10,561. The Nasdaq Composite also rose by 1.7% that Friday.

Some of our most popular technology stocks, however, have announced important 3rd quarter reports. Intel estimated sales of $11 billion for the third quarter rather than its previous estimate of $11.2 to $12 billion in sales. HP and Dell are both vying over 3Par, a company offering customized storage solutions for mid to large-size companies.

The Federal Reserve Board chairman Ben Bernanke vowed Friday to do all he can to prevent deflation in the US.
The dollar fell along with oil prices, which ended Tuesday at $72.39 a barrel. Gold ended at $1,233.40 an ounce. Wheat prices continue to rise after Russia declared a moratorium on wheat due to a drought.

The US unemployment rate remained at 9.5% this month, although the private sector added 71,000 jobs.

Home sales in the US sunk 27% in July, to their lowest level in 15 years.

World Markets
China reported a fall in growth in July for the first time in 16 months. This week China is expected to release its GDP growth for the 2nd quarter as well as balance of trade reports, which will give analysts information on future growth and investment or if the fall is a trend. India will also release growth figures. Analysts expect 8% growth to be announced. Analysts predict that India will catch up more to China in terms of growth rate this year.

The European Central Bank will unveil latest interest-rate decision on Thursday. It is likely to leave the rate unchanged, a confirmation that continue with relaxed lending policies until the end of the year.

Carrefour reported this week a net profit of Euro 82 million as it seeks to expand to markets in Brazil and China.
Vivendi, French media and telecom group also reported today a 6.6% rise in profit to 1.26 billion Euros for the first half of the year.

Currencies
The dollar fell to a 15-year low against the Yen. The euro fell to a 9-year low against the yen, and the British pound to 3-month low against the yen. The strength of the yen causes concern for exporters.

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.

Major Events of the Week

A short look at the week’s closing:

Stock Market Summary
The Dow Jones Industrial average fell by 164 points at one point and closed at 10120.53
S&P Stock Index fell by 13.89 points to close at 1069.59
The Nasdaq fell by 35.16 points to close at 2,187.33 due to the drop in technology stocks.

Commodity Market
Oil dropped to below $78 a barrel

Currencies
Dollar rose against the Euro
Yen rose against the dollar

Oil Prices

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

A Hungarian spokesman for Prime Minister Viktor Orban has announced last week that an impending economic default is possible given the current economic situation. This combined with past concern over other shaky economies, such as Portugal and Spain, caused increasing fears of the value of the Euro, which fell to a new low of 1.2050 against the dollar.

The spokesman, Peter Szijjarto, accused the past government of covering up lies and information. A detailed report of the Hungarian government’s fiscal plans.should soon be released.
The Daily Forex News reported today that in a Eurogroup meeting yesterday that Eurogroup head and Luxembourg Prime Minister Jean-Claude Junker was “not really concerned about Hungary” and emphasized that the situation was not at all comparable to the economic situation in Greece.

The Hungarian report on its fiscal budget should play a big part in investor confidence in the Euro, which will affect Euro prices.

Source: Gold Alert

Market analysts speculate that gold could be the next bubble, as large investors continue to buy gold along with other commodities as a safe investment against the rising economic instability in Europe and now Asia.

Developing countries have simultaneously been buying gold as a safe and secure place to store monetary assets.

Both reactions have caused a rise in the price of gold over in the last week of May even though demand has fallen in the first quarter of 2010. But what is more interesting is that gold prices are extremely sensitive to sentiment, or people’s perception of the value of the commodity.

Financial investors are largely responsible for the market price of gold, who decide whether they believe the price of gold will rise, and then invest in gold. This causes the price of gold to rise even further, as investor sentiment rises.

The price of gold has been known to fall in times of wealth and economic prosperity, however.  In times of severe economic hardship, as in ware or economic collapse, it has been known to be a fairly liquid investment which can be easily traded for money.

North Korea announced Tuesday that it would sever ties with South Korea and no longer continue to adhere to the non-aggression pact with Seoul.

In response, the Asian markets fell – Japan’s Nikkei Stock Average by 3.1%, Hong Kong’s Hang Seng Index by 3.5%, Taiwan’s Taiex by 3.2%, Thailand’s SET Index gave up 3.1%, and Singapore’s Straits Times Index by 2.7%. Other indices throughout the world also fell, including Australia’s S&P/ASX 200, India’s Sensex, and Indonesia’s JSX.

But by Wednesday many of these markets had recovered, at least for the short-term. Many market analysts explained the rise of world markets as a reaction of investors looking to buy investments cheaply due to the fall in stock prices.

It remains to be seen how the market will continue to react with the rising political tensions in Korea and the continued economic turmoil in Europe. These political tensions can be a good time to invest in binary options, especially in currencies like the Euro and yen.

Oil prices are recorded at a three-month low of $71.61 a barrel after the US Department of  Energy announced US stockpiles had risen by 1.9 million barrels, double the amount predicted earlier. Demand has not yet caught up with this sudden supply. Investors are speculating that fuel consumption will decrease in response to the European crisis.

It is also likely that this low is due to the ECB’s decision to buy foreign bonds, which artificially caused oil prices to rise last week from $75.11 to $76.80 a barrel.  Phil Flynn, a senior market analyst at PFG Best, likened this move to the equivalent of giving the market a shot of heroin , explaining that one the high wears off, the problem still remains.

The Euro also reached its lowest point ($1.28) against the dollar since 2008, causing prices of oil to fall. In intraday trading prices fell below $70 a barrel, prompting market analysts to predict that prices may continue to fall. If prices do fall below $70 a barrel, OPEC may cut production to keep prices steady.

Gold Prices for Last 10 Years (Google Chart)

In the last 10 years,  gold has risen steadily (see chart on side), breaking an all-time previous high of $1,241 an ounce on May 12. Due to the Greek crisis, foreign investors are cautious about investing in the Euro and prefer to invest in the seemingly more stable commodity of gold.

The price of gold, like other commodities is affected by demand and supply. However, since the total amount of gold in the world is already mined and currently in existence, the price of gold is affected more by demand than other commodities. For the right price, market suppliers can sell gold in the marketplace.

But the sudden growth in demand for gold could also contribute to global inflation, especially in light of the current global crisis and the European Central’s bank’s surprising decision to buy bonds of weak government economies. Investors are currently speculating as to whether gold will continue to rise, or if it truly did hit the breaking point on Wednesday.

Gold and other commodities are offered as investment options on our binary options platform.

Greece has been spending more as a country than it has been earning for decades, now burdened with a debt of €300 billion. Past governments covered up the problems and the debt continued to mount.  Recently rating agencies decided that Greek government bonds are worth even less than junk bonds, creating a drop in world markets as investors sold Greek bonds and went for greener and seemingly safer pastures of the UK, Germany, and US government investments.

Countries could lend to Greece to bailout the country, at a rate of 14 percent, a very expensive rate for borrowing. Greece will need to fiercely cutting the budget and create a long-term plan for growth.

As of April 11, Greece is being offered a Eurozone relief package of over €30 billion, of which Germany will pay €8.5 billion, and the IMF €15 billion. Now it looks like a sum of four times that much will be needed to get the Greek economy back on track.

If Greek defaults and declares bankruptcy, this could cause the Euro to fall and also discourage investment in other developing economies of the eurozone states, namely Portugal and Ireland.

Another option is for Greece to  exit the Euro for a temporary amount of time, avoiding massive unemployment and possibly boost the economy by using a devalued currency.

Now world markets are speculating that Portugal, with its large deficit and weak economy,  may be the next market to declare dire financial problems. Ireland is also suffering from a large deficit but has taken measures to reduce spending and is not currently being forecast for declaring bankruptcy.

Germany public option Is against contributing to Greek’s overspending, arguing that they should not have to pay for another country’s pension policy that is better that their own. It needs to pass the package in the German parliament before the money is distributed.

All of this provides ample opportunity to wage bets on the direction of the Euro in the future.