Markets Pulse BlogJust another WordPress weblog

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.

Best Month in a Year
——————————————————————————————
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.
——————————————————————————————–
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

News Events of the Month-

Technology News-

Economic News-

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:

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.

Oil from a BP underwater oil rig has been gushing into the Gulf after an explosion and fire April 22. After many failed attempts at controlling the leak, BP finally managed to contain the oil by placing a cap on the well and direct oil out of the water into the surface for use. Oil however, continues to leak into the Louisiana coast and the Florida Gulf.

Past estimates of oil leaks of 12,000 to 19,000 barrels a day (504,000 to 798,000) have now been raised to 20,000 to 40,000 barrels a day (840,000 to 1,680,000 gallons) before the leak was contained by BP.
The London-based oil company has broken the record for the worst oil spill in US history. Oil from an Exxon Valdez tanker off the coast of Alaska’s Prince William Sound spilled over 10 million gallons into the ocean. This was previously the worst oil spill in US history.

Oil spill cleanup has cost BP thus far $1.4 billion on cleanup.

Investment analysts recommend buying BP stock, using an old investment strategy of buying cheap stock during a crisis, waiting out the storm and selling when the price goes up. Stock prices have dropped to almost half of what they were before the oil spill, although intraday trading prices fluctuate enough for the binary options trader to predict the hourly movement of the stock.

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.

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.

We will soon start posting our own take of the commodities market.

But first, here is a nice report for today from FuturesMag.com. Use this to trade commodities on our site at Bull Options.

The Tel Aviv 25 Index is a capitalization-weighted index of 25 stocks traded on the Tel Aviv Stock Exchange (TASE). The Index was developed with a base value of 100 as of December 31, 1991. TA-25 is a total return index, and its current value is around 1224 points.

In the shadow of a global recession, the Israeli economy was one of the firsts to resume growth, as also reflected by the Tel-Aviv Stock Exchange performance. Since the second half of 2008, The Tel Aviv 25 Index has been increasing steadily, and it is now approaching its historic record of 1,237 points, set at October 2007.

Source: www.tase.co.il

So the question at hand is – will TA-25 cross its historic record and continue to climb, or will this trend subside, failing to cross the 1,237 point-barrier?

Have an estimation? Come make a profit using our trading platform!

Google, a company started by Dr. Larry Page and Sergey Brin in 1998, provides website indexing, online content, Internet search solutions, and targeted advertising for those in the industry as well as the general population.

Its stock has been rising fairly steadily since it went public in 2004 (see chart below), although at certain times it has dropped or risen sharply. These points of sharp increase or decrease can be a great opportunity for binary options investors.

Google stock is a valuable asset, and current negotiations are taking place by Google founders over who will get majority control of company stocks.

There is no question that Google stock will remain valuable in the future.

Stock has risen fairly steadily since 2004