Forex Fundamental Analysis

In what will be Ben Bernanke’s last meeting as chairman of the Federal Reserve before he steps down at the end of the month, the Fed has announced that it will continue with the “Taper” this month by withdrawing a further $10 billion from its monthly asset purchase programme.

The initial estimate from the Office for National Statistics (ONS) suggests that the UK GDP for 2013 came in at 1.9%. The figure will be revised as fuller data becomes available in due course.

The remarkable thing about the Fukushima nuclear power plant accident was that, ultimately, it was man made.

Last week saw all of the major markets losing ground. Check out the fundamental analysis here.

The World Economic Forum is meeting in Davos, Switzerland at the moment with the glitterati of the political, financial and financial communities in attendance.

By most evaluations, the recovery in the UK in 2013 was stronger than had been predicted at the start of the year.

The European Commission is everybody’s favourite whipping boy and it never seems to gather any plaudits. UK PM, David Cameron was trumpeting the value of a putative EU-USA trade deal at the G8 summit last year.

Risk is always a question of perception and different people have different ideas about what constitutes an unacceptable risk – the same applies to the world of investing.

Last week saw all of the major markets making gains with the exception of the Nikkei which continues to fall as investors cash out some of last year’s gains.

Wealthy nations provide foreign aid donations to the developing world to help with poverty alleviation; infra-structure development; enhanced agricultural efficiency; clean water; and a myriad of other noble causes.

The only thing on Earth that can defy gravity always used to be the price of things – wages never seemed to have this ability and in recent years, many people have suffered from a decline in disposable income, eroding their standard of living.

The British people seem to have fallen in love with a type of geo-political economic suicide pact that would give a lemming second thoughts.

The US Department of Labor released the latest set of figures on unemployment in the USA on Friday. At first sight, the data looks like unbridled good news with December unemployment falling to a five year low of 6.7%.

The first full week’s trading of 2014 is now behind us. It was a mixed affair for the major markets with some falling, some gaining and some standing essentially unchanged.

According to statistics recently released by Eurostat, the level of unemployment within the Eurozone remained unchanged in November (before Latvia’s entry to the bloc on New Year ’s Day) at 12.1% of the workforce.