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Amid the US dollar falling to new record lows this past week against the euro and Swiss franc and to a two year low against the yen, WTI crude futures climbed to an all-time high on Wednesday of $99.29. However, by Friday oil prices retreated to $98.10 following bearish supply data from the...

Europe In the FTSE the mining sector continues to be in focus following on from the recent merger proposal by BHP Billiton for rival Rio Tinto. Last week also saw Vendanta Resources become a take over target on speculation that a Chinese company may be interested in a stake which prompted...

Last week provided some interesting developments in the markets understanding of the Bank of England’s current thinking. Firstly, there were the minutes which meet consensus in terms of the vote but left the market somewhat surprised when it was revealed that John Gieve, not Rachel Lomax...

Last week saw the ECB continue their hawkish rhetoric, with comments from Trichet epitomising the central banks current stance. With libor rates continuing to move higher amongst the re-emergence of credit crunch fears, the ECB responded by saying they would provide extra liquidity this week and...

The U.S. markets will roar back into full gear this week, as participants return from the Thanksgiving holiday with anxiety at relatively high levels and the economic data calendar full. The economy could be poised for a broad economic downturn, however there is still no firm evidence that the...

ASIA Japan's markets closed today to mark labour and thanksgiving day holiday. U.S. Goldman Sachs - The investment bank is aiming at raising USD4-6bln for a new hedge fund that will focus on picking shares rather than using quantitative models. (FT) Boeing - The company said that KLM...

BoE deputy governor Rachel Lomax spoke last night in Hull giving insight into both the upside and downside risks to the UK economy. Lomax said the MPC's dilemma comes from high energy prices, which pose an upside risk, and the impact of the credit squeeze, which creates a downside growth risk...

ASIA Japan's markets closed today to mark labour and thanksgiving day holiday. The Chinese economy will grow by around 11.5% in 2007 and CPI will hit 4.5% to 4.6%, pushed up by rising food and oil prices, according to the China statistics chief (RTRS) An academic advisor to the Chinese...

Energy futures are trading higher today in thin trading as the U.S. markets closed today for the Thanksgiving Day holiday. Yesterday energy futures finished mostly lower after the EIA reported that crude inventories fell unexpectedly by 1.1M barrels, gasoline inventories increased less than...

**NYSE closed - Thanks giving holiday** ASIA The Nikkei reversed course to end higher at the close (+0.34%), erasing losses that took it to a fresh 16-month low, as the yen eased against the dollar. (RTRS) US crude futures were steady above $97 overnight, after falling nearly a dollar in...

The UK press focused on yesterday's 7-2 vote in the November BoE minutes. The Telegraph looks at Gieve's choice to vote for a cut writing that 'by dint of his position as the deputy governor for financial stability, he has the most intimate link with the markets. So his decision to dispense with...

ASIA The benchmark 10-year JGB yield sank to a 26-month low early in the session, however a pull back in the Nikkei into positive territory left JGB's trading back to unchanged at 137.30 by 0625 this morning (RTRS) BoJ's Nakamura said the that future downside risks for US economy are...

Energy futures are trading lower today on a rebounding dollar (although the dollar is off more than 1% against the yen), weak U.S. equities after the FOMC lowered the bottom end of its 2008 GDP forecast yesterday, comments by Treasury Secretary in an interview with the WSJ that the number of...

ASIA The Nikkei ended at a 16-month closing low down 2.46% at 14,837.66, with a stronger yen weighing. At 0730 USD/JPY was trading Y109.06 down 89 and EUR/JPY was trading Y161.87 down 134. There was also continued uneasiness over the financial stocks after Goldman Sachs gave sell...

BoE minutes are due today at 0930 GMT, with consensus that the MPC voted 7-2 to leave rates on hold at the November meeting (5.75%) BoE's Gieve said there still maybe more bad news to come in financial markets (RTRS)** UK papers focusing on Paragon, one of Britain's biggest buy-to-let...

ASIA JGB's rose to fresh 22-month highs as Tokyo share prices extended losses (Nikkei -2.46%), prompting investors to seek the safety of government debt (RTRS) At 0630 JGB's were trading 137.30 (+0.32). Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao said economic growth will average 11.5%, the same it has...

Energy futures are trading mostly higher this morning on further weakness in the US dollar, comments by Energy Secretary Bodman that OECD crude oil stocks were about 100 million barrels below the five year average and a disruption at Shell’s 155K b/d Scotford oil sands unit yesterday. The...

ASIA The Nikkei rose for the first time in four sessions, pulling out of a slide to 16-month lows earlier in the day, buoyed by short covering on an oversold view and with a USD 1.8bln bid led by a US buyout firm to buy nearly one-third of midsize lender Shinsei Bank Ltd (RTRS) Oil prices...

ASIA JGB's trimmed earlier gains as Tokyo shares recovered from an earlier drop, helped by a USD 1.8bln bid by a US buyout firm for nearly one-third of Japanese lender Shinsei Bank Ltd (RTRS) At 0625 JGB's were trading 136.98 (-0.05) and the Nikkei was up 1.12%. Japanese economics...

Energy futures are trading mostly higher this morning after OPEC members agreed to create a committee to study how a currency basket for pricing oil might work, despite resistance from Saudi Arabia. Also supporting prices were comments by Venezuela’s President, Chavez, at over the weekend, who...