FYI | Dec 18 2006
By Greg Peel
There is a little bit of data about this week but minds will be firmly set on Christmas shopping and the Christmas square-up. It is not unusual for traders to push a few things around substantially in the period before New Year as they look to show positive results on the books or simply liquidate ahead of a holiday.
Such was the case in the silver market on Friday night. While precious metal markets had run up hard when the US dollar broke down against the euro, they have equally retreated now despite the dollar pullback being only slight. Silver was up some 30% in a couple of months but suffered its biggest fall since 9/11 on Friday – 6.7% to US$12.81/oz.
Traders put the falls in both gold and silver down to a combination of Indian buying drying up as Christmas is almost at hand, funds taking profits ahead of year end, and a generally thin pre-holiday market. Funds apparently sold everything from copper to wheat. The dollar was once again firmer, aided by a CPI result that showed both headline and core inflation to be unmoved in November.
This week brings the US current account deficit tonight, PPI and housing starts on Tuesday, and leading indicators on Thursday. Thursday also sees UK current account and GDP.
In Australia we have skilled vacancies and leading index on Wednesday and new car sales on Thursday. New Zealand’s GDP is also out on Thursday.
On the AGM front, we’ll hear from St George (SGB) and Incitec Pivot (IPL) on Wednesday and Orica (ORI) on Thursday.
The team here at “The Week Ahead” would like to take this opportunity to thank you all for a great 2006. Have a wonderful Christmas and we’ll all be back again to bring you TWA in the new year.