Daily FNArena News - FYI

TD Securities sees scope for the Australian dollar to trade at parity or beyond against the US dollar, with Danske Bank expecting the US Dollar to remain weak while the Fed are alone in cutting rates.

All is forgiven. The Dow closed at a new record high last night as Citigroup aired its dirty laundry.

The RBA is expected to leave rates unchanged on Wednesday but it’s still uncertain what the ECB and BoE will do with rates on Thursday.

The Dow closed off the quarter with a small down day.

Jobs numbers were good, housing numbers were woeful (which is good), oil shot up again (which is good for oil stocks) and end of quarter window dressing is in play.

The Dow ratcheted up another 100 points last night driven largely by GM. Bear Stearns rumours also fuelled the fire along with a very poor durable goods number.

A slew of poor economic data and profit reports sent the Dow off into negative territory last night, before everybody remembered the Fed was standing ready.

The only way seems down for US interest rates and thus also for the greenback. SVB’s senior strategist Dave Bhagat agrees, but only for the medium term.

There were economic data released last night, but there will be quite a lot more this week. After posting solid gains it was time to take some money out. The IMF also disappointed the financial sector.

Stephen Koukoulas at TD Securities suggests there is little chance of the US sliding into recession, so any rate cut cycle in coming months should be moderate as growth may surprise on the upside.