Fundamental Headlines • Credit Suisse Logs Big Loss, Dims View – Wall Street Journal • Tumult Touches Emerging Nations – Wall Street Journal • Microsoft results offer hope to tech sector – Financial Times • OPEC Agrees to Cut Production by 1.5 Million Barrels – Bloomberg • Renault, Peugeot Lead Corporate Bond Risk to Record as Car Sales Collapse – Bloomberg • GBPUSD – The U.K. economy slipped into a recession for the first time since 1991 as the economy contracted 0.5% in the third quarter. Meanwhile, the index of services fell another 0.3% after declining 0.1% in July, and has certainly heightened growth concerns for Europe’s second largest economy as the service sector accounts for nearly three-quarters of GDP. The downturn in the economy has certainly fueled expectations for the MPC to ease policy further as fears of a global recession intensifies, which would only fuel bearish sentiment for the British pound. In fact, the pound-dollar (GBPUSD) dropped to its lowest level since 2003 following the growth report as the pair dipped below the 1.56 level. Discuss the topic and your trade ideas in the GBP/USD Forum. • EURUSD – German import prices fell 1.0% in September after declining 0.8% in the previous month as crude oil prices continues to pull back from its record high in July. On an annual basis, import prices slipped to 7.6% from 9.3% in August, which crossed the wires slightly weaker than the 7.8% estimate projected by economists. Meanwhile, manufacturing activity in October contracted for the third straight month as the advanced PMI reading plunged to 43.3 from a final reading of 47.4 in September. In addition, economic activity in the service sector stalled for the first time since January as the PMI index slipped to 49.7 from 50.2. The data suggests that Europe’s largest economy may slip into a recession in the third quarter as demands from the global economy continue to falter. In addition, services and manufacturing activity in the Euro-Zone contracted for the fifth consecutive month as the PMI index slipped to 46.9 and 41.3, respectively. The disappoint data has certainly dueled expectations for the ECB to lower the benchmark interest rate further as growth prospects turn increasingly bleak. Discuss the topic and your trade ideas in the EUR/USD Forum.
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