Binary Options Weekly Report (July 30 – August 3)

MARKETS

World equities appeared to be on a rollercoaster ride after falling sharply on Thursday on ECB comments but Friday markets seemed to understand something different from Thursday and managed to close the week up slightly. US volatility was sold off some more down 6.3% on the week with CBOE VIX at 15.64 it heading towards the year lows of 13.66 may suggest that equities are getting complacent. The S&P500 was up 0.4% at 1391 on the week, the DJIA was also up 0.2% to close at 13,096 as did the NASDAQ up 1% for the week at 2676.

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FOREX

The week seemed to be full of Euro angst but was soon calmed by the ruling German coalitions comments and acceptance of the ECBs plan to buy government bonds.  EURUSD finished up 0.5% at 1.2386 just off its 1.2406 highs on the week. With commodity currency show strength as the Aussie closed up 1% at 1.0567 also the Kiwi dollar was up 1% at 0.8190 the highest levels seen in 4 months. The Dollar index closed down 0.4% at 82.446 settlement on the week.

 

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Commodity currencies push higher!

COMMODITIES

Crude inventories on Wednesday reported very large draw of 6.5m barrels with analyst polls only looking for a drawdown of 1.5m barrels this gave energy markets a kick along with Brent Crude finishing the week up 2% at USD$108.71 per barrel and WTI closed the week up 1.25% at $91.39 per barrel. RBOB unleaded gasoline futures closed up 1.3% at 2.9299. Natural Gas plunged 4.9% at 2.890 and was down 8% at one point on Thursday as the market received bearish storage injection data for the week ending July 27. Gold finished the week down 1% at USD$1607.00 /oz in New York.

 

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Natgas plunges on the week!

EQUTIES

 

JPMorgan Chase gained 6.5% on the week as investors hone in on the valuation of the stock and the banks in general in the US

Knight Capital Group Inc., fighting to stay afloat after a $440 million loss occured by a software bug, it is now trying desperately hard to find a buyer to stay in business – some take that Goldman Sachs maybe interested in them.

NYSE Euronext, reported 2nd Qtr earnings that beat estimates and they cut their cost guidance for the year. The share rose for the first time in the last 5 sessions on the news.

Berkshire Hathaway Profit Slid 9% in 2Q but Berkshire’s cash piles up as of the end of the Qtr ballooned to $40.66 bn, up more than $3 billion since the year began. Buffet is looking to make acquisitions with this war chest of cash.

Pfizer was up 7.7% for the week on a variety of good news and reaffirmed its 2012 outlook for earnings

Procter & Gamble with a 6.9% gain for the week it surprised the market with 4 Qtr  earnings that topped analysts’ estimates