Canadian Dollar Receives Hit from US

Canadian DollarCanada’s dollar plunged today as demand for the nation’s assets deteriorated because of pessimistic outlook for the economy of the biggest nation’s trading partner — the US.

The depressed mood caused fall of equities and decline of commodities. The MSCI World Index of stocks slumped 1.9 percent, while the Standard & Poor’s 500 Index fell as much as 2.1 percent.

There are positive sing, though, that may precede a change of the trend. The S&P/TSX Composite Index rose 0.4 percent. Crude oil, the main export of Canada, rallied 3.2 percent to $81.82 per barrel. Yield on the two-year government bonds fell five basis points to 0.81 percent.

USD/CAD jumped from 0.9771 to 0.9921 as of 19:19 GMT today. EUR/CAD advanced from 1.4044 to 1.4088 after reaching the intraday high of 1.4174. CAD/JPY fell from 78.70 to 77.38 and declined during the day to 76.82, the lowest level since March 2009.

If you have any questions, comments or opinions regarding the Canadian Dollar, feel free to post them using the commentary form below.

Earlier News About the Canadian Dollar:

Canadian Dollar Falls Along with Other Commodity Currencies (2011-08-02)

Loonie Declines as Economy Contracts (2011-07-29)

CAD Sets New Multi-Year Record on US Crisis Expectations (2011-07-26)

Canadian Inflation Slows, Loonie Retreats (2011-07-22)

CAD Reaches Three-Year High vs. USD (2011-07-22)

This entry was posted on TopForexNews on Wednesday, August 10th, 2011 at 7:19 pm and is filed under Canadian Dollar. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.

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Quotes of the day

posted at 10:41 pm on August 10, 2011 by Allahpundit
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“President Barack Obama is getting hammered on all sides for a stumbling U.S. economy and his uneven response to it, raising pressure on him to take steps to create jobs or risk being ousted in next year’s election…

“He received negative reviews from pundits for a speech on Monday that offered no new policy ideas and failed to cushion a steep sell-off on Wall Street…

“David Yepsen, director of the Paul Simon Public Policy Institute at Southern Illinois University, said a host of problems is playing on Americans’ minds, from weak job growth, and slumping markets to the recent deaths of 30 American troops in Afghanistan, a war that is increasingly unpopular.

“‘There’s that feeling, that things are out of control, that we’re not on top of this anymore,’ Yepson said.”

***

“Gary Pearce, a Democratic strategist in North Carolina, a swing state Mr Obama is likely to struggle to retain in 2012, said: ‘Democrats are worried. He looks weak, he doesn’t say anything that grabs you, and people are looking for some kind of magic.’

“He said some activists were asking ‘do we need someone tougher to fight the tea party?’ ‘You see a yearning for a Bill Clinton-type approach and Hillary would reflect that. Obama is just a different political animal, he is a low-key guy,’ he added.”

***

“All that remains of the great hopes Americans and the world had pinned on Obama, inspired by his stirring campaign speeches about change and renewal, is a battlefield of unsatisfactory and contradictory compromises. Obama, who just turned 50 and was once a symbol of youthful change, suddenly seems old and worn out, as gray as his hair has become…

“The clash with the Tea Party has highlighted Obama’s shortcomings. His opponents have everything he seems to lack. They are loud, confident and uncompromising, sticking to their principles while he repeatedly hesitates and delays. In the US midterm elections, dozens of Tea Party candidates managed to get elected to Congress by capitalizing on the rage of people who Obama had failed to connect with…

“It is now clear that Obama is simply not the man to help conflicting parties out of entrenched positions or give new impetus to an alliance. He instinctively leans toward measured, often delayed reactions, leaving his promises of change to fall by the wayside.”

***

“‘We just wish he’d be more of a fighter,’ said one influential Democrat with a grimace. Another agreed: ‘You can’t blame him for everything. I just wish he would come across more forceful at times, but that is not the dude’s style. Detached hurts you when things are sour. You need some of Clinton’s ‘I feel your pain’ compassion.’…

“Obama’s response on Monday to Friday’s Standard & Poor’s downgrade and to the 22 Navy Seal commandos and 8 other soldiers killed by a Taliban rocket-propelled grenade in Afghanistan was once more too little, too late. It was just like his belated, ineffectual response on the BP oil spill and his reaction to the would-be Christmas Day bomber; it took him three days on vacation in Hawaii to speak about the terrorist incident when the country was scared about national security, and then he spent the next week callously shuttling from the podium to the golf course…

“His withholding and reactive nature has made him seem strangely irrelevant in Washington, trapped by his own temperament. He doesn’t lead, and he doesn’t understand why we don’t feel led.”

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Americans say Obama government can't fix US economy: Poll

WASHINGTON: Barely one in four Americans feels confident that the Obama government can fix America's economic problems with a large majority agreeing that the policymaking process in Washington is unstable and ineffective, according to a new poll.

As many as 46 percent of registered voters say they plan to vote against President Barack Obama next year, versus 21 percent who say they will definitely vote for the president and 33 percent who say they will consider giving him another term, a Washington Post poll released on Wednesday said.

The poll underscores the damage caused to Obama and both Republicans and Democrats by the long standoff over the debt ceiling and the weakened economy, the influential US daily said.

The results could have significant implications for both parties, although the anger appears directed evenly between the two parties, as record numbers of Americans now say they are interested in new congressional representation when they vote in November 2012, it said.

Only 26 percent of respondents in the poll said they were confident that leaders in Washington could actually solve the economic problems facing the country.

Fifty-two percent of respondents to the Post poll said they believe Standard & Poor's decision to downgrade its rating on the US debt was a fair assessment, with 71 percent saying they thought S&P's assessment of the American political system as "less stable, less effective and less predictable" was fair.

Among those who believe that Washington is focused on the wrong issues, 30 percent blame Obama and Democrats, 30 percent blame Republicans and 32 percent blame both sides equally.

Confidence in Obama to make the right decisions for the country's economic future is down 10 points to 33 percent since January. Confidence in Congressional Republicans, which was at 35 percent in January, has dropped to 18 percent.

Obama's overall job ratings sit at 44 percent approval and 46 percent disapproval in the new poll, both numerically down from three weeks ago, when he was at 47 and 48 percent, respectively.

However, the poll found despite growing disillusionment with the political situation, 77 percent of Americans agree with this statement: "Whatever its faults, the United States still has the best system of government in the world." That number is unmoved from October 2010.

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Tom Friedman fantasizes: What if Boehner joined forces with Obama and totally dismissed the tea party?

posted at 10:06 pm on August 10, 2011 by Allahpundit
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As bad as that sounds, you need to know that this column was written as a faux AP news article to appreciate its true horror. So desperate is the left’s intelligentsia to see Obama fulfill his promise as redeemer of liberal dreams that they’ve given up analysis and taken to fanfic instead.

This guy may very well have action figures of Obama and Boehner stashed away in his home.

    Washington (AP) — It was a news conference the likes of which the White House had never seen. President Obama stood in the East Room, flanked by the House speaker, John Boehner; the Senate minority leader, Mitch McConnell; the Senate majority leader, Harry Reid; and the House minority leader, Nancy Pelosi. The president asked Mr. Boehner to speak first:

    “My fellow Americans,” the Ohio Republican began. “We have just concluded a meeting with the president, prompted by this moment of extraordinary economic peril. Our party, as you know, is convinced that the main reason for our economic decline is that we have too much debt, that government has grown too big and that taxes and regulations are choking our dynamism. But I have to acknowledge that, over the years, our party has contributed to this debt burden and government spending binge. We are not innocent, and, therefore, we owe the country a strategy for governing and for fixing a problem that we helped to create — instead of just blocking the president. The G.O.P. is better than that and has more to offer the nation. Therefore, we have informed the president that our legislators are ready to reopen negotiations immediately on a ‘Grand Bargain’ to address all these debt issues once and for all and that everything will be on the table from our side — including tax reform that closes loopholes and eliminates wasteful subsidies, and, if need be, tax increases. To those who voted for us, rest assured that we will bring our conservative values to these negotiations and an emphasis on markets and meritocracies, but also a spirit of compromise and a recognition that both sides will have to bend if we are going to get the kind of comprehensive budget agreement the country needs. To my Tea Party colleagues, I say: thank you. Your passion helped spur the nation to action, but the country cannot be governed, and our future secured, by bowing solely to the passions of any single group — liberal or conservative. I know that the Tea Party activists are true patriots and they will work with us as well. President Obama: Let’s fix the country together and then compete in 2012 over who can best manage a growing pie rather than a shrinking one.”

And so it came to be that John Boehner became a centrist Democrat and repudiated the core constituency that made him Speaker. After that comes a “warm embrace” between Obama and Boehner and a Grand Bargain very much along the lines of Tom Friedman’s (and Obama’s) own policy preferences before the column ends: “At that point, all five leaders shook hands and retreated into the Oval Office. It was exactly 9:29 a.m. One minute later, the New York Stock Exchange opened. The Dow was up 1,223 points at the open — an all-time record.” Apart from a few days in late 2008, when the Dow was insanely volatile due to the financial crisis and TARP, the biggest gain it’s ever made was 499 points. Such is the awesomeness of the Friedman platform that, if only congressional leaders would endorse it, we’d shatter the all-time one-day record on Wall Street in a burst of green, pro-ChiCom, “effective government” exuberance. They pay Friedman hundreds of thousands of dollars a year to write this stuff.

I almost feel guilty making you read it. Here, here’s a video of the greatest hitter of all time taking batting practice to try to redeem this post.

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Consumer Sentiment Curbs Appeal of Aussie

Australian dollarThe Australian dollar resumed its movement down after the yesterday’s gains as consumer sentiment declined this month, reducing attractiveness of the nation’s currency.

The Westpac-Melbourne Institute Consumer Sentiment index fell 3.5 percent in August from July. This declined followed the drop by 8.3 percent in July. The Aussie (the nickname of the Australian currency) also weakened as the pledge of the Federal Reserve to keep interest rates stable hasn’t reduced pessimism among Forex traders.

AUD/USD retreated from 1.0353 to 1.0343 as of 11:51 GMT after jumping to 1.0414 today. AUD/JPY fell from 79.66 to 79.15, following the advance to 80.34.

If you have any questions, comments or opinions regarding the Australian Dollar, feel free to post them using the commentary form below.

Earlier News About the Australian Dollar:

Australian Dollar Attempts Stop Decline, Fails (2011-08-09)

Eighth Session of Suffering for Aussie (2011-08-08)

AUD Down on Economic Outlook Revision (2011-08-05)

Australian Dollar Continues Its Correction on Weak Retail Sales (2011-08-03)

AUD Surges Against Everything on Higher Inflation Numbers (2011-07-27)

This entry was posted on TopForexNews on Wednesday, August 10th, 2011 at 11:51 am and is filed under Australian Dollar. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the en

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Kanon Wakeshima

Kanon Wakeshima (分島 花音) is a Japanese singer and cellist. Produced by Mana, Wakeshima debuted under the DefStar Records label on May 28, 2008 with the single "Still Doll", the ending theme for the anime adaptation of the manga series Vampire Knight. She also provided the voice for a maid that appears in the eighth episode of the series. Wakeshima's second single "Suna no Oshiro", released on November 12, 2008, was used as the ending theme for the series' second season (subtitled Guilty). | She was nominated for a Best Newcomer award for 2008 in the fourth annual Shojo Beat Music Awards, nominees of which are determined by surveying "record companies, music journalists, music experts, and music fans".

Kanon Wakeshima Pictures

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