U.S. freezes $30 billion in Libyan assets

WASHINGTON (MarketWatch) – The U.S. government has frozen $30 billion in Libyan government assets so they cannot be accessed by Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi and his family, said David Cohen, Treasury acting undersecretary for terrorism on Monday. In a briefing, Cohen said this was the largest amount of assets ever blocked under any sanctions regime. President Barack Obama froze the Libyan assets on Friday in response to Gadahfi’s violent crackdown on protestors seeking democratic reforms.

EURUSD Bullish Ahead of Bernanke’s Testimony

EURUSD – 1.3814 @06:23 GMT

Hello. The euro recovered yesterday and is back around 1.3800 at time of writing. Resistance starts at 1.3850/60 – level that is still intact after several tests in February. Upside is favored for now and the daily studies are showing bullish signals, so I am thinking that buying on strength, on the potential breakout above 1.3850, would be a good plan. On the other side – notable support stands at 1.3710/30. Today’s key event in the Forex Calendar is Bernanke’s testimony at 15:00 GMT.

Trading strategy: looking to buy at 1.3850, initial stop at 1.3780 (0.5% risk), objective at 1.400

Support: 1.3750/60, 1.3710/30, 1.3650, 1.3550/80 and 1.3500 Resistance: 1.3850/60, 1.3900 and 1.400 Market sentiment: long term – mixed, medium term – bullish, short term – bullish, intraday – bullish

EURUSD daily chart 3-1-2011 EURUSD 4hrs chart 3-1-2011

I’ll be back later today. Good luck

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KBC: The Hungarian forint strengthens ahead of the new spending reduction programme

Czech Republic

The Czech currency gained quite significantly and moved to the 24.37 EUR/CZK on Monday. This was mainly due to lower tensions on global markets. Slightly hawkish comments made by governor Singer played only minor role. He said that current re- cord low rates are unsustainable from a long term point of view. Nevertheless he added that inflationary pressures within the economy have been low so far and hence current monetary policy is appropriate for now. While such comments will hardly help the koruna, Singer’s comment is definitely good news for Czech bonds. We are somewhat hesitant to bet on further CZK gains under current global condi- tions, while today’s release of the Czech PMI has been mixed (the headline reading fell from February’s 60.5 to January’s 59.8). Today the CEE region may be nervous after flash euro zone CPI estimates just two days ahead of ECB meeting. Neverth Read more…

The U.S. Dollar’s 77.00 Breakdown Impact

How the dollar’s push through support has me reevaluating my positions.

The U.S. Dollar Index broke lower through the 77.00 low from February 2 and this represents not only a range breakdown but also a push through a major psychological level. This also puts my near-term expectations for dollar support to the test and is now causing me to rethink my positions and position sizing. I believe this is all necessary and good since it’s the cues from price levels not only in the forex pairs I trade that impact my analysis, but also cues from price levels in my forex market pulse that will cause me to do the same. Let’s examine the pairs that are being impacted:

EUR/USD: I have been setting up a distribution fade on the daily time frame based upon the volatile, sideways range that would present an opportunity to sell at the range highs and buy at the range lows. The d

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End of the week wrap up: what will continued dollar weakness mean?

The U.S. Dollar’s resumption of weakness has carried it lower through two key levels I have been watching all week: 78.40 and 78.00. I believe the breakdown through the major psychological level at 78.00 is the most important of these support levels because the significance of the shift through any “00” can often accelerate – in this case – the negative sentiment and momentum. The break through 78.00 however must also translate into this level becoming resistance so that when price attempt a move back higher we can see that the “00” now attracts selling resistance.

Remember that throughout the three days of neutral trading sessions, the U.S. Dollar Index was not able to break higher through 79.00 and this was an important level that the bears were watching and the bulls could not rally through.

Since the previous trend (before the neutral market shift) was down, the market was neutral to bearish at best. From my o

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Force Majeure!

At least that’s what has been declared in Libya on oil exports as the violence and unrest continues to increase, removing some of the world’s supply of oil. While this supply shock is not great enough to cause a lack of oil, it has contributed to higher oil prices and the risk premium that is built in. Oil is now trading at around $96.25, a two-year high.Yesterday’s double-whammy of Libyan unrest and the New Zealand earthquake sent markets plummeting, and it remains to be seen whether today’s early indications of higher markets is the continuation of the previous weeks’ uptrend, or just a dead-cat bounce.

In other word’s, will the market finally respect the inherent risks to the global economy that the geopolitical events taking place in Arab nations represent? Stay tuned.

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