Europe's Sovereign Debt Sends U.S. Dollar Higher

Daily Market Commentary for May 23, 2011

U.S. Markets began the new trading session for the week deep in negative territory as new worries about Europe's sovereign debt sent the U.S. dollar higher. (read more at Millennium-Traders.Com)
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The cost of insuring Spanish and Italian government debt against default jumped, with the spread on five-year Spanish credit default swaps or CDS, widening to 277 basis points from 261basis points. This means it would cost $277,000 annually to insure $10 million of Spanish debt against default, up from $261,000 on Friday. The Italian CDS spread widened 15 basis points to 176.

European Central Bank Governing Council member Christian Noyer reported that the Greece situation is worse than those of Ireland and Portugal. Additionally, Spain’s ruling Socialists suffered significant losses in the local weekend elections. According to media reports, Popular Party held more than 37% of the votes versus nearly 28% for the Socialist Party.

Latest data from China added to mounting evidence that global recovery was beginning to slow. Chinese stocks suffered their worst fall in more than four months today that led Asian markets lower. Chinese markets were weighed down by the combined effect of data showing weakening growth in local manufacturing, European debt worries and weakness on Wall Street. China’s Shanghai Composite lost 2.9% to 2,774.57 for its biggest one-day percentage drop since a matching decline on January 20 of this year.
Other markets taking it on the chin include: South Korea’s Kospi fell 2.6% to 2,055.71; Hong Kong’s Hang Seng Index shed 2.1% to 22,711.02; Australia’s S&P/ASX 200 declined 1.9% to 4,643.0; Japan’s Nikkei Stock Average fell 1.5% to 9,460.63; Taiwan’s Taiex gave up 1% to 8,747.51 and in afternoon trading, India’s Sensex dropped 1.7% to 18,020.23.


LinkedIn (NYSE: LNKD) shares felt the negative wrath of the Chinese markets, down over 8 points into early afternoon trading.

Sina (NasdaqGS: SINA) was lower by over 5 points into early afternoon trading session as investors are seen to be passing up stocks associated with the Chinese markets.

ProShares Ultra Silver (NYSEArca: AGQ) shares were quite volatile with shares having a high on of $173.55 and a low of $167.92 as of early afternoon trading session.

Netflix (NasdaqGS: NFLX) shares have been poised for higher highs from the start of the session. Into early afternoon trading, shares were higher over a point.


Economic data released today:


Chicago Fed National Activity: April National Activity Index -0.45 Vs March +0.32; Apr NAI 3-Month Moving Average -0.12 Vs March +0.08.

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