Fx Trading Station

2006 Mid-Year Forecast

This week we will venture into the always hazardous area of making my semi-annual forecast. I make some non-consensus projections as to the economic climate for the next six months, and of course look at Fed policy. We will also quickly review my beginning of the year (2006) forecast and see what changes should be made. I also point you to a solid resource on gold and gold stocks at the end of the letter. It will be a very interesting letter, I think.

But first, a quick note on today's reversal by the District of Columbia Court of Appeals on the SEC requirement for hedge funds to register. If you read the brief 19 page ruling, it is clear that the Court did not buy into the argument of the SEC about the meaning of the word client, which was the legal basis for the SEC to require hedge funds to register.

LinkShare Corporation Announces 2006 Golden Link Award Winners

NEW YORK, June 21 /PRNewswire/ -- Reflecting stiff competition among some of the most innovative, fastest growing and successful sites on the web, The 2006 LinkShare Golden Link Awards winners were announced last night in a gala ceremony in New York City hosted by performance-based marketing leader LinkShare Corporation.

The prelude to LinkShare's annual Symposium, a daylong industry event covering developments in web marketing, the Golden Link Awards celebrate the best of breed in both affiliates and merchants doing business on the web.

"We congratulate all of the 2006 LinkShare Golden Link Award winners, as well as this year's nominees. Each represents the very best in performance- based marketing, and we're proud to have them all as a part of the LinkShare network," says Stephen R.

Sensis forecasts upbeat

TELSTRA chief executive Sol Trujillo has rejected claims the company's core growth engine, online directories business Sensis, will miss its aggressive growth targets.

"Everything we are doing (with Sensis) basically is on track," Mr Trujillo said.

Last November, Mr Trujillo said he expected Sensis to double revenue within five years to more than $3 billion. But analysts are not so certain.

Macquarie Bank telco analyst Tim Smart last month challenged the market's expectation that Sensis could increase revenue by 6-7 per cent a year until 2010.

"Sensis is still generally considered a solid, relatively low-risk growth engine for Telstra, (but) in light of emerging, powerful, new online local search competition, we challenge the consensus view of growth and risk," he wrote.

Gearing Up for the Buy Side's Global Trading Needs

Providers are beefing up their offerings to attract U.S.-based buy-side traders with a global appetite.
By Katherine Heires
Wall Street & Technology
June 16, 2006

As buy-side traders in the U.S. continue to set their sights on ever-more-complex global trading strategies, technology-driven firms that facilitate access to international markets have been keeping busy. Global market access providers such as Paris-based GL Trade and London-based Royalblue, for example, have been updating and refining their product offerings in the hopes of attracting new business from U.S.-based buy-side traders - in particular, those with an appetite for greater risk, new pools of liquidity and expanded trading opportunities in far-flung markets.

Other global access providers, such as Orc Software and New York-based Tradeware, that primarily provide their technology to sell-side firms also have been sprucing up their network offerings.

Rap Music is Assisting in Genocide

Stop selling us out! Exposing those who are assisting the genocide of Afrikan people via rap musik by Tutaonana, Kwabena Sakidi Jijaga Rasuli D.J. Precious Pau

Dollar holds firm in thin US trade

The dollar held firm on Monday in spite of the US posting weak economic data while most other major trading blocs unveiled strong numbers.

The greenback did hit a three-week low of $1.2822 to the euro as it emerged that the US Institute of Supply Management's purchasing managers' index fell unexpectedly in June.

However, by mid-session New York trade the dollar was essentially unchanged on the day at $1.2793 to the euro, as well as firming 0.4 per cent to Y114.87 against the yen and 0.3 per cent to $1.8415 versus sterling.

Paul Mackel, senior currencies strategist at HSBC, attributed the dollar's resilience to the absence of many traders ahead of today's Independence Day holiday, meaning the reaction to the ISM data may be delayed until tomorrow.

Marc Chandler, head of global currency research at Brown Brothers Harriman, saw the dollar's uptick as "largely corrective" following a sell-off in the wake of last week's dovish Federal Reserve statement.