FXIS Market Insights

Noteworthy... 
• US consumer sentiment fell from 76.0 in June to 66.5 in July, lowest since Aug-09
• US Consumer Price Index declined 0.1% in June on a seasonally adjusted basis (BLS)
• US Senate passes bill to overhaul the US financial system and its regulators (FT)
• US industrial production edged up 0.1% in June after having risen 1.3% in May (NBER)
• US producer price index fell 0.5% in June on a seasonally adjusted basis (BLS)
• Bank of Japan held its key rate at 0.1%, and raised its economic outlook (MarketWatch)
• Fed lowers 2010 growth forecast to a range of 3% - 3.5% (FT)
• Consumer prices in the Eurozone grew 1.4% y/y compared with a 1.6% rise in May (Economy.com)
• Industrial production in the Eurozone area up by 0.9% in May from previous month (Eurostat)
• Indian inflation stays above 10%; prices are up 10.55% in June from a year earlier (FT)
• Singapore economy grows at record pace of 18.1% in the first half of 2010 (FT)
• 25.5% of US consumers, nearly 43.4M people, now have a credit score of 599 or lower (AP)
• Prices of US imports fell 1.3% in June after a 0.5% drop the previous month (BLS)
• Chinese GDP growth was 10.3% y/y in Q2, down from 11.9% y/y in Q1 (Economy.com)
• US retail sales in June down 0.5% from the prior month but up 4.8% from last year (ESA)
• The US trade deficit in May 2010 increased 4.8%, to $42.3 billion (ESA)
• Moody's downgraded Portugal by two notches to A1 from Aa2 (MarketWatch)
• China's exports jumped 44% compared to June-09, leading to a trade surplus of $20B (FT)

Weekly Market Barometers

Charts Of The Week
A week that started out so well ended on a sour note leading the major market indexes into negative territory.  In terms of the US, much of the economic concerns are still with the consumer.  Two particularly concerning developments surfaced again this week.  Consumer sentiment took a dive for the worse; but we must also be worried that about a quarter of US consumers have now fallen into the category of the highest credit risk.  Do we really need to encourage consumers to take on more debt? 

Recommended Video
Please consider this interview with Niall Ferguson; in addition to some sobering observations about the prospects for economic improvement, he argues that the current crisis is much more a political problem than an economic one. Enjoy!

Good luck and good investing!

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