Euro Down on PMI, Concerns About French Elections

The euro was down today on concerns about the outcome of the presidential elections in France. The report that showed the manufacturing index falling to the lowest level in almost three years also had its negative impact on the currency.





Socialist Francois Hollande won the first round of elections, while incumbent President Nicolas Sarkozy was the second. The anti-euro far-right National Front, led by Marine Le Pen, was third, showing that resentment against the eurozone is growing in France.
Markit Economics reported that the eurozone manufacturing Purchasing Managers’ Index slipped from 47.7 in March to 46.0 in April. Such low level was last seen in July 2009. Traders hoped that the index would rise to 48.1.
EUR/USD was down from 1.3182 to 1.3149 and EUR/JPY slid from 107.47 to 106.59 as of 10:22 GMT today.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

MPs say Rupert Murdoch unfit to run company

Image
Rupert Murdoch is not fit to run a major international company, MPs said on Tuesday, finding him ultimately responsible for the illegal phone hacking that has corroded his global media empire and damaged the political establishment. But it split along party lines, with members from Prime Minister David Cameron's Conservative Party voting against the report, saying they did not agree with its view that the Australian-born Murdoch was not fit to run a major company. Cameron is facing criticism ahead of local elections this week that he was too close to the media tycoon, who won government approval to take over British pay-TV operator BSkyB, before dropping the bid when the scandal broke. The report said there had been huge failures in corporate governance which raised questions about the competence of Rupert's 39-year-old son, James. "News International and its parent News Corporation exhibited wilful blindness, for which the companies' directors -includin
Read more

Clinton confronts dissident case ahead of China talks

Image
Secretary of State Hillary Clinton arrived in  China  on Wednesday for top-level talks that risk being upstaged by the fate of a blind dissident whose supporters say is under U.S. protection in Beijing after escaping house arrest. Washington has not even commented on the whereabouts of the dissident, legal activist Chen Guangcheng, whose plight has overshadowed the Strategic and Economic Dialogue due to begin on Thursday. The United States hopes the talks will encourage greater Chinese cooperation on trade as well over  Iran , Syria, North Korea and other international disputes. Chen's friends and supporters have said he is probably inside the fortress-like U.S. embassy in northeast Beijing. The official silence about his fate from both Washington and Beijing has shown their eagerness to contain friction over his case. Relations could easily go awry, especially with the ruling Communist Party wrestling with a leadership scandal and a looming power succession. "O
Read more

Bharti Airtel Q4 net falls 28% to Rs 1006 crore, capex outlook between $3-3.2 billion

Image
NEW DELHI: Bharti Airtel, India's biggest mobile phone carrier by subscribers, reported its ninth straight quarterly profit decline as intense price competition and losses on foreign exchange eroded earnings.  Consolidated net profit fell to Rs 1,006 crore ($190.89 million) in the fourth quarter ended March from Rs 1401 crore a year earlier, Bharti said on Wednesday. The company said that the net income was impacted by higher costs on account of 3G license fee amortisation ( Rs 106 crore), 3G interest costs (Rs 84 crore),  forex fluctuation losses (Rs 132 crore) and tax provisions (Rs 198 crore).  The revenue grew at 11.6% for the full year in India & South Africa, mainly contributed by stability in pricing accompanied by growth in customer numbers. Africa, after adjusting for the number of days in Q1 FY11, grew by 18.8% in $ terms, on the back of network expansion and growing customer base.  The consolidated EBITDA margins for the full year dropped to 33.2% versus 33.7% i
Read more