Nov. 29 () – New Zealand stocks rose for the first time in three sessions, as investors took their lead from Australia, which shrugged off some of the nervous sentiment stalking global markets. Air New Zealand Ltd. paced gainers on the day, while Kathmandu Holdings fell.

The NZX 50 Index gained 6.13 points, or 0.2%, to 3,270.38. Within the index, 17 stocks rose, 16 declined and 17 were unchanged. Turnover was $74.1 million.

In afternoon trade, Australia’s S&P/ASX 200 rose 0.4% to 4,615.4, bucking the trend on global markets where investors are collapsing their riskier positions amid lingering concerns around Europe’s sovereign debt situation and heightening tensions on the Korean peninsula.

“Where a lot of the selloff is focused is on the commodity players, or beta stocks, which is not that big over here, so we’re tending to see a muted exposure,” said Peter Sigley, an institutional broker for Goldman Sachs & Partners. “The key le

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The US dollar strengthened against most major currencies after new housing prices and wholesale inventories rose slightly. New housing prices rose to 0.2 percent above expectations for a rise of 0.1 percent, while wholesale inventories rose to 1.5 percent from a consensus of 0.6 percent. The market will look towards this week’s meeting of the Group of 20 leaders in South Korea, where one of the topics will be preventing a currency “war” where countries rush to protectionism, which would hamper the overall global recovery. In the meantime look for the dollar to hold close to current ranges ahead of initial jobless claims and trade balance figures tomorrow, where expectations are for a loss of 450,000 jobs and a slight decline in the trade figure to -$45.6 billion from -$46.35 billion last month.

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Many important events await forex traders this week with Ben Bernanke’s Speech, US Existing Home Sales, American Consumer Confidence, US Durable Goods Orders, Unemployment Claims and Advance GDP. Here’s an outlook for the major market-moving events that will shape forex trading.The U.S. Dollar continued its decline against most of the other major currencies last week partly due to the mixed nature of U.S. economic releases. Key employment numbers from the United States continue to weaken, while some numbers such as Retail Sales showed some improvement. This week features many market moving events for the USD. Let’s see whether the USD will change direction this week. 1. Ben B Read more…

Major anticipation for the Federal Reserve quantitative easing measures forced the single currency to decline against majors in today’s trading as indicated by the US dollar index that tracks the performance of the dollar against a basket of currencies.

The US dollar index dropped on the daily scale to 77.72, compared with the opening levels of 78.07, where it managed to reach the highest at 78.36 and the lowest at 77.59.

The Fed will release its Beige Book later on today, which may show the extent of easing conditions and the course of recovery that floundered over the past period.

Policy makers in Britain and the constant debates among them over the past few months drove the pound lower against most majors except the dollar.

The pound fell as investors await the BOE’s next move on whether to provide markets with further stimuli or simply preserving the current monetary stand the bank is on.

The pound-dollar pair rose to trade at 1.5745, compared with the opening levels of 1.5702, where it managed to reach the highest at 1.5766 and the lowest at 1.5648.

Osborne announced the details on the biggest spending cuts in nearly 70-years, which would impact the recovery process and growth negatively and force volatility to tamper with the pound’s trading over the upcoming period.

Lack of fundamentals from the euro-zone pressured investors to target higher yielding assets; the euro-dollar pair ascended to 1.3835, compared with the opening levels of 1.3723.

The pair’s correctional move to the upside aims to retest the resistance at 1.3850, where failing to breach it will preserve the bearish trend to target 1.3670 levels.

Finally, the dollar fell against the yen on the daily scale to trade at 81.26, compared with the opening levels of 81.54, while reaching a high of 81.65 and a low of 81.26.

the expected bullish trend for today remains intact. Keep in

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While Fed Chairman Bernanke is speaking in Boston, I’m writing you this email from Chicago.At this moment, Bernanke is still at the podium. But his words are already echoing on the airwaves and the Web, while the gold and currency futures markets are going haywire. The obvious take-away …He will DEFINITELY launch a second MAJOR round of money printing!How much? He doesn’t seem to have figured that out yet — or doesn’t want to tell us.Unfortunately, that’s no longer a critical issue … because unless someone or something stops him dead in his tracks, he can always launch a third round, a fourth round and more.Will it work? Bernanke’s not sure! Easy money doesn’t directly impact employment, he admits. But his message s Read more…

Australian Dollar: The Australian Dollar opens higher against the greenback today at 0.9860, recovering from a low of 0.9785 during yesterday’s domestic session after a fall in business confidence. Whilst business conditions improved slightly in September according to the NABs monthly survey, confidence slid one index point to 10 points. Also taking the wind out of the Aussies sails yesterday was a weaker local stock market weighed down by mixed offshore leads.

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Oct. 8 () – Kapiti investment adviser Chris Lee has wooed former South Canterbury Finance executive Kevin Gloag to set up a branch in Timaru.

Former Allan Hubbard-lieutenant Gloag will be opening a new and permanent branch of Chris Lee Stockbroking, and Lee said he will announce details within a few days in his weekly newsletter Taking Stock, published on his website today.

Gloag left SCF in May after 29 years’ service following former chief executive and chief financial officer Lachie McLeod and Graeme Brown out the door. Glo

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