EU

A Reuters report from Tuesday says that Iran is moving to accept gold and foreign currencies for its oil in the wake of economic sanctions against the country over its nuclear program. "Significant difficulties in making dollar payments to Iranian banks have forced Iran's trading partners to look...

Stock prices across Europe fell during early Tuesday trading after Moody's Investors Service downgraded the credit ratings of several European Union countries. Moody's downgraded the credit ratings of Italy, Malta, Portugal, Slovakia and Spain and gave each of them a negative outlook as well. The...

George Soros, the world's greatest trader, continues to warn of an impending global economic crisis, which could culminate in unthinkable consequences. In a Newsweek exclusive, the legendary investor says, “I am not here to cheer you up. The situation is about as serious and difficult as I've...

European politics have been one of the main forces moving the U.S. markets in the past couple months. Traders have become accustomed to comments by politicians whose names are unpronounceable and daily rumors that can cause the Dow Jones Industrial Average to swing up and down hundreds of points...

On Monday, ISM Non-Manufacturing Composite for the month of November printed at 52.0, down from the prior reading of 52.9 and well below expectations of 53.8. The reading is a broad-based assessment of the state of the service sector in the US. Of its subcategories, the reading for employment...

Italian Prime Minister Mario Monti is asking his country's parliament to pass another round of austerity measures aimed at preventing an Italian default. The latest set of austerity measures being presented to the Italian Parliament is said to be around 30 billion euros ($40 billion). The measures...

Long-term market trends rarely end with a whimper. Stock charts are created by cycles that last for years and years. Major market trends frequently end with massive blow-off tops or devastating capitulation bottoms. Keeping this in mind, consider the long-term trend in financial stocks and the...

The last 12 hours or so of trading in global financial markets has been extremely volatile due to the fluid situation unfolding in Europe. On Wednesday evening, S&P 500 futures were indicating that Thursday's open could be brutal. In the overnight trading session, futures contracts on the S...

Much of Greece has been shut down for the second day in a row as Greek citizens protest against an upcoming parliamentary vote on yet another round of austerity measures. Passage of the latest round of austerity measures being debated in parliament is necessary in order for the Greek government to...

This morning we got an announcement from the "troika" that Greece would get the €8 billion ($11 billion) in aid it was promised under the first Greek bailout in 2010, with the payment likely coming in November. Despite getting the payment issue all but settled, the troika, which includes the...

European stocks were near a two year low as French banking stocks took a beating during trading in Europe on Tuesday. There are growing concerns that French banks are facing a liquidity crisis that will worsen if Greece defaults on its national debt. French and German financial institutions are...

There has been growing talk that China will soon increase its purchases of Italian debt in a move that Italian officials hope will drive down Italy's borrowing costs. Italian Finance Minister Giulio Tremonti is said to have met with Lou Jiwei, the head of the Chinese sovereign wealth fund China...

Markets have rebounded the past few days, since news broke Thursday morning of an 'emergency' meeting Tuesday between Germany's Merkel and France's Sarkozy.  It appears the market is pushing for some sort of 'euro bond' - the equivalent of a U.S. type bond that would treat each EU member as a '...

Ratings agency Moody's Investors Service has downgraded Greek sovereign debt yet again. Moody's downgrade of Greek debt to "Ca" from the previous rating of "Caa1" makes Greece the lowest rated country in the world covered by the ratings agency. Although the agreement reached by European leaders...

Asian stocks climbed higher again during Friday trading in Asia, as the markets reacted positively to the Greek Parliament passing a second set of austerity measures that allowed Greece to receive the latest 12 billion euro ($17 billion) installment of its emergency loan from the European Union (EU...