Australian Dollar Rebounds on Chinese Data

The Australian dollar was affected yesterday by a series of negative domestic reports that halted a rally which set the currency to a one year high versus the greenback, but today, after favorable reports coming from Asia, the Aussie managed to reestablish its previous winning trend.The Australian currency climbed today versus several lower-yielding trading options, as stocks surged in Asia benefiting from two reports in China which indicated a more-than-expected rise in the industrial output and increased new lending figures, suggesting that one of the main trading partners of the South Pacific region is recovering from the current crisis. The New Zealand dollar, normally associated to the Aussie’s movements since several factors affect both countries’ currencies, also climbed further, reaching the ninth week in a row of gains versus the greenback, raising concerns in the Reserve Bank of New Zealand that a strong currency may affect the country’s recovery.

According to analysts, the recovery in China is more than essential for Australia’s economy growth, since the Asian country is the main destination for Australian exports. After yesterday’s negative reports that led to speculations regarding a delay in interest rate hikes, the Aussie is once again bullish, indicating that optimism in the region remains strong.

AUD/USD traded at 0.8643 as of 10:56 GMT after bottoming at 0.8555 yesterday. EUR/AUD traded at 1.6896 from 1.6999.

Dollar Suffers Another Hit as China Posts Industrial Growth

The dollar had a week of extremely negative performance hitting several record lows versus most of the main 16 currencies as demand for yield and investors’ confidence rose worldwide, this time, fueled by two reports in China that added to the already growing optimism in trading markets.Today in Europe, the dollar extended its losses versus the euro as countries like Germany and France are raising attractiveness for assets in the region, as this countries are posting the quickest and most favorable news regarding economic improvements. The British pound also posted significant gains versus the U.S. currency hitting a one month high after producer prices in the United Kingdom climbed for a sixth straight month, suggesting that one of the countries that most suffered with the credit crunch in Europe may be already in a process of recovery, which upgraded the pound’s outlook.

Economists analyze with a certain degree of pessimism the current situation for the U.S. currency. The dollar has been hit massively this week by an outflow of capital towards higher-yielding options, and the sentiment regarding the greenback could not be worse, as most of analysts suggest that the dollar downtrend may proceed further to an undetermined period of time and level, as long as the economic recovery continues.

EUR/USD traded at 1.4591 as of 11:34 GMT from a previous rate of 1.4555 in the intraday comparison. GBP/USD touched 1.6735 from 1.6513.

U.S. Sept. durable goods orders rise 1.0%

Orders for U.S.-made durable goods rose in September, rising 1.0% on stronger demand for machinery, defense and capital goods, the Commerce Department reported Wednesday. Excluding the 1.1% increase in transportation goods, orders rose 0.9%. The increase was in line with the forecast of economists surveyed by MarketWatch. It was the fourth increase in total orders in the past six months. Shipments rose 0.8% in September, but were down 0.8% excluding transportation goods. Inventories fell 1.0%, the ninth consecutive monthly decline.

Dollar Rises as Drop in U.S. Sentiment Reduces Risk Demand

The dollar rose against the euro for a third day in the longest advance since August as a report showed U.S. consumer confidence fell this month, reducing demand for higher-yielding assets.

Sweden’s krona and the South African rand were the biggest losers versus the dollar among the 16 most-traded currencies tracked by Bloomberg as U.S. stocks erased gains on the sentiment data.

“Consumer confidence is weak,” said Vassili Serebriakov, a currency strategist at Wells Fargo & Co. in New York. “There’s to an extent a disconnect between what financial markets are telling us and what the economic data is telling us.”

The dollar appreciated 0.5 percent to $1.4803 per euro at 10:24 a.m. in New York, from $1.4876 yesterday, when it strengthened 0.9 percent, the most since Aug. 7. The euro dropped 0.6 percent to 136.26 yen, from 137.10. The dollar fell 0.1 percent to 92.07 yen, from 92.19, after earlier reaching 92.32, the highest level since Sept. 21.

The New York-based Conference Board’s consumer confidence index dropped to 47.7 in October. The median forecast of 74 economists in a Bloomberg survey was for an advance to 53.5.

The yen strengthened earlier versus the euro as India’s central bank increased the statutory liquidity ratio for banks to 25 percent from 24 percent and raised its inflation forecast, taking a step toward withdrawing its record monetary stimulus.

The first Cyrillic top-level domain name is going to be presented at the Russian Internet Week

The presentation of the first Cyrillic top-level domain name,.РФ is said to be the main event at the Russian Internet Week .

.РФ is a top-level domain name ,which comes from the .RF or Russian Federation.
Even though at this moment, .ru is the current top-level domain name leader , .РФ is expected to be a tremendous succes.
Dmitry Medvedev ,the Russian President supports the cyrilic top-level domain names.He said that this will be raising the importance of the russian language .
"...it is a pretty serious thing. It is a symbol of the importance of the Russian language and Cyrillic."
We just have to wait and see what it will happen with the .РФ ,which ,by all means have a good chance of being the equivalent of .com in Russia .

Bank of Canada Pushes Loonie Down

After trading near parity with the U.S. dollar this month, the Canadian dollar was pushed away from equality with the greenback as the national central bank published a report on the subject, as well as stocks and commodities declined today.

Several events extended losses for the Canadian dollar versus most of the 16 main traded currencies, specially the pound and the U.S. dollar, starting with Bank of Canada declaration suggesting that interest rates will remain low in the country as long as inflation doesn’t rebound, as well as another warning showing concerns regarding the current Canadian dollar strength. The loonie’s attractiveness has been deeply affected since the Bank of Canada started to indicate that a strong currency can be an obstacle for the economic rebound in the country, and that interventions will be taken if the currency rally reaches unwelcome levels, fact which has been playing a major role in this week’s decline for the Canadian dollar.

Not only Bank of Canada’s position affected the loonie today, but also a negative day in equities and commodities markets, according to specialists. Differently for other commodity-linked currencies like the Australian dollar, the current loonie rally is being interpreted as a problem for the future of the Canadian economy, as it is likely that its rates will be synthetically influenced by the national central bank in the short-term future.

USD/CAD traded at 1.0461 as of 15:09 GMT from 1.0403 yesterday.

Swedish Krona on Interest Rate Forecasts

The Swedish krona fell today after the national central bank maintained interest rates at a record low, indicating that the Nordic economic will require further stimulus to recover from the current recession.

Riksbank, the national banking institution of Sweden, not only left its benchmark interest rates unchanged but also declared that low levels will remain until next autumn, decreasing attractiveness for the krona since lower interest rates provide less profit opportunities for investors, consequently being the factor behind the krona’s fall today in currency markets.

EUR/SEK closed this Thursday at 10.23 from an opening rate of 10.31.

South African Rand Down on Press Speculations

The South African rand had the worst performance among 16 main traded currencies today after a news agency affirmed that the national central bank intended to intervene massively stopping the rand to fluctuate, causing a negative impact in the rand rates today.

After the Sake24 financial news services suggested that the government planned to freeze the rand fluctuations, the South African currency declined massively, even if the government declined such plan afterward, forcing Africa’s best performing currency down to almost 2 percent.

USD/ZAR closed today at 7.455 from an previous close of 7.345 on Wednesday.

The Dollar-Yen with amazing accuracy

The Dollar-Yen with amazing accuracy at the first support in yesterday's report (lowest price after the issuance of yesterday's report is 90.06), and then rose to 91.05, breaking 90.73 on the way, but what followed was a modest move. The most importantsupport is the Fibonacci 61.8% for the short-term at 89.77, and if broken the direction would be down to test the important support
88.68, which must hold to prevent another attempt to test 87.97 which survived 2 weeks ago an attempt for a break.

As for the resistance, the most important one is 90.90, and the key to the most important stop in these areas is 91.63, which is expected to be an important test. Breaking it means that this rise will continue in the next few days, to areas above 92, where 92.52-92.58 is the first target for this break. While failure here would indicate that this is but a short-term rise.

Forex Trading Online

Forex Trading Online is your free online Forex guide.

Here, you can learn the terms "Forex" and "Forex market", how you can trade in Forex market, fundamental analysis about Forex market, Forex trading system, advances of Forex and a Forex glossary that you can find almost all the terms about Forex.

The Basics of Forex

Foreign exchange market is also known as Forex or FX market. To date, it is the world's biggest "economic bazaar". FX produces an average of over $1 trillion daily earnings. That is 30 times more than combining all the volumes of America's equity markets. This currency market is where currencies are bought and sold.

Introduction to Forex Trading

There are many markets: markets for stocks, futures, options and currencies. These are probably the most accessible markets for everyday traders like you and I. People easily understand the basics of trading shares, so I will occasionally use examples from that market.

Introduction to Fundamental Analysis: Forex

Forex traders almost always rely on analysis to make plan their trading strategies. There are two basic types of Forex analysis - technical and fundamental. This article will look at fundamental analysis and how it used in Forex trading.

Discover an Effective Forex Trading System

The Forex market, with average daily trading of the currencies going over US$ 1.6 trillion, is the largest financial market in the world. And it's the most liquid market there is, to trade in. Forex market or Foreign Exchange market is the trading activity that refers to the synchronized buying of one currency, which is called the base currency while selling off a second currency, called the counter or quote currency. As you've probably gathered, these currencies are traded in pairs. Some of the most popular pairs are US Dollar/Japanese Yen (USD/JPY) and the Euro/US Dollar (EUR/USD. This is done with the clear intent to profit from the appreciation of the e.g. USD Dollar. These three currencies together with the British Pound, Canadian Dollar, Australian Dollar and the Swiss Franc are the most popular currencies traded, accounting for nearly 70% of the trading done in the United States marketplace

Online Forex Trading Advice

Forex has changed dramatically in the last 10 years due to technological advancements. With real-time streaming technology and faster computer systems, almost anything is available at the click of a button. I would like to go over a few of the benefits of online Forex trading. Consult with your broker to determine if trading online is right for you.

Forex Trading Software

If you are looking to get started trading the Forex, you will find that there are numerous software programs available (both web based and desktop based) for you to use in your trading. In fact, most brokers offer clients a software package for free or as part of their trading account. Usually the software that comes with your trading account is a very basic "bare bones" model. Sometimes, more features are available for a price. The software packages your broker provides can be an important consideration in choosing a broker. You may want to download and try some different packages using a demo account. This will give you a better idea of which software package you find most suitable to your unique style of trading.

Forex Trading Best Practises

Forex, the term for the FOReign EXchange market, is an international exchange market where currencies from many different countries are bought and sold. Both long-term hedge investors and short-term investors that seek quick profits use Forex. Trade reaches between 1 and 1.5 trillion US dollars per day. Needless to say, Forex is a very lucrative market. Many wonder how to gain the most profits by trading with Forex. There are a few simple trade practices that can help any trader, either an amateur or a professional make significant profit from Forex.

Forex Benefits Over Futures

The origins of the modern futures market lies in the agriculture markets of the 19th century. Farmers started selling contracts to deliver agricultural products at a later date. This was done to anticipate market needs and stabilize supply and demand during off seasons.

Euro Rally Concerns Central Bankers

The euro continued to remain near a 14-month high versus the dollar today, as concerns regarding the current strength of the European common currency start to emerge among ECB officials, since a strong euro could jeopardize economic recovery in its member countries.

A part from currencies based in commodity exporter countries like Brazil and Australia, the euro has been benefiting from the new wave of risk appetite that has been unleashed since signs that the global slump was ending emerged in the first semesters of the current year. Even if European Central Bank officials started to make concerned declarations regarding a strong euro and a weakened dollar, investors are still opting for the euro this week, as companies like Apple Inc. posted much higher profits for the past quarter than expected, making the euro-dollar pair to flirt with the $1.50 level.

As the euro continues to gain, versus the dollar and the pound specially, the European Central Bank may start to consider other effective measures to halt its currency strong rally, as declarations from policy bankers already show a certain degree of concern. According to analysts, market sentiment towards the euro will remain bullish, and it’s unlikely that a trend reversal could take place before the end of the year unless central bankers interventions would be taken.

EUR/USD traded at 1.4967 as of 13:18 GMT from a previous rate of 1.4918 yesterday. EUR/GBP declined to 0.9090 from 0.9130.

Bank of Canada Takes Measures to Force Loonie Down

aAfter trading once again near parity with its U.S. counterpart, the Canadian dollar witnessed a significant fall today as the national central bank stated that a strong currency will cause problems and slow down the economic recovery in the country, shunning investors from Canada, at least, temporarily.

Bank of Canada held its overnight rates at 0.25 percent as most of economic analysts were expecting, but the tone of policy makers declarations was the main driver for a bearish day for the Canadian dollar, as, according to central bankers, a strong currency in Canada will impact directly and significantly the economic recovery in the country, forcing the loonie down versus most of 16 main traded currencies in foreign-exchange markets this Tuesday, as a number of traders are already expecting more effective measures from the Canadian central bank to halt its currency rally.

After trading at the highest level since July 2008, the loonie’s rally become an evident reason of concern for Canadian economic recovery, according to analysts. From now on, a dispute is likely to take place, as demand for Canadian commodities rise, forcing the loonie up, the national central bank is likely to find policies to halt the currency’s gains, as it will certainly slow down the recovery in the country.

USD/CAD traded at 1.0400 as of 13:42 GMT from a previous rate of 1.0280 yesterday. CAD/JPY traded at 86.88 as of 13:43 GMT from 88.25.

Brazilian Real Declines on Central Bank Desperate Measure

The Brazilian real has been the best performing currency among the 16 more traded in foreign-exchange markets this year, and after a central bank measure to tax foreign investment on stocks and bonds to curb the currency’s rally, the real fell today.

Brazilian stocks had the worst performance in 4 months today after the desperate measure was taken by the national central bank in order to stop the currency gains, which are affecting national products competitiveness in the global trading scenario. The real fell, despite the fact analysts consider the trend short lived.

USD/BRL closed at 1.7590 after opening at 1.7190 today.

Norwegian Krone Down on Faltering Stocks

The Norwegian krone witnessed an intense rally this week sparked by a rise in crude oil rates and risk appetite among traders, but today, a downturn in stock markets throughout the world set the Nordic currency down for the first time this week.

A bearish day in stock markets around the world served as a perfect excuse for a corrective movement to bring the Norwegian krone down after hitting the highest level in more 6 months versus the euro earlier this week. Even considering today’s poor performance, the krone remains among the best performing currencies in 2009 among the 16 main traded in foreign-exchange markets.

EUR/NOK closed the day at 8.3105 from an opening price of 8.2595.

The End of Dollar’s Downturn?

The U.S. currency finally posted gains versus most of 16 main traded currencies as some investors suggested that the recovery in the North American economy is not compatible with such losses in currency markets, providing support for the greenback to pare gains of most emergent market currencies which were climbing these week.

Several events changed market’s trends today after the European Central Bank Jean-Claude Trichet affirmed that U.S. government should support the strength of its currency, declining attractiveness for the euro, which also posted intense losses versus the pound this week. The U.S. dollar also gained on speculations regarding industrial production in the country, which is likely to increase further from the past month, a significant evidence that economic conditions are improving in the wealthiest country in the world. One of the few currencies that managed to control the dollar’s gains today was the pound, as optimism was renewed in the country after the central bank suggested that its quantitative easing problem will be suspended.

Mixed information is influencing on the volatility of the U.S. dollar, firstly the Federal Reserve affirmed that the fluctuations of the currency are acceptable, but now the European Central Bank starts to show concerns regarding a weakened dollar, causing a nebulous scenario for the greenback short term future.

EUR/USD traded at 1.4879 as of 11:40 GMT from a previous rate of 1.4962 hours earlier. USD/CAD traded at 1.0394 from 1.0312 in the intraday.

Dollar Rebounds on Undervaluing Speculations

The U.S. dollar had a weak performance this week reaching record lows versus the euro and the Australian dollar but managed to pare some of its losses as traders could think the current devaluation may be too severe and that it would not reflect economic fundamentals in the U.S.

The greenback managed to gain versus most of the 16 main traded currencies towards the end of this week’s session, in a movement that many analysts considered to be a corrective, profit taking from a part of traders, but at the same time could indicate a shift in the dollar trends, as fundamentals in the country are not so negative as the sentiment towards the currency.

EUR/USD closed this week at 1.4904 after touching 1.4963 during the week.

Will Australia Raise Interest Rates?

The Australian dollar, together with its New Zealand counterpart are among the best performing currencies in foreign-exchange markets in 2009 after evidences pointed the resilience of South Pacific countries to recover from the crisis, attracting worldwide investors to the region.

This was the second week straight of gains for the Australian dollar versus the greenback and most of the 16 main traded currencies after Reserve Bank of Australia Governor Glenn Stevens suggested that borrowing costs in the country may be subject to elevations towards the end of the year, attracting traders to inject money in the country, since higher interest rates provide higher profit possibilities for investors. New Zealand is likely to be the second country to raise interest rates among the wealthiest nations in the world, adding attractiveness for the South Pacific region, which has also benefited from a higher demand for raw materials as the global economy improves, taking into account that most of Australian exports are commodities to China.

After the declarations coming from the central bank in Australia the Aussie found support to remain at high level, and even with a corrective movement towards the end of this week’s session, most of analysts bet in a strong Australian dollar towards the end of the year.

AUD/USD closed the week at 0.9162 after hitting the highest level in more than a year during the week at 0.9270.

Australian Dollar Trades Near 2009 Record High

After falling from the highest level in more than 14 months towards the end of last week’s session in a day of bearish performance in stock markets, the Australian dollar started this week climbing once again on speculations regarding increased interest rates in the country.

The Australian dollar together with its New Zealand counterpart rebounded from a corrective movement Friday as stocks rose adding confidence that interest rates in the South Pacific region will return to pre-crisis levels gradually, after a Reserve Bank of Australia official affirmed that interest rates in the country are due to move towards normality, suggesting that record low levels will be lifted as soon as the economic conditions provide support for elevating borrowing costs in Australia, fact which is fueling an intense rally in South Pacific currencies, setting the Aussie and the kiwi among the 3 top performers in foreign-exchange markets, together with the Brazilian real, originated as well from a commodity exporter country.

The renewed risk appetite that fueled stocks in Asia also brought investors back to the Australian dollar-priced assets, suggesting that the Aussie is likely to remain at very high-levels towards the end of the year, as more than one rate hike is expected from the central bank in that nation for the following months.

AUD/USD traded at 0.9211 as of 13:11 GMT from an opening rate yesterday of 0.9144. AUD/JPY traded at 83.65 from 83.05.

NameMedia Launches New Service for Domain Investors

NameMedia today announced the launch of Domainer’s Advantage, an interactive knowledge center for domain investors located at Afternic.com.The Domain Listing Service (AfternicDLS) is operated by Afternic, an award-winning marketplace that connects buyers…

ZOTAC’s Mini-ITX mobo with dual core Atom and NVIDIA Ion platform

When NVIDIA announced the Ion platform for the Intel Atom processor, I have to admit, I was intrigued. The thought of coupling the Atom processor with the GeForce 9400M GPU was certainly enticing because one could finally build a system with decent 3D graphics and video performance..and one could potentially do it on the cheap.

Yet as the months went by, news related to the Ion platform was few and far between.. that is until now. A company called ZOTAC has announced a new Mini-ITX motherboard product coupling the NVIDIA Ion platform with a dual core Atom processor (the N330) called the IONITX-A-U. The full specs are as follows:

• Intel Atom N330 1.6GHz dual core processor
• NVIDIA GeForce 9400M video
• Mini-ITX form factor
• D-Sub, DVI, HDMI video ports
• 10 USB ports (6 on back panel and 4 via pin header)
• 24 pin – 90 watt PSU included
• RAID 0, 1, 0+1
• 5.1 channel audio
• Measures 6.7 x 6.7 inches
• DDR2 667/800 MHz memory support (2 slots)

Gigabyte GA-EP45-UD3P Motherboard ReviewThe Gigabyte GA-EP45-UD3P motherboard features Ultra Durable 3 technology with a 2oz copper PCB for 50°C cool

The Gigabyte GA-EP45-UD3P motherboard features Ultra Durable 3 technology with a 2oz copper PCB for 50°C cooler working temperature when working under extreme loads. With 16 Intel P45 Express motherboards on the market, Gigabyte has a ton of motherboards to pick from. Read on to see if the Gigabyte GA-EP45-UD3P motherboard is right for you.

USDJPY

The pair continues with the short movement started on August 7th at 97.45 yens per dollar. A few moments ago, the pair tried to exit the sideways channel without success, trading at 89.97 yens per dollar. The bands of Bollinger show a 90 pips volatility, while the one hour RSI is in a neutral zone. In the medium term, we don't exclude a correction to the support at 88.15 yens per dollar, unless the pair finds a support at 88.70.

Investors Pare Back USD Shorts Ahead Of Major Risk Events

A very light data calendar from Europe coupled with the Columbus Day holiday in the US means it is likely we’re in for another day where FX markets drift around in tandem with broader indicators of risk appetite, namely equity indices and commodity prices. Asian equity markets have been mixed since the open with the Hang Seng and Shanghai Composite struggling (Nikkei closed for Japan holiday), but commodity markets have remained supported with gold consolidating just below $1050, silver still elevated at $17.75, and oil holding above $72. The US earnings calendar is very sparse today, with the main US financial names due from Wednesday, however the first few releases from Europe are kicking off this morning, and we expect most to follow the positive start set last week. The few data releases of note this morning have been Swedish Unemployment data and German Wholesale Price Index (Sep); the latter was sharply lower than forecasts at -0.2% MoM (vs. 0.3% expected); affirming the ECB’s view that for now, inflations risks are not a concern. The Swedish unemployment figures showed a slight improvement for Sep (5.3% vs. 5.4% expected), echoing the recent NOK, CAD and AUD labour data that have also shown an encouraging and unexpected improvement in the labour market. The remainder of the week is packed with high-profile risk events including FOMC Minutes, US Retail Sales and Industrial Production, Eurozone CPI, UK CPI and Retail Sales amongst others. With short-USD positions performing so well last week it is unsurprising that we are seeing some profit-taking ahead of the big risk events; the DXY has bounced well off its lows last week, currently trading at 76.60. One of the biggest movers in the majors has been NZDUSD, down a percent at 0.7265 as the USD resurgence reclaims ground and investors pare back risk ahead of tonight’s NZ Retail Sales figures. Consensus estimates are for a 0.5% gain in Aug, but considering its major peers including Australia (0.9% vs. 0.5% exp.), US (2.7% vs. 1.9% exp.) and Eurozone (-0.2% vs. -0.5% exp.) have all convincingly beaten estimates in August, the risks appear to be tilted to the upside in our view.

Today's Key Issues (time in GMT):

08:00 SEK Swedish: AMV unemployment rate, % Sep exp: 5.4 prev: 5.4
21:45 NZD NZ: Retail Sales, % m/m Aug exp: 0.5 prev: -0.5
23:01 GBP UK: RICS housing market survey, price balance Sep exp: 15.0 prev: 10.7
23:01 GBP UK: BRC retail sales monitor, total sales, % y/y Sep prev: 2.2

Forex: GBP/USD: Pound bounces at 1.5935 session low, approaching 1.6000

FXstreet.com (Barcelona) - Sterling's reversal from 1.6120 high has ground support at 1.5935 low on Friday's Asian session, and the Pound is attempting to base on the mentioned level and return to higher levels.

At the moment, the Pound trades at 1.5985, and next resistance areas lie at 1.6065, and above here, 1.6125 (Sept 30 high) and 1.6200. On the downside, inital support comes at 1.5935 day low, and below here, 1.5855 (Oct 7 low) and 1.5805 (Oct 2 low).

Greg Holden, technical analyst at ForexYard, advances the possibility of a bullish correction: "There is a fresh bullish cross forming on daily chart's MACD indicating a bullish correction might take place in the nearest future. The upward direction on the hourly chart's Momentum oscillator also supports this notion."

Canadian unemployment rate drops beyond expectations; USD/CAD plunges

aFXstreet.com (Barcelona) - Canadian unemployment rate has declined in September to 8.4% from 8.7% in August on the back of a 30,000 increase on net jobs, market analysts expected net jobs creation to reach about 5,000. The Canadian Dollar has soared.

USD/CAD has declined further on the back of jobs data, and the Dollar decline from 1.0550 session high has extended to a fresh 12-month low at 1.0455.

At the moment, the Dollar remains right above 1.0460, in case of further decline, next support levels could be 1.0400 and 1.0350. On the upside, resistance levels lie at 1.0500, 1.0550 and 1.0630

The Value of Trade Balance to Local Economy

The balance of trade also referred as trade balance, which sometimes is symbolized as NX, is the difference of the monetary value of imports and exports in one economy in a given period of time. The balance of trade is considered the biggest part of a country’s balance of payments.

Imports, domestic spending, foreign aid, and investment abroad are called debit items while credit items includes exports, foreign investments in domestic economy and foreign spending in domestic economy.

A trade surplus is a positive balance of trade which is consists of more exporting than importing. A trade deficit is the negative balance of trade or sometimes called a trade gap. The trade balance can sometimes be divided as services balance and goods balance just like in the United Kingdom which they use the terms invisible and visible balance.

The balance of trade is a part of current account which includes transactions that includes income derived from international investment and international aid. Thus, if the current account comes as a surplus then the nation’s international net asset increases also while deficit will decrease the international net asset.

A good trade surplus is achieved when a country exports products more than buying imported goods. A trade deficit is eventually experience as a result of the opposite of a trade surplus. The trade balance is alike to the difference of a country's output and the domestic demand. These factors may affect the trade balance: prices of goods manufactured, taxes and tariffs, trade agreements, business cycle (home or abroad), and exchange rates.

The trade balance is different in many business cycles. For instance, export growth like oil and industrial goods which improves when there is economic expansion.

In developed countries like; Japan, China and Germany usually run at trade surpluses in which they experience a higher savings rate. Around the world there are different natural resources which a country may have for instance, countries from the coastal regions are major producers of fish, Canada can be a major producer of lumber because of its huge forests while in the Middle East, has the most oil reserves.

International trade is important so in order to sustain the balance of trade. A country should be totally self sufficient without international trade. Through international trades, each country will have the opportunity to produce specialize goods efficiently. In relation, when a nation specializes in producing these goods, the total production increases instead of trying to be self sufficient. Nations will benefit from international trades and also meets their needs. Generally, nations will trade to other nations when they gain from the trade. But the gains are not usually equal in terms of benefits and profit.

What is a Transaction Cost and How to Calculate It?

In economics, transaction costs are the rate acquired when making an economic exchange. This costs incurred when buying or selling securities or stocks. This is also referred as transaction fees. Transaction costs also comprise of brokers’ commissions ad spreads (difference between the price that the dealer paid for a security and the price it may be sold. This is what the broker or bank produce for being a middleman in a transaction.

For instance, most people when buying or selling a security or stock, pays a commission to their broker and that commission can be considered as the fee or transaction cost for doing that stock deal. When evaluating a potential transaction, it is crucial to think about these costs that might prove significant. Mostly, in financial markets, the initial cost for these transactions is commission which is paid to brokers upon trade execution. This costs becomes increasingly important the shorter the holding time of an investment.

Many market models disregard transactional costs, presumptuous instead those markets are non resistant. While this thought is invalid, for many applications such costs are low enough that they can be disregarded. The lesser the cost for a transaction, the more effective and competent a market is said to be. The Foreign exchange market and stock market have lower costs for such transactions of any major asset class.

It is considered to be much more cost- efficient to trade in Forex in terms of both commissions and transaction fees. An online website for example charges no fees or commissions and at the same time offer traders an access to all relevant market information and trading tools. On the contrary, online stock trade commission ranges from $7.95 - $ 29.95 per trade and up to $100 or more per trade with full service brokers.

Another thing to consider, which is an important point is the width of the bid / ask spread. Regardless of the deal size, foreign exchange dealing spreads are normally or common in 3-4 pips (anyway a pip is .0001 US cents) in the major currencies. Generally, the width of the spread in a foreign exchange market transaction is less than one tenth (1/10) that of a stock transaction, which could contain a .125 or one eight (1/8) wide spread.

Since transaction costs are paid via bid/ask spread, there has to be no charges to trade or hidden fees. There are instances that there would be extra charges asked by good brokers for some non compulsory services or access to particular reports. A smaller spread is visibly better. Since brokers are taking the other side of all the customer trades, brokers gain profit by making the spread between the bid and offer prices. You may find that find spreads vary by broker.

In order to be successful in trading on the foreign exchange market, you have to find a good broker.

How Interest Rates Play a Role in the Currency Markets

Interest rates play the foremost important role in moving the prices of currencies in the Forex market. As the institutions that set interest rates, central banks are therefore the most influential factors. Interest rates dictate flows of investment. Since the currencies are representations of a country’s economy, differences in interest rates affect the relative worth of currencies in relation to one another. When central banks change interest rates they cause the Forex market to experience movement and volatility. In the realm of Forex trading, accurate speculation of central banks’ actions can enhance the trader's chances for a successful trade.

An increase in interest rates encourages traders to invest within that market and causes the demand for the currency to rise. As demand rises, the currency becomes scarcer and consequently more valuable. Investors are drawn to the currency, causing it to appreciate, because they will gain a higher yield on their investments, as in the Jane example. In order to purchase the country's assets (stocks or bonds), Jane will have to convert her domestic currency to the target country's currency also increasing demand. Conversely, a fall in interest rates discourage investors from purchasing assets in that particular economy, as the return on their investment is now smaller. The economy's currency will depreciate as a result of the weaker demand.

XFX nForce 680i Barebone with Pentium D, SLI and 2GB DDR2

A stock clearance computer with a lot of decent parts, manages to provide a good spread of parts that by themselves can deliver well, but more importantly provide a good place to upgrade from.

The awe of SLI graphics has mostly died down. The benefits are still there, but hardly provide performance that can’t be achieved by a new graphics card. Not a complete computer, this set will require the addition of a CPU cooler to allow it to be used, and keyboard, mouse and monitor.

The basic kit includes the following:

• Ultra black case
• XFX nForce 680i SLI Socket 775 ATX motherboard
• Pentium D 925 3.0GHz Dual-core processor
• 2 x XFX GeForce 7300 GT 512MB PCIe video cards
• Maxtor 200GB hard drive
• Ultra 400W power supply
• 2 x Crucial 1GB PC5400 DDR2 memory modules

The Ultra black case is nothing special, it will hold your parts and just sit there like most cases should. The clear side will give a little thrill to those who really want to show off their computer’s internals, and lights can be added for a little extra glitz.

The motherboard is well featured with a firewire port, USB ports, 5.1 audio, Ethernet, 2 PCI slots, 2 PCIe x1 slots and SLI capable PCIe slots. Good all round. There are also RAID 0, 1, 0+1 and 5 capabilities that are built onto the motherboard, but the hard drive will need to be upgraded.

The Intel Pentium D processor is one of the first run of dual-core processors from Intel. They are fast and offer speed benefits over their single-core counterparts. But there are some things to note. These processors use a lot of power, up to 135W, which is ultra high compared to the 65W for the Dual Core2 series that is newer, clocked lower and processes faster overall. It is still quick and considering the price, still worth it.

SLI graphics cards bring good performance, especially in SLI mode. Newer graphics cards, namely the 8000 series GeForce cards are more than capable of outperforming these two, but the newer cards are still expensive. These two are GT versions, so they are the fastest of their generation, which works to their favor.

A 200GB IDE hard drive and 400W Ultra power supply round out the package.

The package if fine, and good if you are on a budget. However, considering that top-notch gaming is the realm of the newest components, great deals are always going to set you behind the times. This is fine, but be aware that as games increase in their need for powerful graphics cards and processors, this system will fall behind fairly quickly.

Intel DX38BT Motherboard with Intel X38 Chipset

The Intel DX38BT Motherboard is based on the Intel X38 Express chipset and designed to support the most cutting edge processors, and sports an impressive range of high performance features.

The latest stuff is never cheap, and this motherboard is no exception, but it does give all you need to take advantage of new technologies. With support for DDR3, Quad-core and Extreme edition Intel processors and eSATA, it’s features allow the use of the latest products.

The striking black gives the Intel DX38BT some good looks, fitting right in a gaming system box with a view of the inside. The LGA775 CPU socket is still there, but the rest of the board is the interesting part. Here are some of the features:

• Intel Core2 Extreme, Quad and Duo support
• 1333/1066/800 MHz FSB
• No integrated graphics
• Up to 8 GB of dual-channel DDR3 DIMMs (4 x 2 GB)
• HD audio
• Gigabit Ethernet support
• Up to 12 USB 2.0 ports
• Three PCIe x16
• Two firewire
• Six SATA ports with RAID

Even though this board is aimed at gamers, and by offering three PCIe x16 ports, it certainly caters to them, but the rest of the features offer almost everything you could need to start a computer.

There is plenty of room for memory expansion, up to 8 GB, which is great for new games, but is also more than enough for any office application you’d like to throw at it. Up to four sticks are supported, but I hardly imagine that anything over a total of 4 GB would be necessary.

HD audio, although common to many boards, is always a good extra, and with the quality offered, along with 7.1 channel audio and the ability to listen to two separate audio channels you’ll be able to listen to music and chat to your friends online at the same time.

Gigabit Ethernet has not yet taken complete hold, but in looking forward it will certainly give a good amount of future-proofness, and allow very high speeds over networks that support it.

Storage is handled by IDE and SATA. The standard two IDE ports are there, holding up the fort from times gone by, although I suspect they will be on their way out sometime soon, much like the ubiquitous serial ports and parallel port that are missing from this motherboard. The eSATA ports are certainly more useful than serial and parallel ports, which continue to be useful only in industry where dedicated machines have been running on them for decades. Six SATA ports with RAID will allow a combination of striped storage or mirrored storage, according to your needs.

I love motherboards with lots of features and my only gripe with this one is the lack of onboard graphics. That said, I’d just invest in a cheap one considering all the features of the board itself. Although quite expensive, you get more than you need for any application, it has all the necessary features and more. I would recommend it for anyone considering the jump into the Core2 range.

Intel Core2 Extreme QX9650 3.0GHz Processor with 12MB Cache

The Intel Core2 Extreme quad-core CPU offers the best in computer performance today. Four cores will carry you four times as far, and you sure have to pay for this level of performance.

At the end of the Pentium 4’s era, there was an AMD vs Intel battle to speed up processors to extreme levels. When processors became hot enough to cook on, there was obviously something that had gone wrong. Intel was quick to release a dual core Pentium, and then its Core2 range. The Core2’s managed to bring power consumption back to sane levels and regain much of Intel’s street cred.

After dual-core, the obvious next step is quad-core. As the technologies to produce the internals of a CPU get more sophisticated, so more cores can be stuffed into a single processor. But is there a tradeoff?

Intel Core2 Extreme offer a huge performance leap over their smaller brothers and sisters. By definition, the Extreme series leave the bus and multiplier so they can be adjusted by the user. This is useful for those who like to overclock, but not for the vast majority of desktop computer users who just want things to work.

This processor offers a large 12MB L2 cache, which amounts to 3MB per core. This is an increase of 50% of what is found in the other dual and quad-core processors in the range. This is a real performance booster, as L2 cache allows information to be stored close to the processing core, for much faster operations on data.

A new motherboard will be necessary, look for one that supports DDR3, to really stay ahead.

When building a super-fast computer for gaming or heavy duty office work with processor intensive programs, this is a processor worth considering. Stay ahead of the curve, but pick something else from the range if you want value for money.

PC Sales Bounce Back after Slow Start in 2009

Just a few days ago, iSuppli said worldwide PC shipments had declined in Q1 by the "largest historic rate" since the firm has been tracking the market. But after a rocky start, the PC market could be headed for a rebound by the end of the year, says market research analyst firm Gartner.

According to Gartner, the market is on pace to ship 274 million PCs worldwide by the end of 2009. That's still a 6 percent drop compared to last year's shipments of 292 million, but better than Gartner expected, who previously predicted a 9.2 percent decline.

Going forward, Gartner says shipments will pull an about-face in 2010 and predicts a 10.3 percent growth rate. However, the firm also warned that Windows 7, available today in pre-order form at a reduced rate, isn't likely to prove a game changer for PC sales.

"Unless Microsoft mounts a major marketing campaign in support of Windows 7, we think consumers will simply adopt the new operating system as they would normally buy new PCs and/or replace old ones," Gartner Research Director George Shiffler said in a statement.

HP to Recycle Existing Form Factors for Its First CULV-Based Notebooks

Intel's ultra-low-powered CULV family of processors are becoming popular choices for many forthcoming ultrathin notebook computers in the $700-$900 range, like MSI's new X-Slim series we told you about in April.

However, you can also use CULV processors in standard-thickness notebook computers, and according to Digitimes, that's exactly what Hewlett-Packard plans to do. It will roll out ultra-thin models with CULV processors in the fourth quarter, but its first CULV-based products will use standard chassis and will thus be available earlier. Interestingly,

CULV processors are designed to fit between Intel's Atom and its faster Core 2 Duo processors in performance. Will the market put up with a full-sized notebook with a battery-sipping, but slower processor, or should prospective HP CULV buyers wait until late in the year for the new ultraslim chassis? Hit Comment and sound off.

Single Board Computer A6EXP8021

A6EXP8021 is a high-performance CPU board that supports the CompactPCI Express standard. It is equipped with Intel Core Duo/Core2 Duo. Memory boasts higher reliability due to the SEC/DED/x4 SDDC features of the E7520 server chipset, and PC2-3200 DIMM can be installed using dual channel architecture. CompactPCI Express can be used for 4 x4 or 2 x8 lanes, and is compatible with various backplanes. In addition, standard interfaces such as Gigabit Ethernet, Serial ATA and USB 2.0 are installed, making it very user friendly.

Features

CPU:

Intel Core Duo processor L2400
Core2 Duo processor L7400/T7400 (optional at shipment)
L1 cache: 32KB/32KB, L2 cache 2MB/4MB
Equipped with passive heatsink, fanless

Memory:

Main memory:
2 DDR2 DIMM sockets (Dual channel)
Supports PC2-3200 Registered DIMM, max 4GB (Memory module is not included with this product)
Boot ROM:
Firmware Hub Flash memory, 1MB
Serial EEPROM:
I2C-EEPROM 2k bit

Front Panel I/O:

Graphics:
1280 x 1024 @24 bit, high density D-sub 15-pin female connector
Serial ATA:
1.0a standard, 150MB/s, 2 ports
USB:
USB 2.0 standard, USB type-A connector, 4 ports
Serial port:
D-sub 9-pin male connector, 1 port
Ethernet:
10/100/1000baseT, RJ-45 connector, 2 ports

Onboard I/O:

CompactFlash:
CF+ and CompactFlash Specification Revision 2.1 (CompactFlash is not included with this product)

CompactPCIExpress:

Bus standard:

PICMG EXP.0 R1.0 Specification
Board type:
System board (Dedicated system slot)

Power Supply:

12V±5%(supplied by rack) / 5Vaux (supplied by rack)

Board Size:

6U, 2-slot width

Overview of IEEE 1588 Capeable SBC

The PortalPlus is a low power, rugged Intel® IXP465-based embedded computer system with IEEE 1588 PCS (Precison Clock Syncronization) in a small form factor. Example embedded applications for the PortalPlus include military, robotics, instrumentation, and multi-axis automation. The system provides PCI, SPI, 480Mb USB (high speed), Ethernet (network) and/or rich color SVGA graphics. With ADS' unique customization capabilities, the base module can be readily integrated with a range of personality boards to bring out connectors and add additional system dimensions. Systems are low power, cost effective and compact in size.