US: Factory Orders disappoint at 1.8% in December, November figure revised lower

In December, factory orders rose 1.8% in the US, disappointing the consensus of a rise by 2.2%. November data was revised lower, from unchanged to -0.3%.

Feb 4, 2013

Forex Flash: Commodities fall behing other risk assets – Merrill Lynch

Merrill Lynch analysts noticed that commodities largely fell behind other risk assets in 2012, such as equities or bonds. “In fact, performance has been a drag for the last two years as annualized MLCX TR commodity returns were -0.5% with a volatility of 18.8%, compared to Treasury bond returns of 5.5% with a volatility of 2.1%, or returns for the S&P 500 TR of 10.3% with a volatility of 18.8%”, they wrote, adding that rolling Sharpe ratios for the key commodity indices do not look very appealing compared to other asset classes. “The underperformance of commodities has come at a time where priceadjusted allocations remain at a multi-year low”, they continued, asking themselves if investors are right to move out of commodities.

Forex: EUR/US hovering over 1.3565/70 after US data

The single currency posted no reaction after the US Factory Orders grew 1.8% on a monthly basis during December, beating November’s flat print although below the 2.2% expansion forecasted....