China wealth fund net profits up US$41.7 bln

According to its annual report, net profits of CIC increased to 41.7 billion U.S. dollars in 2009, a massive increase from 23.1 the year before.

The return rate on investment capital surged to 12.9 percent in 2009, from 6.8 percent in 2008.

Cross-border investment returns shook off its minus rate by gaining double-digit growth to 11.7 percent.

Since May 2009, the CIC has increased investment, with its global investment volume reaching 58 billion U.S. dollars.

Experts say getting the timing of investments right will result in the largest profits for the company.

Teng Tai, Chief Economist of Minsheng Securities said “Because it will take longer to see returns on some private equity investments. So we assume that lots of profitable private equity projects are not due yet. Based on its performance in 2009, we believe these investment will yield higher returns.”

Founded in September 2007, the CIC has registered capital of 200 billion U.S. dollars. The capital was allocated by the Finance Ministry through issuing 1.55 trillion yuan of special bonds, in exchange for the same amount of foreign reserves from the central bank. The CIC is seeking another 100 billion U.S. dollars of new funding.

Toyota recalls 373,000 cars in U.S.

Toyota Motor Sales (TMS), U.S.A., Inc., announced on Thursday that it intends to conduct a voluntary safety recall involving approximately 373,000 2000-2004 Model Year Toyota Avalons sold in the United States to address the possibility that the vehicle’s steering lock bar could break under certain conditions.

No other Toyota or Lexus vehicles are involved in this recall, according to Toyota U.S.A.

This action follows an announcement made by Toyota Motor Corporation in Japan on Thursday.

The new recalls mean Toyota has recalled more than 5 million vehicles in 2010 in the United States — and the company has surpassed the 4.8 million vehicles it recalled in 2009.

The new Toyota recall is to address concerns that after a severe impact to the front wheels — like striking a deep pothole – - that it could disengage the steering shaft. Toyota will install a newly designed snap ring and another component to prevent separation of the steering shaft.

“Toyota is continuing to work diligently to address safety issues wherever they arise and to strengthen our global quality assurance operations so that Toyota owners can be confident in the safety of their vehicles,” said Steve St. Angelo, Toyota chief quality officer for North America.

Toyota will replace the steering column bracket — a procedure that will take about two hours. Owners will get notified starting in late August.

Forex Market Nears $4 Trillion in Daily Trade

The global currency-trading business expanded at a double-digit rate in the six months ended in April, data from key monetary authorities around the world showed Monday.

The strong growth puts the foreign-exchange market on track to top a record $4 trillion in daily trading volume, extending its recovery after the global recession caused activity to dry up in the first part of 2009.

Worries over the euro zone’s sovereign-debt crisis and concern over the pace of the global economic recovery are likely to keep volatility—the main driver behind the currency market’s trading rebound—high.

At the same time, the increase in Australian trade volume is a reminder of a deeper underlying shift as investors and companies move their exposure from the advanced economies of Europe and the U.S. toward Asia and emerging markets.

Still, that is a longer-term trend. In the latest half-year, “no question, front and center was the euro,” said Jeff Feig, managing director and global head of Group of 10 foreign exchange at Citigroup and the chairman of the Foreign Exchange Committee sponsored by the Federal Reserve Bank of New York. “The volume growth was really a result of the volatility and the fact that you had real end users actively hedging their exposures.”

Worries over the euro zone’s debt crisis prompted corporations and other investors to shield themselves from sharp swings in the common currency by turning to the perceived safety of the dollar, yen and Swiss franc.

Currency trading flows in the U.K., the world’s biggest dealing hub, rose 15%, bringing the daily average to $1.747 trillion, data released by the Bank of England showed Monday.

In the U.S., daily currency flows rose 12% to $754 billion, just shy of the record $762 billion in October 2008. The total includes spot transactions as well as currency derivatives.

London grabs roughly one-third of global currency-trading flows, with New York taking around one-fifth. Other trading hubs around the world account for the remainder. Central banks and other monetary authorities in each of the major trading center compile trading volume statistics on an annual, or semiannual basis.

Daily trading volume in Australia soared 54% in April from a year earlier, taking the total to $191.2 billion as the Australian dollar, with its commodities-related exposure to China, was traded as a proxy for the Chinese yuan, analysts said. Japanese flows rose 16% to $294.1 billion

The world-wide daily foreign-exchange market should now stand at more than $4.1 trillion, according to an HSBC report. That is a 28% jump from the $3.2 trillion figure established in 2007 by the Bank for International Settlements in its latest survey. The BIS is to update the official figure this year.

Still, the pace of growth is slower than the previous three-year period, when volume rose 63%.

Late Monday in New York, the euro was at $1.2994, from $1.2916 late Friday; the euro advanced as far as $1.3006. The dollar was at 86.90 yen from 87.37 yen late Friday, while the euro was at 112.92 yen from 112.84 yen. The U.K. pound was at $1.5486 from $1.5423. The dollar was at 1.0484 Swiss francs from 1.0534 francs.

Dollar on defensive, eyes on U.S. GDP

July 30 (Reuters) – The dollar eked out small gains against the euro in early trade on Friday, but remained on the defensive near a three-month low against a basket of currencies on concerns U.S. growth may be disappointingly weak.

Dollar bears think U.S. second quarter GDP data due at 1230 GMT could provide a further opportunity to sell the currency after a raft of U.S. economic data in the past month undershot market expectations.

Economists forecast U.S. growth to slow to 2.5 percent in the three months to June from 2.7 percent in the first quarter. [ECI/US]

But some said market pessimism on the U.S. economy may have gone too far.

“The dollar is coming under pressure due to worries about the U.S. economy. But we think today’s GDP figures will be reasonably strong and thus limit downside for the dollar for now,” said Masafumi Yamamoto, chief FX strategist at Barclays Capital in Tokyo.

The dollar stayed near a 12-week low against the euro, which benefited from a jump in euro-zone economic sentiment to a 28-month high and a decline in German unemployment.

The euro slipped 0.1 percent against the dollar in early Asian trade to $1.3060 EUR=, though it is still not far from a 12-week high of $1.3107 marked on Thursday

The next key resistance level for the single currency is seen at $1.3125, the 38.2 percent Fibonacci retracement of the peak-to-trough move from November 2009 to June.

On Thursday, the dollar slipped against both high-yielding currencies such as the Australian dollar, as well as currencies that tend to be favoured when risk appetite wanes, such as the Swiss franc and the yen.

The Australian dollar slipped 0.1 percent in early Asian trade to $0.8993 AUD=D4, but not far from an 11-week high of $0.9060 hit earlier in the week.

The dollar slipped 0.1 percent versus the yen to 86.74 yen JPY=, edging towards a 7 1/2-month low of 86.27 yen hit earlier in the month.

The yen showed no response to an unexpected fall in Japanese industrial production. The market also shrugged off the news that a group of Japanese lawmakers called for the BOJ to set an inflation target of two to three percent.

EUR/USD Daily Review 29 Jul 10

Good day EUR/USD fans!

Tomorrow is Friday and i hope your trading is well so far.

Yesterday, we explored the various market themes. In particularly, the negative outlook in the US seems to be driving investors towards the Euro.

eurusd

Looking at the EUR/USD chart, we are at the line of 1.3090. We must remember that support and resistance lines are never a single line and hence we need to monitor if the line proves to be a resistance. After all, I LOVE IT WHEN MY CHARTS WORK !!

***

A quick update on the market today, investors seem to continue to shun away from the US dollar due to concerns over the fragile recovery. The US unemployment claims did not show any remarkable improvement and hence traders are probably worried of the labor market issues. Compared to the Euro Zone, the German Unemployment Change came out better than expected and is definitely an attraction for investors’ risk appetites.

However the koala is always mind of both sides of the coin and just today, Greek truck drivers protest against the government plans to open up the freight industry, This is part of the condition upon accepting the loan package from the EU / IMF. This protest is causing shortages of fuel and tourism is affected. This serves to remind us that the Euro Zone crisis is far from over.

Tomorrow marks a day full of economic releases. As always, trade with caution

***

Remember some time back i was talking about aliens and x-files. Had a conversation today regarding corp circles. Do you think aliens created them?

Goldman Trader For Japan Forex Role

LONDON (Dow Jones)–Citigroup Inc (C) has hired a former staffer from Goldman Sachs Inc (GS) as the bank’s head of foreign-exchange trading in Japan, according to an internal Citigroup memo seen by Dow Jones Newswires.

Jo Narita has joined the bank after eight years at Goldman Sachs in Japan, according to the memo, which described him as “one of the preeminent traders in [foreign exchange], not only in Japan but globally.”

Narita will play a role in expanding Citigroup’s overall foreign-exchange business in Japan, as well as its trading business, the memo said.

Citigroup is the fourth-biggest bank globally in foreign exchange, according to this year’s benchmark Euromoney survey. According to Euromoney Market Data, Citigroup ranks as the sixth-biggest bank for market share in Japan, narrowly behind Goldman Sachs.

How much trader lost in Forex before they start profiting?

I heard a lot of people said 90% of forex trader lose money. I wonder how long and roughtly how much the trader lose become they become the remaining 10% winners.

How much you lose, and how soon you start making money is entirely up to you.

The average learning curve to learn how to profitably trade forex (or any other market) is about 24 months. What you want is to get from day one to the time you are consistently making money with the least loss possible.

How much trader lost in Forex before they start profiting?

I heard a lot of people said 90% of forex trader lose money. I wonder how long and roughtly how much the trader lose become they become the remaining 10% winners.

How much you lose, and how soon you start making money is entirely up to you.

The average learning curve to learn how to profitably trade forex (or any other market) is about 24 months. What you want is to get from day one to the time you are consistently making money with the least loss possible.

Do automated forex trading robots work in the forex currency market?

I’m considering purchasing a program that is an automated trading “robot” on the forex currency exchange. Has anyone out there ever had a fallout or lost a lot of money using this system?

Here’s a review of a system that many people are having success with. It’s called Fap Turbo and it is an automatic trading robot like you say. You have to figure out how to set it up, but then once yuo get it going it’s supposed to do everything for you.

How does an automated forex trading system work?

Might be nice if someone can simplify how it works. I am also looking for an automated forex trading system too.

Automated forex trading systems (robots) are just a tool. Like any tool their success ultimately depends on the person using it. There are many people that make a ton of money from forex trading.