Archive For "March, 2010"

A fragile sense of optimism over Greek’s finances after last week’s agreement by euro-zone leaders to back a joint European-International Monetary Fund standby aid plan has turned sour, renewing questions about the debt-strapped country’s ability to meet its financing needs.

U.S. private sector companies shed 23,000 jobs in March, according to the ADP employment report released Wednesday, casting a pall on expectations that the labor market was healing.

WASHINGTON (MarketWatch) – Companies in the U.S. private sector shed 23,000 jobs in March, according to the ADP employment report released Wednesday. The report comes two days before the Labor Department reports on nonfarm payroll growth for March. The decline in ADP employment was a surprise. Economists had forecast a gain of 40,000 in March ADP. Economists are also expecting a sizable jump in nonfarm payroll in March. The consensus forecast of Wall Street economists is for an increase of 189,000 in nonfarm payrolls. The ADP report does not include federal workers. Many economists expect a surge in federal workers related to the 2010 Census. Joel Prakken, chairman of Macroeconomic Advisers LLC that prepares the ADP report said nonfarm payroll could still jump in March if there is a reversal of the depressed hiring from the winter weather in February and from hiring of census workers. The ADP report does not capture changes in the weather.

NEW YORK (MarketWatch) — Treasury prices gained and the U.S. dollar extended losses on Wednesday after ADP said private employers cut 23,000 jobs in March, worse than economists’ expectations that payrolls would grow by 40,000. Yields on 10-year notes , which move inversely to prices, fell 4 basis points to 3.82%. The dollar index , which measures the greenback against a trade-weighted basket of six major currencies, slipped to 80.994, compared to 81.279 before the data and down from 81.513 in North American trade late Tuesday. The euro rose to $1.3511 from $1.3408 late Tuesday.

LONDON (MarketWatch) — The Greek government plans to issue a global U.S. dollar-denominated bond late next month or in early May, the head of the nation’s debt agency said Wednesday, according to news reports. “There will be a roadshow, we are planning to issue a U.S. dollar bond by end April or early May,” Petros Christodoulou, head of the Public Debt Management Agency, told Reuters. Christodoulou didn’t reveal the expected size of the issue. Greece must borrow a total of 32 billion euros ($43 billion) this year, including 11.6 billion euros by the end of May, Christodoulou said, according to Bloomberg.

The yen sinks in Tokyo as investors liquidate long positions on the last day of the Japanese fiscal year, with an earlier Japanese stock-market rally also greasing the low-yielding Japanese unit’s slide.

Geographically, Japan is thousands of miles away from both Ireland and Zimbabwe, but when it comes to mapping the possible outcome of its fiscal deterioration, one Tokyo economist sees Japan’s place as somewhere in the middle of the two.

The total number of German jobless falls by a seasonally-adjusted 31,000 in March, defying expectations for a rise.

LONDON (MarketWatch) — March consumer prices in the 16-nation euro zone rose 1.5% compared to the same month last year, the European Union statistics agency Eurostat said in a preliminary estimate Wednesday. Economists had expected the annual rate to accelerate to 1.2% from 0.9% in January. The rate remains below the European Central Bank’s target of just below 2%. Separately, Eurostat said the euro-zone unemployment rate rose to 10% in February from a reading of 9.9% in January, in line with expectations.

LONDON (MarketWatch) — Germany’s jobless total fell by a seasonally-adjusted 31,000 in March, the Federal Labor Office reported Wednesday. On an unadjusted basis, the total fell by 75,000 to 3.568 million. Economists had expected the adjusted figure to rise by around 10,000.