Morning Call by Traders University

A rally in commodity and financial stocks led Britain’s FTSE 100 in the last session. The index closed 1.1 percent higher Friday, as firmer oil prices and a gleam of hope in the U.S. banking sector steadied investors’ nerves. The blue-chip index ended 41.62 points higher at 3,753.68, finishing the week up 6.3 percent, although still down over 15 percent this year. Investors were certainly reassured about the troubled financial sector after Citigroup (C.N) Chairman Richard Parsons said on Thursday that it does not need any more capital, leading bank shares to bounce sharply with HSBC (HSBA.L) adding 6.7 percent. The Dow Jones industrial average rose 53.92, or 0.8 percent, to 7,223.98 so investors return to work on the back of Wall Street’s best week in months - and that’s both a good and bad thing. The Dow and S&P 500 ricocheted off 12-year lows to spike more than 10% in just four sessions, while the Nasdaq bounced off six-year lows to jump almost 13%. That short sharp advance has left investors both hopeful that the market could be closer to stabilizer The notable forex-related data released on Friday were; CAD Employment Change and Unemployment Rate (both worse than expected) and CAD Trade Balance (-1.0B, as expected) and USD Trade Balance and Prelim University of Michigan Consumer Sentiment both showed an improvement. Early this morning the UK Rightmove HPI m/m figure was released and showed a 0.9% m/m increase. In the US the Treasury Dept TIC Long-Term Purchases data will be released and is expected to show an increase in the net in-flow of capital invested in US long-term securities purchased by foreign investors. An improvement would be considered USD positive. Also of note today is the release of CPI y/y figures for the Euro zone. The forecast is for no change in the annual EUR rate of inflation