Morning Call by Traders University

Britain’s FTSE 100 index is seen opening up 38-39 points on Thursday, as reported financial bookmakers, after Wall Street rose overnight on the Federal Reserve’s plans to buy bonds. The UK blue-chip index closed down 52.11 points on Wednesday pulled down by weakness in commodities and banks. Fuelled by federal chairman Ben S.Bernanke’s determination to avoid a repeat of the great Depression, U.S central bankers decided to buy as miuch as $300 billion worth of long term treasuries and expand purchases of mortgage-related debt to help ease credit market conditions in the latest action to lower borrowing costs. An easing of credit market strains would help business and consumer spending. Speculations by market analysts state that FTSE might well sail along with the other markets, and finish the week off on a strong note with a probable gain of 2 percent today. Wall street stocks turned mixed Wednesday as investors awaited details from the Federal Reserve’s meeting on interest rates. By early afternoon, stocks pulled off their lows and struggled to move higher. The Fed is expected to leave rates at their historically low levels, but the market is anxious to see how the central bank assesses the economy in its statement accompanying the rate decision. Investors also want to know if the Fed has any further moves planned to help boost the economy. At Wednesday’s close of floor trading on the NYSE, the DOW was on 7486.58 with a gain of 90.88 points (1.23%) while the S&P finished on 794.35, up 29.11 points (2.09%).In Forex news yesterday the USD dollar dropped considerably across the board following the Federal Reserve statement that it is buying up to $300 in longer term Treasuries and raising the size of lending programs already aimed at reducing mortgages rates by another $750 billion. In data releases today; at 1100am the CAD CPI m/m figure will be released with an expected rise to 0.2%. Then at 1230pm the USD Unemployment Claims of individuals who filed for unemployment benefits for the first during the past week are due with an expected figure of 652K, which is comparable to previous recent weeks.