The US dollar was weaker versus the euro and the yen on Friday after the Labor Department reported that 80,000 jobs were lost in the United States in March, more than had been expected by analysts.

At just before noon in New York the dollar was trading at $1.5730 to the euro while it was at ¥101.7450 in relation to the yen.

The yen was helped by a retreat from carry trades as investor sentiment was hurt by the US jobs report.

The yen traded at ¥160.0398 to the euro.

The pound was down in relation to the euro and the greenback on worries that recession in the US could hurt economic growth in the UK.

In late morning trade in New York the pound traded at 78.82p to the euro and at 50.11p to the dollar.

Meanwhile, the South African rand declined versus major currencies on the avoidance of carry trades.

Earlier in the week the rand was stronger on signs that Zimbabwe President Robert Mugabe could be on his way out of power after elections there.

Mugabe has presided over a weakening of the Zimbabwe economy that has left the inflation rate there at 164,000 percent.

In New York around noon the rand traded at R7.8035 to the dollar and at R12.275 to the euro.

The weakness of the U.S. dollar and the possibility of lower interest rates have drawn fresh investment to the oil market, driving the price of oil to over $103 per barrel for the first time.

An energy analyst said such conditions tend to drive investment away from currency and toward commodities, such as oil, which retain an intrinsic value while currency markets fluctuate. He said, however, that a bubble is emerging.

The analyst, Victor Shum of Purvin & Gertz, said investors are ignoring market fundamentals that indicate steady increases in U.S. crude oil supply, while forecasters predict slower growth in oil demand due to the stagnant economy.

Source: news.yahoo.com

WASHINGTON (Thomson Financial) - The euro broke the 1.50-dollar mark for the first time ever Tuesday following US economic reports that renewed fears the American economy could be falling into a recession.

The European currency reached 1.5047 dollars at 2230 GMT Tuesday before falling back to 1.5017 dollars.

Analysts say the euro was given a sudden boost from a better-than-expected German business indicator, which stood out amid a series of lackluster macroeconomic indicators in the United States.

The greenback has come under pressure as traders believe sluggish economic reports could pressure the Federal Reserve to keep cutting US interest rates.

Speculators generally prefer to invest or hold currencies in countries where interest rates are rising or expected to increase in they hopes they can increase their potential returns.

The dollar fell to a record low against the single European currency in electronic trading in New York as traders continued assessing the latest economic readings.

An influential survey, released earlier Tuesday, on US consumer sentiment during February delivered fresh ammunition to market forecasters who are predicting a recession.

The Conference Board private research group said its consumer confidence index dived to a reading of 75.0 in February, compared with 87.3 in January. The index had also fallen in January.

The survey showed the confidence of American consumers had slumped to its lowest level since November 1993, with the exception of polling conducted as US forces toppled the government of former Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein five years ago.

'With so few consumers expecting conditions to turnaround in the months ahead, the outlook for the economy continues to worsen and the risk of a recession continues to increase,' said Lynn Franco, a director of the Conference Board's consumer research center.

The euro's new record run saw it smash a prior record high of 1.4967 dollars struck on Nov 23.

A separate report on wholesale inflation also weighed on the dollar's fortunes, market participants said.

The Labor Department said inflation at the wholesale level surged a stronger-than-expected 1.0 percent in January due to rising food and energy prices.

The accelerating costs of food and energy -- especially crude oil prices -- have caused producer prices to rocket 7.4 percent in the United States in the past twelve months to January.

'Inflation data is clearly not good. The 1.7 percent increase in food prices and the 1.5 percent increase in energy prices will further fuel the recently heightened inflationary concerns,' said Dick Green, president of Briefing.com.

The dollar has lost considerable ground against the euro and other currencies in the past year amid a two-year long housing slump and a credit crunch sweeping financial markets.

The economic turmoil has encouraged the Fed to slash borrowing costs, which has further weighed on the American currency.

Traders said US budget and trade deficits were also undermining the dollar, although recent reports have shown the weak dollar giving a boost to American-produced exports.

Market participants said a better-than-expected report on German business conditions had also helped buoy the euro.

'The German Ifo survey for business confidence unexpectedly rose for the second consecutive month in February, rallying the euro,' said Boris Schlossberg, a senior currency analyst at Forex Capital Markets.

An index of how managers assess the current business climate compiled by Germany's Ifo institute rose in February for the second month running to 104.1 from 103.4 in January.

In stock markets there are three main types of estimates of the future:

A. The Naive

This forecast is based on linear trend extrapolations.

B. The Gullible

This forecast is based on analysts estimates, and

C. The Expert

This prediction is based on rigorous systematic study.

Forecasts, predictions, prophesies, expectations and anticipations concern the future. Man has always had an inordinate desire to know the future, and this is exploited just as fully as any other human passion.

Aristotle (384 - 322 BC) in his "Rhetoric" made a distinction between hortatory statements about the future and expository statements about the present time.

John Maynard N.Keynes (1883 - 1946) in his "Scope and Method" originated the use of the term "positive" to refer to "what is" and the term "normative" to refer to "what should be."

These terms make the distinction between facts about the present, on one hand and opinions about either the speculative future or an ideal state on the other hand, respectively.

The important point here is that statements about future earnings and growth rates are normative, not positive.

They are opinions, not facts!

No one's "crystal ball" is any more reliable than any one else's! Therefore, if not self-reliant, then one must rely on the expert opinion of others who have different agendas and conflicting interests.

Similarly, statements about efficient and rational markets where all prices instantly converge to intrinsic value are normative, not positive.

They are not reality, but rather utopian ideals approached by stock markets as complex aggregates but not by individual stocks.

Perfectly efficient markets are necessary as a fixed standard for comparison, and thus serve a useful methodological function.

"The market is a place set apart where men may deceive each other!"

Diogenes Laertius (Circa 200)

How many ways are there to be cheated?

Shall I count the ways? Well ...

No one can!

There can be as many ways to cheat investors as there are swindlers, con artists, and unscrupulous brokers and ...

There are quite a few of those out there!

When you invest your hard earned money with a stockbroker, you do so with a level of trust, and this trust is backed up with strong legal protections to protect your interests. Nevertheless, investment and broker fraud is all too common.

Brokers take advantage of the fact that they are entrusted with large sums of money and sometimes can create scams to defraud the investors.

If you have experienced large losses to your account, sometimes the responsibility may lay with your broker.

Securities litigation is a very complex and specialized area of the law. If you feel your rights have been violated, your best recourse is to seek an experienced professional to assist you.

Have you been the victim of bad investment advice?

Did your stockbroker recommend risky investments without explaining the risks?

Did your stockbroker make trades without your understanding or authorization?

Did your stockbroker excessively trade your account?

Securities investing and trading is carefully regulated by rules and laws for the protection of public investors. The violation of these rules, particularly through various deceptive actions and schemes to cheat or take advantage of investors, is commonly known as securities fraud.

If you believe that you may have been a victim of securities fraud, you have certain rights, which you should be aware of, rights which may provide you an opportunity to recover your losses from your stockbroker or brokerage firm.

Haramis Stock Brokers - Athens, Greece - Protect Yourself!

Most investors who have been defrauded do not know what happened to their investments until it is too late.

But even after the losses have occurred, the law provides mechanisms for investors to recover their losses, which were caused by a stockbroker's misrepresentations or abuse of the account.

Stock brokers and brokerage firms have certain obligations and duties to their customers. And investors have a right of recourse if their account has been abused or if they have been defrauded by an investment advisor.

An investor who believes that he or she may have been the victim of an unscrupulous stockbroker should consult with an attorney to learn more about their rights under the circumstances.

Most investment advisors and stock brokers are honest, decent individuals who follow the rules of the securities industry and provide a valuable service to the public.

Unfortunately there are some unethical and dishonest investment advisors, and there are some brokerage firms that do not supervise their brokers and accounts as carefully as they are required.

Hopefully, a better informed investor will be better able to protect himself, evaluate what has happened in an account, and have some idea what might be done about it!

All investors should be aware of their rights in order to better protect themselves and to have a higher level of awareness of the standards to be expected in an investment relationship.

Many stock brokers' and customers' disputes might be avoided by better informed investors going into their relationships with their eyes open and knowing their rights!

Do you accept that you won't be the next Warren Buffett?

Professional investors spend their whole day researching companies, have analysts to help them, and can also visit companies.

By all means, that doesn't mean you can't stock-pick successfully as an amateur. The very trick here is to keep it simple and stick with what you do know.

Warren Buffett, for example, spoke about investing within your "circle of competence," an approach also favoured by Peter Lynch.

In his book "One up on Wall Street," Peter Lynch wrote:

"If you stay half alert, you can pick the spectacular performers right from your place of business or out of the neighbourhood shopping mall, and long before Wall Street discovers them."

Lynch sought his fortune in "hum drum" companies, with "mediocre management," operating in "simple-minded" industries with no competition -- certainly not the sort of firms you need to be a professional to understand.

As Lynch says:

"I continue to think like an amateur as frequently as possible. Any normal person using the customary 3% of the brain can pick stocks just as well, if not better, than the average Wall Street expert."

It is this time of the year ...

The time of the earnings season again.

The part of each yearly quarter where investors always believe that it doesn't really matter whether a company does well or bad!

It is this time of the year that the only thing that really counts is whether a company did better or worse than actually expected or "forecasted."

In plain words, it is fine for a company to get heavy losses, as long as the extent of the predicted, forecasted or expected decline is at least a little less than the analysts had been expecting.

At the same time, a company that does really well deserves to be hardly punished -- punishment = declining stock price -- if its ascent is even marginally slower than what analysts had actually been expecting!

If this sounds stupid to you ...

It does definitely mean that you 100% get it!

IT IS 100% STUPID!

Measuring actual performance against expectations is OK within the context of a feedback process -- a normal and healthy aspect of intellectual activity, which ...

Is NOT OK when it becomes a real psychosis!