Portfolio Performance : +6.76%

Headline News

1. Fed Beige Book said that pace of economic activity slowed since last report
2. Beige Book sees elevated or increasing price pressures in all Fed districts
3. The Reserve Bank Governor Bollard said "Provided that the outlook for inflation continues to improve and there is no excessive exchange rate depreciation, we would expect to lower interest rates further" - this is the first rate cut since July 2003
4. Japan June Surplus 138.6B Yen vs 1.24 Trillion Yen a year earlier, on a 88.9% drop in exports (this is huge)
5. Vietnam's inflation in July estimated to hit an annual rate of 27.04%
6. Korean won rose as foreigners bought Korean stocks after a 33 day selling streak
7. OECD says Indonesia needs to improve the business environment and make better use of labour inputs to put the economy on a higher growth trajectory
8. Thailand central bank reiterated on Thursday its policy priority at the moment was maintaining monetary stability rather than economic growth
9. French July Business Climate Indicator 98 vs 101 in June
10. French Provisional July Service PMI 47 vs 50.1 in June
11. Spanish Q2 unemployment hits 3 year high of 10.4%
12. German July Provisional Service PMI 53.3 vs consensus of 51.4
13. Euro Zone May Current Account Deficit 7.3 billion Euros vs Surplus 1.5 Billion in April
14. German IFO Business assessment index 105.7 vs 108.3 in June
15. Euro Zone July manufacturing PMI falls to 46.9 from 49.6 in June
16. IFO says that july index results suggest Economic upswing coming to an end
17. Hong Kong June exports lower by 0.6% year on year vs higher by 10.3% in May
18. UK retail sales higher by 2.2%, the lowest since Feb 2006
19. US jobless claims +34K to 406K, 375K expected
20. US June existing home sales lower by 2.6% to 4.86 million

My expectation for the US dollar crosses

1. EUR : Negative
2. GBP : Positive
3. CAD : Neutral
4. JPY : Neutral
5. CHF : Neutral
6. AUD : Negative

Bottomline : Quiet market today. I expect the US dollar to gain in strength, this comes on the weakness of commodities.