Betfair Official Blog

Daily View - 11th February

All aboard for another week on the helter skelter...

Markets look to be coming in on the weak side this morning, which is disappointing after late activity on Friday gave hope that a base had been reached. The problem has not so much been the arrival of any new information on the UK economy, rather it originates in the almost universally gloomy statements emerging from the meeting of the 'great and the good' at the G7 Finance get-together.

Turning to today's markets, we are calling for the FTSE to come in around 45 lower at 5739-5740 as we react to the falls in the Far East earlier, and the weakness in the US on Friday night. If we go for the down side from the open today then this may well give some pause to the bears. On the upside, bulls will be hoping that we can close above 5820, a figure which has proved something of a 'cusp' point for the last three weeks.

Sterling having consolidated the falls of Thursday is now probing the downside once more, with the Euro cross-threatening the 0.75 level again, and is 30 pips higher at 0.7486-0.7488. GBP/JPY is also sloping to the down side after recovering slightly from the huge post-Christmas falls. The trend is beginning to look bearish once more and the cross is some 80 pips off at 208.08-208.16. Support is at 208.00, 207.40 and then 205.90. With the BOE continuing to worry about inflation, the proportion of high rates is likely to remain for some time but it is beginning to look a trifle worm eaten.

And finally (in the words of Trevor Mac), gold is some four bucks up today as dealers ignore the Central Bankers agreement to permit the possible offloading of some $92 billion of IMF gold reserves. Bulls are, as ever, in command and we are probing the mid $920's resistance levels at 922.9-923.4.