On Thursday the 9th of April Greece paid back a
£450m loan repayment to the IMF, the repayment was widely expected to be made
and as a result the European markets had been trading higher. This news doesn't
mean Greece is out of the woods yet, there are still fears that Greece will
have trouble paying back the rest of the loan, and the other European countries
are reluctant to amend the conditions of the loan.
There is wide anticipation the US Federal Reserve will be
raising interest rates sometime later this year. At the last FOMC meeting it’s
understood the Fed was “cautious” about raising rates too soon. This seem to me
we will have to wait a bit longer until we see an actual increase in interest
rates in the US, however I don’t think many economists could correctly predict exactly
when we will see the rate hike.
Last week the FTSE 100 in the UK continued its impressive rally
to reach new highs, some of the strength shown from the FTSE companies stems
from a weak British Pound which has helped British companies that make most of
their earnings from exporting overseas such as Rolls-Royce.
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Labels: Euro, FTSE, GBP, Greece, IMF, interest rates, Stock, US, USD