FX.co ★ Fundamental Analysis, November 23, 2010

The first trading day of this week at Wall Street locked on a mixed trend, after the leading indexes had been trading on descending trends throughout most of the day based on Ireland's request for assistance. By the end of the trading day, the Dow Jones Industrial Average had descended by 0.2% to 11,179 points, the NASDAQ index strengthened by 0.5% to 2,532 points, whereas the S&P 500 weakened by about 0.2%, reaching a level of 1,198 points.

Index descents had also been recorded at the Asian stock markets due to concerns that aid to Ireland would not stop the expansion of the European debt crisis, and may hurt one of Asia's most important export markets. As such, the Hong Kong stock exchange dropped 1.8%, the Seoul exchange dropped about 1.2%, Shanghai dove about 2.5%, the Australian stock market descended 1.2%, and the New Zealand stock exchange declined by 1.1% after the S&P rating agency reduced the country's credit rating yesterday.

The optimism surrounding aid to Ireland had worn off after the coalition Green party announced it is leaving the cabinet due to the introduction of the aid package, calling for a new election by January. Concerns are now brought up that the government might not last long enough to implement the new budget and the wide cuts it recommends.

This has been joined yesterday by the reduction of New Zealand's credit rating by S&P, motivated by the fact that the country's great debt might influence that as well. That said, Moody's had stated today it would continue supporting a AAA rating for New Zealand, which, according to the agency, is still poised in a good position justifying this rating, despite all difficulties.

Crude oil prices locked today on a 0.3% descent to 81.74 during trade at the New York Commodities exchange, this due to investor concerns over the difficulties surrounding aid to Ireland, the declines in the stock markets and the strengthening of the dollar. Since the beginning of the year, the gold had ascended by 5.4%.