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Strategies & Market Trends : Mish's Global Economic Trend Analysis -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: MoneyPenny who wrote (33957)	7/21/2005 7:33:31 AM
From: Chispas	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 116555

China scrapped the yuan's peg to the U.S. dollar Thursday and tied it to a basket of currencies, the central bank said, the first steps in highly anticipated reforms aimed at letting the currency float freely.... ............................................................ The surprise move by China, reported just after 7 a.m. ET, would have its currency, the yuan, pegged to a basket of currencies rather than just tied to a fixed exchange rate to the dollar. The move is seen as a benefit to many U.S. firms, which could face less competition from lower-priced Chinese imports or get more money for their sales in the world's largest country. U.S. stock futures soared immediately after the reports by Reuters just after 7 a.m. ET. after being mixed in earlier trading. Before the news from China, it appeared earnings reports would drive trading. Nasdaq futures were pointing higher even before the China news after strong earnings from eBay (Research) late Wednesday. Nasdaq closed Thursday at a four-year high. Earnings are due before the market open from five Dow components -- McDonald's (Research), Coca-Cola (Research), Merck (Research), SBC (Research) and Caterpillar (Research). After the bell Microsoft (Research) and Google (Research) are set to report results. Oil prices were lower in early trading. The September U.S. light crude futures contract lost 75 cents to $57.27 a barrel in electronic trading, while the September contract for Brent crude fell 69 cents to $55.96. Major markets in Asia closed mixed Thursday after several markets hit high for the year earlier in the session. Major European markets were higher in early trading. Treasury prices slid on the yuan move, with the yield on the 10-year note rising to 4.19 percent at 4.16 percent. The dollar lost ground against the euro and the yen. In other corporate news, the Wall Street Journal reported Thursday that several top executives and board members at Delta Air Lines (Research) have warned CEO Gerald Grinstein that a turnaround plan there isn't working and that a Chapter 11 bankruptcy filing for the nation's No. 3 airline is inevitable. Delta is also set to report results early Thursday. .............................................................. money.cnn.com