Market Bell – Opens Up

The All Ords (AORD) opened stronger in the morning session approximately up around  37.5 points at the time of writing. The (AUDUSD) is trading around 0.71 at the moment which is quite good compared to previous months where the dollar has been as low as 0.60 USD. 

In the news:

Israel-Gaza Ground War Heats up – Unfortunately, there is no letting up by Israel and so ground attacks continue on the Hamas-controlled Gaza Strip as its sees fierce fighting between the two sides as they battle for control of Gaza. More than 500 Palestinians and give Israelis have been killed in the fighting as of Sunday and more are expected to die in the coming week. This may shake financial markets around the world if the war escalates.

Dow Jones Up for the New Year – After what was the worse performance on the market in decades, US Stocks were up around 258.30 points on Friday and finished around 6% higher for the week – breaking through the 9,000 barrier for the first time in since November. There was very light trading volume on the basis that most traders were still on holidays – so the real question is whether the New Year Cheer will remain on the return of the bulk of the investment bankers in the States this week or whether the plethora of new corporate and economic data that will flow across January will provide traders with more fear of the true extent of the U.S. recession and the credit crunch.

Another Aussie Killed in Afghanistan – Another Australian has been attached in the Afghanistan making this Aussie the 9th to have died since Australia committed troops to the war. It is believed that a rocket attack by Afghanistan Militants was the primary cause of the attack. Read more on the story here.