The Traderszone Network

The European Union has always been primarily a political project. The idea of the union was to take peoples that had long and complicated histories, and to place them in a situation where they must work together and shed their differences in order to achieve success.

From the political angle, it can be argued that this objective has been achieved. War and conflict within Western and Central Europe has mostly been stymied. Considering the continent’s lengthy history in these areas, this is great news.

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Indonesia’s president will court Apple and Google during his first U.S. trip, seeking investment for sustainable mining and greater internet access.

Nevada regulators have ordered websites to stop operating until they receive state gaming licenses, the New York Times reports.

A client note from Westpac Chief Economist Bill Evans today:
In (very) brief:
– Markets are on alert for an unexpected near term rate cut from the RBA in response to Westpac’s decision to raise the variable mortgage rate by 20 basis points
Evans then looks at episodes of how the RBA responded to changes in Australian commercial bank lending rates and concludes:

Asian equities cruised higher on Friday, tracking an impressive lead from Wall Street.

Asian shares got a bright start on Friday, catching some of Wall Street’s shine after upbeat U.S. price and jobless claims data calmed some recent concerns about the strength of the U.S. economy. MSCI’s broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan was up 0.5 percent in early trading, touching fresh two-month highs and on track for a robust weekly gain of 1.6 of percent. Japan’s Nikkei stock index (.N225) was up 1 percent, but still poised to shed about 0.9 percent for the week.

China stock market opening indications
– Shanghai Composite to open up 0.6%
– CSI300 index to open 0.6% higher also