MARKETS

Nicholas Moore, chief executive of Macquarie has added his voice to growing calls made by leaders of industry for interest rates to be cut next week as a means by which confidence in the country would be boosted by helping export based industries who are currently suffering from the high value of the Australian dollar.

Today we take up the challenge of the art of stock valuation in a world of monetary madness. We're already a few years into what's probably going to be a prolonged bear market.

The U.S. Federal Reserve has given permission to three Chinese state-backed banks to set up branches within the U.S.

London's finance sector is facing a 16-year low in the number of available jobs, said the Centre for Economics and Business Research (CEBR) on Wednesday, with the euro zone crisis expected to cause more than 25,000 layoffs in 2012.

By Greg PeelThe Dow closed up 19 points or 0.2% while the S&P gained 0.3% to 1357 and the Nasdaq was flat.

Before you continue with today's Reckoning, do yourself a favour and watch Murray's stock market updateon YouTube from yesterday. The Slipstream Trader points out that the ASX/200 staged a 'false break out' on Friday around the 4416 level. If you're unfamiliar with his theory of price action, that means the new high isn't a bullish signal but a 'false' signal.

With a potential merger between US Airways and American Airlines already in place, the airline industry is experiencing yet another shakeup.

A proposal to extend country of origin labelling to unpackaged beef, sheep and chicken meat in Australia by Food Standards Australia New Zealand (FSANZ) has received support by the Australian Made, Australian Grown Campaign (AMAG).

By Jonathan BarrattFrom last week's comment to today's represents a complete reversal of our ideas.

By Greg PeelThe far left Syriza party is attempting to form a government in Greece on a policy of abandoning the troika's bail-out measures yet remaining in the euro.

Are you addicted to your morning cup of coffee and love your new pod coffee machine? Well here is a great idea to use those pods instead of just tossing them out!

By Greg PeelThe three big "headline" influences in current global financial markets are Europe, China and the US.

Norway's sovereign wealth fund has sold off its entire holdings in Irish and Portuguese government bonds, and reduced their share of Spanish and Italian bonds.

Asia is set to produce more solar power than any other region in the world over the next five years.

By Greg PeelThe Dow closed down 76 points or 0.6% while the S&P lost 0.4% to 1363 and the Nasdaq dropped 0.

By Greg PeelJapan shut down its last operating commercial reactor over the weekend. To put this event into context, before the Fukushima disaster Japan boasted 54 operating commercial reactors providing around one third of the country's electricity needs.

By Greg PeelThe Dow closed down 29 points or 0.2% while the S&P closed flat at 1369 and the Nasdaq gained less than 0.

By Ben Traynor, BullionVaultWe've just had the quietest 40 days since the financial crisis began.

By Benjamin Spier, FXCMInflation is one of the most important gauges for a currency trader to track, yet one of the more confusing pieces of data.

In yesterday's Daily Reckoning we left off with the idea that a cashless society promotes tyranny. That might seem like an odd subject to begin with today, given the show-stopping 50 basis point cut in the cash rate by the Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA) yesterday.

On Thursday we predicted doom and gloom for the Australian housing market. More doom and gloom than we've seen already.

More than 2,000 senior public officials in the United Kingdom may have benefitted from a controversial pay deal scheme.

Kellogg's plans to sweeten its' brand offering with a touch of salt in 2012. Their newest property is the recently purchased Pringles flagship, and the buy represents Kellogg's effort to chip away at the growing international snacks market.

By Rudi Filapek-Vandyck, Editor FNArenaI joined Twitter. Not because I am curious what this celebrity has to say about her kids, or to read that another one is waiting for a connecting flight, impatiently.

U.S. stocks fell as a disappointing reading on services-sector activity tempered sentiment on the eve of the government's employment report.

By Greg PeelThe Dow closed down 62 points or 0.5% while the S&P lost 0.8% to 1391 and the Nasdaq dropped 1.

The manufacturing sector of Eurozone showed a sharp shrink in almost three years in April, while the data from Asia seems to be very impressive for the quarter.

By Jonathan BarrattInventories in the copper market continue to come under pressure and as we have seen a good lift in prices already, we can suggest the trend is here to stay for a little while longer.

By Greg PeelThe Dow closed down 10 points or 0.1% while the S&P lost 0.3% to 1402 but the Nasdaq gained 0.