MARKETS

Out of the blue, earnings downgrades for the 2011-12 financial year have started appearing, less than a month after the interim reporting season ended.

Rio Tinto has joined rival BHP Billiton in reviewing its increasingly minor involvement in the diamond industry.

FNArena has added another video to its Investors Education section on the website. In this latest video, ATW's Jerry Simmons explains why he is keeping a close watch on crude oil futures.

By Greg PeelThe Dow closed down 43 points or 0.3% while the S&P lost 0.3% to 1412 and the Nasdaq dropped 0.

By Greg PeelAfter a flurry of activity the week before last, which might have signalled renewed interest in spot uranium at the lower price, last week activity levels fell back to minimal again.

By Kathleen Brooks, Research Director, FOREX.comToday Ben Bernanke "surprised" the market by giving an incredibly dovish speech to an association of business economists in Virginia.

U.S. stocks surged Monday, largely erasing last week's losses, after a speech by Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke signaled the central bank is committed to a monetary policy that's helped buoy stocks for three years.

When will it become morally wrong for an agent to promote print to a vendor?

Struggling Tasmanian forestry products company Gunns is continuing to try and raise fresh capital after the earlier plans were wrecked by the withdrawal of a cornerstone investor.

It's not the start of a trend, but the loss from the Bank of Queensland should worry investors.

Aquila Resources and Vale of Brazil have patched up their quarrel over the big Isaac Plains export coking coal project in Queensland.

Your editor's fingers are a little rusty after a full week away from the keyboard. But our hands were not idle! We rediscovered the pleasure of discovering information the old fashioned way last week, analogue style! More on the benefits to your brain of reading books in a moment.

Oil and gas prices have been going up, and the whole thing continues to take up an important piece of the spotlight.

By Greg PeelThe Dow rose 160 points or 1.2% while the S&P gained 1.4% to 1416 and the Nasdaq added 1.8%.

Friday marks the end of an eventful first quarter for financial markets.

Still, TDS describes the commodity picture as "positive" for the longer term.

Was last week a reminder to the bulls that the rebound is becoming overbought, or were the big falls (especially in Europe) a timely warning that the problems which gave us the miserable final quarter for 2011 (and 2010) are still with us?

(This story was first published on Wednesday, 21st March 2012. It has now been re-published to make it available to non-paying members at FNArena and to readers elsewhere).

By Kathleen Brooks, Research Director UK EMEA, FOREX.com• Searching for the next crisis• What's driving the dollar?• Europe: what happened to the LTRO?A couple of weeks ago the market was able to shrug off the prospect of a Greek default and a sharply rising oil price.

India has long been touted as the next coming emerging economy, and judging by the performance up to last year, it was a contender.

With the reports in the past week from Myer, David Jones, Kathmandu and OrotonGroup we know Australian retailing had a tough six months or so at the back end of 2011 and early this year, but has it been as tough as much of the reporting and commentary suggested?

They've been gathering strength now for a couple of months - February saw them start to sound very upbeat.

By Greg PeelThe Dow closed down 78 points or 0.6% while the S&P lost 0.7% to 1392 and the Nasdaq fell 0.

David Jones hasn't been competitive with the emerging online retailing sector for years, and in the past six to eight months, its efforts in the analogue retailing space haven't been too flash either.

And as we have seen, David Jones wasn't alone in delivering bad news to investors yesterday.

By Greg PeelThe Dow closed down 45 points or 0.4% while the S&P lost 0.2% to 1402 but the Nasdaq managed a slight gain.

By Marco Annunziata, chief economist, General Electric Co.Oil prices are again on the rise ? will this derail the economic recovery? And what if there is an oil shock on the horizon? This column presents an overview of the oil market and its possible effects on the global economy.

The European Commission, the European Union's executive body, has launched a public consultation and investigation into shadow banking practices in the region, as they aim to implement new controls and supervisory measures for the system in the future.

It doesn't really matter what your audience is, whether it be real estate, fitness or social services - if you are going to make an informative video and publish it on your blog, there are a few little secrets to success. Do it well and do it often!