Lawrence Villamar

Online retailers seems to be shopping from a "question of touch" which results from a higher return rate last year. So, here's a survey of the technology available right now that can help shoppers augment their online shopping experience to approximate physically interacting with the product.

U.S. stocks remain higher but are off session highs Tuesday afternoon after strong gains overseas and an upbeat start to the U.S. earnings reporting season pushed blue-chip stocks to levels not seen since late July.

US chain store sales rose by 3.3pct in the week to January 7 compared with a year ago according to the Johnson Redbook Retail Sales index.

Following a relatively flat start to the day the Australian Dollar came to life in mid afternoon trade, as it was pushed higher by improved global risk sentiment as well as local building approvals which beat market expectations.

We saw the Aussie pullback overnight but the move lower fizzled out before getting back to major support at 1.0200. Traders will remain focused on the upside while 1.0200 holds. A break of 1.0400 is also obviously bullish.

US consumer credit rose by US$20.37 billion in November - the biggest increase since 2001. The US employment trends index rose from 103.7 to 104.3 in December.

Hopes that a November rate cut would spur Consumers into further spending measures were dashed yesterday when Retail Sales for the month came in well below expectation, showing a turnover of Zero Percent, well short of the forecasted figure of 0.6 percent.

We saw the Aussie pullback overnight but the move lower fizzled out before getting back to major support at 1.0200. Traders will remain focused on the upside while 1.0200 holds. A break of 1.0400 is also obviously bullish.

US non-farm payrolls (employment) rose by 200,000 in December, ahead of forecasts centred on a gain of 150,000. Private sector jobs rose by 212,000 and the jobless rate fell from 8.7pct to a near three-year low of 8.5pct. Average earnings rose by 0.2pct.

The Australian Dollar traded sideways for the majority of Fridays Session with investors seemingly unwilling to push it even higher, given its recent strong start to 2012.

We saw the Aussie pullback overnight but the move lower fizzled out before getting back to major support at 1.0200. Traders will remain focused on the upside while 1.0200 holds. A break of 1.0400 is also obviously bullish.

According to the ADP survey, US private sector payrolls rose by 325,000 in December - well above expectations for a 178,000 increase and the biggest gain in the 11-year history of the survey.

Australia’s exports exceeded imports by A$1.38 billion in November, down from a revised A$1.42 billion surplus the previous month, the Bureau of Statistics said on Thursday.

The Aussie pulled back to 1.0300 before seeing a solid bounce and therefore there’s been no major change in the market’s view.

The Australian Dollar has decoupled from the Euro in the past 24 hours, holding its own above 1.0300 against the Greenback as the shared currency fell to support near 1.2900.

US factory orders rose by 1.8pct in November, driven by aircraft and transportation orders. New orders excluding transportation rose by a more modest 0.3pct. Durable goods orders rose by 3.7pct.

The Aussie has started the new year with a bang thanks to the improvement in risk appetite and strong gains in commodities. The next major level of resistance is at 1.0380/400 and a break of this level will be the next trigger for longs.

January is typically one of the strongest months of the year for stocks. In 60 of the past 83 years, the S&P 500 has closed the year in the same direction as it finished the month of January, according to S&P Indices.

The US ISM manufacturing index improved a little more than expected, rising to a six month high of 53.9 in December from 52.7 in November.

Asian stocks opened higher yesterday with the ASX gaining 1.1% during its first day of trade for the New Year.

The Aussie bounced from support at 1.0050 yesterday and this now looks to define the trading range in the near term. A push up to 1.0200/20 is likely to see the sellers re-emerge.

U.S. stocks gained in the second-to-last trading session of 2011, boosted by data that showed a modest improvement in the U.S. housing and employment sectors and a drop in borrowing costs for heavily indebted Italy.

Italy successfully sold 7 billion euros of bonds at an auction on Thursday with the yield on the benchmark 10-year bonds at 6.98pct, well off the highs of 7.56pct set a month ago. Italian Prime Minister Mario Monti was cautious: ´´Auctions held yesterday and today went rather well, this is encouraging but the financial turbulence absolutely isn´t over.´´

The Aussie failed to recapture earlier losses on Thursday managing an intraday high of 1.0090 on growing concerns around the Euro zone.

The Aussie was sent sharply lower overnight thanks to the heavy selling in European markets and this has brought the pair back to support at 1.0050.

Holiday-mode continued for the Aussie during Wednesday’s domestic session with the unit trading in a tight band between 1.0135 and 1.0168. Weaker local equities and disappointing economic data out of Japan did not help the Aussie’s cause

It’s been like the night before Christmas in financial markets over the last few days – with hardly a trader stirring – but the Aussie still looks slightly bullish

The Aussie has drifted sideways for most of the last several days in holiday-thinned trad

The Aussie remains bullish in the near term with the potential to push up to 1.0220. A break above this level sets up a move to 1.0320.