Great news everyone; chocolate is as good for you as fruit juice. That is now an official undeniable fact because researchers have said so and they are clever and they should know. Chocolate is high in antioxidants and therefore good for you. The study was carried out by the Hershey Centre for Health and Nutrition, in Pennsylvania. Yes, you have spotted the problem here. That is ‘Hershey’ as in the American chocolate company. The fact that the research was carried out by a chocolate company kind of takes the excitement out of it doesn’t it.

So while you put that slab of Dairy Milk back in the cupboard and retrieve the orange juice I’ll cover what also happened yesterday and no I am not sponsored by the Bank of England so this is all reliable stuff. The lack of data yesterday didn’t seem to hamper trading activity. US consumers borrowed a little more money and that is a tentative sign of increasing confidence. The US Dollar though failed to capitalise on the news and remains relatively weak this morning. It did though make gains against the Euro but so did Sterling and a whole bunch of other currencies so it was nothing for the US Dollar to write home about.

The Euro was on the back foot against Sterling in particular as analysts started to factor in earlier interest rate hikes from the UK than from the Eurozone. The highly unexpected drop in German factory orders did little to alter that impression and we get the bank of England’s take on the interest rate speculation on Thursday but no change is expected in either the base rate or the level of the quantitative easing program. Without a press conference, we will almost certainly have to wait another fortnight to get the minutes from this meeting before we can assess the mood amongst Monetary Policy committee members. Overnight news from the British Retail Consortium that January retail sales were up on the previous January looked good on the surface but the fact is that January 2010 was a snowy month so the shops were quiet. And the other overnight report from the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors showed that house prices in the UK declined marginally in January. Sterling hasn’t really reacted to either data.

Elsewhere, the Canadian Dollar weakened as oil prices slipped. Traders are less concerned about the Egyptian protests causing supply problems, so the wholesale markets dipped a tad. Oil is one of Canada’s chief exports. This correction in the value of the CAD was expected after it rallied when Friday’s Canadian employment report was so positive.

The Australian Dollar stayed pretty flat after job adverts were shown to have risen last month and because we are expecting an 11th straight month of employment growth when that data is released on the 10th Feb and because there is a seemingly immovable confidence in the Australian Dollar in spite of the recent floods, cyclones and fires that Aussies have had to endure. Australian Treasurer Wayne Swan said yesterday that this series of disasters would undoubtedly "thump" Australian economic growth but that the recovery and rebuilding would redress the balance. On an optimistic note for those trying to move to Australia, Swan said that labour market shortages (a lack of suitably qualified employees in other words) would continue to be a problem. There is a chance then that the Australian Authorities will open up more work related visas in the months ahead.

Today is another day light on data but this one does carry a couple of speeches by two Chairmen of US Federal Reserve Banks so anything could happen.

And finally, the search for the cure for the common cold may not be over but a team at Oxford University may have discovered how to combat all strains of influenza. Apart from potentially making gazillions of pounds from the discovery, the team will write their place in history but there is a downside. In the future, what are we going to call the sniffle that makes men bedridden if it can’t be called manflu anymore?


Chocolate quote

The 12-step chocoholics program:

NEVER BE MORE THAN 12 STEPS AWAY FROM CHOCOLATE!


Terry Moore