China: Slower Export Growth, End of the Infrastructure Boom Years

China's rate of real GDP growth is decelerating. A slowdown in China's high-speed growth has long been anticipated. Even those investors' who are expecting slower growth from China may not have not fully incorporated the extent of this deceleration into their expectations for commodities, interest rates, currencies, and so forth.

Growth in China is slowing for some very obvious and some considerably less obvious reasons. The cause of deceleration in real GDP growth include exports to Europe and North America, and the repercussions from slowing domestic bank lending to contain inflation. One reason why a period of slower growth may persist would be a scenario where the natural maturing process of a high-growth economy is coupled with the Government's efforts to encourage more reliance on a domestic demand driven economic model.

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Central Banks Address Euro Debt Crisis

The Board of Governors of the U.S. Federal Reserve System ("the Fed") issued a press release at 8:00 a.m. (Eastern) on Wednesday, November 30, 2011 announcing a coordinated action with other central banks, including the Bank of Canada, the Bank of England, the European Central Bank (ECB) and the Swiss National Bank, "to enhance their capacity to provide liquidity support to the global financial system."

The Fed's press release was rather vague in explaining that "the purpose of these actions is ease strains in financial markets and thereby mitigate the effects of such strains on the supply of credit to households and business and so help foster economic activity."

Clearly this action is intended to ease the distress that is apparent within the European banking system and in response to the ongoing European sovereign debt/banking crisis.

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Light Sweet Crude Oil (WTI): Upside breakout of a declining trend line on the RSI

(Technical Analysis)­ Trend lines can be applied to both price charts and technical indicators. When used on a technical indicator, they can gauge the strength of the current trend or signal the potential of trend reversal. This article uses recent activity in Light Sweet Crude to provide further insight into trading an Upside breakout of a declining trend line with a long risk reversal strategy and provides charts depicting breakouts of a declining trend line on the RSI happening in other markets right now.

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DECEMBER 2011

Product Announcements

Short Term Options

CME Group Launches New NYMEX Brent Crude Contract

Snowfall Futures and Options

Cleared Fertilizer Swaps

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