New York Report: Dow and S&P hit record highs on ECB’s easing June 5, 2014 DOW JONES and the S&P 500 ended yesterday’s trading at record highs after the European Central Bank cut rates to record lows and pledged to do more if needed to fight off the risk of deflation. The Dow rose 98.58 points or 0.59 per cent, to 16,836.11, the S&P 500 gained 12.58 points or 0.65 per [...]
One graph that spells doom for bond traders June 5, 2014 Investment banks’ bond traders are under the cosh as the decades-long bull market comes to an end and new regulations squeeze their profitability. As a result, banks are looking for ways to save money. One of those is to replace expensive staff with machines wherever possible. This chart from consultants GreySpark Partners [...]
Want to go for lunch with star investor Jim Mellon? Head to Ebay June 5, 2014 The bidding is afoot – multi-millionaire fund manager Jim Mellon is currently being auctioned off on Ebay. Well, lunch with him is. Mellon is often referred to as the British Warren Buffett and now the Isle of Man-based fund manager has taken the analogy further by offering a power lunch with himself to the [...]
How £5m of diggers came to reside under London’s most expensive houses June 5, 2014 The only thing possibly bigger and swankier than the biggest and swankiest houses in London is the titanic subterranean lairs underneath them. With spaces (but not cost) at a premium, more and more owners are expanding downwards, building cinemas, swimming pools, gyms, games rooms and other luxury spaces underneath their visible homes. And Ed Smith, [...]
Why one bank is switching its allegiance from BHP Billiton to Rio Tinto June 5, 2014 As both are FTSE 100 listed Anglo-Australian miners, BHP Billiton and Rio Tinto often get compared rather than contrasted. But RBC Capital Markets today downgraded BHP – despite the stock outperforming Rio by around 10 per cent this year – and switched to a preference of Rio over BHP. “Since December 2013 we have preferred [...]
How China’s A-Shares are being brought in from the cold June 5, 2014 China took a step closer to becoming a fully signed up member of the international stock market community today after a series of benchmarks were launched by FTSE to help stockpickers gradually integrate the burgeoning superpower into their investment portfolios. Chinese A-shares, shares of Chinese companies traded on Shanghai Stock Exchange and the Shenzhen Stock [...]
Why Bitcoin’s extraordinary price rise is driven by more than speculation June 5, 2014 One of the most potent criticisms that has been leveled against the popular cryptocurrency Bitcoin, is that the price is intimately linked with speculation and that there are few fundamental factors driving its extraordinary rise from $5 per Bitcoin in 2011, to $660 today. Those with a more bullish dispositon on the cryptocurrency counter that there [...]
What you need to know before the US open June 5, 2014 The Dax hit 10,000 for the first time this afternoon, following Mario Draghi’s unveiling of his plans for new Targeted Long Term Refinancing Operations (TLTROs). Draghi is still answering questions at the ECB’s press conference, following the announcement that it’s taking interest rates into negative territory, in its battle against deflation. US futures inched up [...]
The European Central Bank just announced three new measures to boost lending. Here’s how they’ll work June 5, 2014 On top of the two policy changes announced earlier, the European Central Bank (ECB) is introducing a few more measures to prop up the ailing currency area. We've already heard, from an official statement, that the central bank is cutting its refinancing and deposit rates, taking the latter into negative territory. During a press conference, [...]
The European Central Bank just unveiled its plan to save the Eurozone. Here’s what you need to know June 5, 2014 Two years after his oft-repeated "whatever it takes" speech, European Central Bank (ECB) president Mario Draghi has finally pulled the trigger. Digging deep into the central bank's arsenal, Draghi has picked out the weapons deemed most suitable to what is now moving from a disinflationary crisis to what could be a deflationary one. Inflation in [...]