Wall Street’s rally leaves Citi behind January 17, 2012 US stocks advanced yesterday, pushing the S&P 500 to its highest since early August, but sharply pared gains late in the session as Citigroup’s steep drop in profit gave investors a reason to unload bank shares. The financial sector, which has outperformed the broader market so far this year, took a hit on investors’ disappointment [...]
Thomas Cook: The company taking visitors to the Olympics since 1896 January 17, 2012 COUNTDOWN TO THE LONDON 2012 OLYMPIC GAMES Q. WHAT WAS YOUR BRAND’S PRIMARY REASON FOR BEING INVOLVED WITH THE GAMES? A. Thomas Cook actually took customers from Britain to the first modern Olympics in Athens in 1896, and passengers from all over the UK to the 1908 and 1948 London Olympics, so we’ve got a [...]
Bringing the renminbi to the City of London January 17, 2012 FOLLOWING a two day visit to China, George Osborne yesterday announced that Britain had agreed to partner with Hong Kong to develop the City of London as an offshore trading centre for the renminbi. Hong Kong is currently the only official offshore renminbi venue, but Osborne hopes to turn London into a second offshore venue [...]
EU WOES WILL WEIGH ON THE EURO-DOLLAR January 17, 2012 UK BRANCH MANAGER, EASY-FOREX STERLING is trading near a 16-month high versus the euro and a new low for the year versus the dollar. Sterling strength versus the euro reflects demand for an alternative to the euro because of the EU debt crisis and the pound also benefits from expectations that the UK will maintain [...]
Accounting for good practices: why effective risk management matters January 17, 2012 HEAD OF ACCA UK THE global attitude towards risk management has changed irrevocably in the last three years. Yet, despite the increasingly stringent regulatory controls and development of sophisticated financial modelling, at the end of the day, risk management must address the human factor. People ultimately make decisions based on the best available information, but [...]
FTSE rises as investors shift gaze from Eurozone to China January 16, 2012 BRITAIN’S top shares rose yesterday, led by miners, as investors’ attention shifted from the Euro zone debt crisis towards economic data from China. Mining stocks tracked metals prices higher as markets eyed a batch of Chinese data due today, including GDP and industrial production, for further clues on the outlook for demand. “There’s a perception [...]
World shares lift despite dip in Asia January 16, 2012 EUROPEAN shares and the euro gradually recovered yesterday from early losses triggered by the mass downgrade of Euro zone sovereign ratings last week, but they still looked vulnerable amid rising fears of a disorderly Greek debt default. Markets had already reacted to the downgrades on Friday, and European assets steadied by yesterday afternoon, but activity [...]
Powering your trading ambition January 16, 2012 AS MORE and more providers hone their mobile trading apps, you can almost trade from anywhere. But if you are serious about your trading then you will probably want a dedicated computer. But what features are important and what do you get for your money? Generally speaking, you will get faster processing, the ability to [...]
GOLD REMAINS A PRECIOUS COMPONENT OF A PORTFOLIO January 16, 2012 Ionce heard an analyst say that gold should be viewed as an insurance policy, not as an investment. That’s good advice for anyone who is contemplating a position in the yellow metal in 2012. Gold has very little industrial use and yields no return, so its investment credentials are dubious. However, throughout history gold has [...]
THE TIPSTER January 16, 2012 WHEN Rio Tinto becomes the first of the big miners to update the market this year with its full-year report, there will be plenty of informative nuggets for investors to dig through in the update. The memory of Alcoa’s update and bullish forecast last week is still fresh in everyone’s mind. Traders will be hoping [...]