Global stocks start 2012 with an upswing but experts are forecasting a New Year hangover January 2, 2012 EUROPEAN stocks ended higher in their first trading session of the year yesterday, led by defensive utilities such as E.ON and GDF Suez, while volumes were anaemic as UK and US markets remained closed for the New Year holiday. The handful of Asian markets that opened yesterday gave a more patchy performance, and analysts warned [...]
Revive your trading with death crosses January 2, 2012 BEFORE the bottom fell out of the S&P 500 last August, alert traders were given a sign in the data that something was about to give. In the last few days, a similar warning has come to watchers of gold price charts, suggesting the yellow metal will decline in value over the coming days and [...]
Analyst picks for 3 January 2012 January 2, 2012 FOREX STRATEGIST JOEL KRUGER My pick: Looking to buy euro-Australian dollar Expertise: Technical analysis Average time frame of trades: Multiweek This market is trading near 20-year lows and is very close to retesting the record Au$1.2500 lows from 1989. Short-term, medium-term and longer-term studies are all looking stretched and we will look for an opportunity [...]
S&P is set to finish higher for the year December 22, 2011 US stocks rose yesterday, putting the S&P 500 on the cusp of finishing out the year higher as another decline in jobless claims pointed to further improvement in the labour market. The S&P rose for a third day in seasonally light volume that has contributed to sharp swings recently. With the benchmark index near break-even [...]
Year-end portfolio reshuffles help to boost the FTSE 100 December 22, 2011 BANKS buoyed the FTSE 100 yesterday as Goldman Sachs analysts said the take-up by lenders of ECB loans should be seen as an “important positive” and market bulls attempted to push the index through important technical levels. London’s blue chips closed up 67.23 points, or 1.3 per cent, at 5,456.97, although the index failed to [...]
Markets hold up yet tech sector hit by slide December 21, 2011 TECHNOLOGY shares slumped yesterday and pushed the Nasdaq down one per cent after Oracle reported results that cast doubts on the sector’s health, even as broader markets closed mostly flat in a thinly traded day. Outside the Nasdaq, the market recovered from early losses as some recent fears over Europe faded. Traders tried to build [...]
FTSE seesaws lower on banks and retailers December 21, 2011 BRITAIN’S top share index fell back after a volatile session yesterday, swinging back from early strong gains in low volumes, with banks seeing gains eroded, although Lloyds was boosted by a broker double upgrade. At the close, the FTSE 100 index was down 29.86 points, or 0.6 per cent at 5,389.74, reversing a chunk of [...]
To track or chase returns December 21, 2011 WHETHER investors should aim for alpha (beating the benchmark) or beta (tracking the benchmark) is a debate that divides investors. Here a defender of tracking beta and an advocate of chasing alpha put their respective cases. WORLDTRACK ANTHONY CHRISTODOULOU Should investors chase Alpha? In a word: no. Evidence shows that it is futile attempting to [...]
Outlook for 2012: Protecting your wealth December 21, 2011 BESTINVEST ADRIAN LOWOCK 2012 Macro outlook Weak economic growth will continue in the West, as the deleveraging process enters its third year – we are still several years away from completing this. However, any resolution in the Eurozone is likely to provide some short-term support to stockmarkets. Predictions for end of 2012 ● FTSE 100: [...]
Festive cheer gives Wall Street a boost December 20, 2011 US stocks rallied nearly three per cent yesterday as investors bought surging banks, homebuilders and networking companies, though low volume was seen as amplifying the market’s move. Investors jumped on a banking sector that was already riding high, extending gains after the US Federal Reserve released new capital proposals that turned out to be less [...]