They hit the road for an idea that’s on the money December 4, 2011 WHEN the shadow business secretary makes a speech calling your seven-month old business “the lifeblood of the lifeblood of our economy,” it’s fair to say you’ve made quite an impression. This happened to the co-founders of MarketInvoice Anil Stocker and Charles Delingpole two weeks ago: Labour’s Chuka Umanna described their business as “turning straw into [...]
SIX SECRETS OF THE SUCCESSFUL ENTREPRENEUR December 4, 2011 ENTREPRENEURS are an intriguing species. Charismatic, fragile, passionate, distracted: with such conflicting personality traits, it’s no wonder they sometimes fail to turn great ideas into viable – and profitable – businesses. At Piper, we have worked with countless entrepreneurs during our 25-year history. The best share characteristics that can make all the difference between failure [...]
Commodities drag FTSE 100 down as euphoria wears off December 1, 2011 THE UK’s leading share index closed lower yesterday, led by weaker commodity prices, as earlier gains were reversed in tandem with a weaker showing on Wall Street as Wednesday’s boost from central bank intervention moves proved short-lived. At the close, the FTSE 100 index was down 16.08 points or 0.3 per cent at 5,489.34, just [...]
Wall St slips ahead of key jobs report December 1, 2011 US stocks trod water yesterday after the previous day’s massive gains, but traders worried that recent strong data could set the market up for a sell-off should today’s jobs report fall short of hopes. Both the Dow and the S&P 500 dipped and the Nasdaq ended with a slight gain following Wednesday’s rally of more [...]
Liquidity measures and new Chinese rules lift the FTSE November 30, 2011 BRITAIN’S top share index rose by the most in nearly eight weeks yesterday after central banks announced coordinated global action to provide liquidity to the financial system and China cut its banks’ reserve requirement ratios. The world’s major central banks acted jointly to provide cheaper dollar liquidity to starved European banks facing a credit crunch [...]
US stocks surge on dollar scheme November 30, 2011 US stocks surged yesterday after major central banks agreed to make cheaper dollar loans for struggling European banks to prevent the Eurozone debt woes from turning into a full-blown credit crisis. The S&P 500 posted its best daily percentage gain since August after the Federal Reserve, the European Central Bank and other major central banks [...]
Don’t stay to the end of every meeting, listen to gossip and make slow choices November 30, 2011 During a 24-year career at McKinsey, John Brady advised chief executives of consumer giants. Here he shares his top ten insights 1. WASTE TIME GOSSIPING Believe in the power of gossip. Most of the really interesting insights I gained as a management consultant happened either when I was chatting in clients’ office doorways at the [...]
How to preserve capital, keep your risks low and hold onto your wealth November 30, 2011 IT IS one of the many paradoxes of life that we tend to save more when times are bad, and less when times are good. The reasoning is simple; when times are good, it does not seem so important to save money, as we feel confident about the future. In the same way, when times [...]
Art investing: Looking at the bigger picture November 30, 2011 PICKING winners in art, as with any investment, isn’t easy – but holding it is a shade more pleasurable than owning shares. Chancellor George Osborne’s announcement in his Autumn Statement that gifts of pre-eminent art to the nation will increase from £20m to £30m in lieu of inheritance tax is an attempt to stimulate gifts [...]
Trying to pour liquidity into a frozen market November 30, 2011 YESTERDAY’S coordinated central bank move flipped the FX markets onto their head, with increased dollar liquidity triggering a sell-off of the greenback, with the euro and the Aussie and Kiwi dollars coming out on top. The announcement came hot on the heals of the news that the People’s Bank of China, the country’s central bank, [...]