Salomon bond salesman to acclaimed author October 4, 2011 MICHAEL Lewis was born in New Orleans and educated at Princeton University and the London School of Economics. When he was twenty-four he started working at Salomon Brothers. Finding the experience preposterous he stumbled out three years later in 1988. His bestseller, Liar’s Poker is widely considered the book that defined Wall Street in the [...]
Boomerang: The Meltdown Tour October 4, 2011 IN HIS latest tour de force, Michael Lewis looks at “why Icelanders wanted to stop fishing and become investment bankers”, the reasons “Greeks wanted to turn their country into a piñata stuffed with cash and allow as many citizens as possible to take a whack,” and “why the Irish wanted to stop being Irish” and [...]
Banks and mining stock fall on fear over Greece and Asia October 3, 2011 BRITAIN’S top share index began the final quarter of 2011 on a downbeat note as investors trimmed positions in banks and miners on familiar concerns over Greece’s debt problems and worries about growth in Asia. A 2012 draft budget approved by Greece’s cabinet on Sunday predicted a deficit of 8.5 per cent of gross domestic [...]
Wall Street slumps to a 13-month low October 3, 2011 US stocks slumped in heavy volume to a 13-month low yesterday as investors dumped bank shares on fears that Greece’s worsening financial crisis could cause a large European lender to fail. Investors pegged losses to the sharp fall in Franco-Belgian financial group Dexia, which fell 10 per cent after a Moody’s warning about its liquidity [...]
Readying for another round with the King October 3, 2011 AS the markets look to Thursday’s Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) meeting and the possibility of Mervyn King giving the orders to fire up the printing presses once again, George Osborne voiced his support of monetary manipulation in a speech to the Conservative party conference. Saying that both he and David Cameron were “fiscal conservatives and [...]
IT’S NOT EASY TO BE BULLISH THIS QUARTER October 3, 2011 THE third quarter proved to be pretty grim for stock investors. Over the past three months the Dow lost 14 per cent, the NASDAQ fell 10 per cent, while the S&P 500 ended 16 per cent lower. It wasn’t just the US indices that took a hit. The UK’s FTSE 100 dropped 16 per cent, [...]
The devil’s in the detail of positive data October 3, 2011 GIVEN the rarity of positive data gracing the markets these days, yesterday’s Markit/CIPS manufacturing PMI headline activity statistics for September came as a welcome surprise – the forecast was for 48.6, which would have indicated further contraction, but the results pointed to an expansionary 51.1. However, champagne corks should remain firmly in bottles, as this [...]
THE TIPSTER October 3, 2011 FASHION retailer Ted Baker is reporting figures to the market on Thursday, and the expectations are good. Despite the high street gloom and the UK retail sales index being at a 16-month low, Ted Baker has supposedly bucked the trend, and will show a 15 per cent increase in sales. Global expansion is also being [...]
Fourth quarter set for an inauspicious beginning October 2, 2011 EUROPEAN stocks have just suffered their worst quarter in nine years, but anyone thinking that this might present us with an opportunity of restored calm to repair portfolios, or that some bargain-hunters would be tempted in to the market will be disappointed; the fourth quarter is expected to open with another day of dramatic falls. [...]
WALL STREET WEEK AHEAD October 2, 2011 INVESTORS are worried US earnings growth may finally fall back to earth as turmoil in Europe and signs of a less robust Chinese economy hurt foreign support. The Eurozone’s debt crisis and weakness in China have fuelled investor concern that the global economy could tip back into recession, possibly dampening US earnings growth at a [...]