MARKETS NOT HAPPY WITH FED’S TWIST September 26, 2011 ANYONE hoping that last week’s FOMC statement would help to calm markets has been bitterly disappointed. On Wednesday, the US Federal Reserve announced that it plans to sell $400bn of short-term debt and buy $400bn of longer-dated Treasury bonds. This operation is designed to put a lid on longer-term interest rates while keeping the size [...]
Kicking the Eurozone can down the autobahn September 26, 2011 YESTERDAY saw more volatility in the markets – triggered by a mixture of the weekend’s announcements and by bargain-hunters going shopping in the equity markets hoping to snap up stocks that they saw as being oversold. At the weekend, Christine Lagarde led an IMF summit, warning that the $384bn (£248bn) earmarked as an emergency bail-out [...]
THE TIPSTER September 26, 2011 WITH Thomas Cook set to serve up results later in the week, it’s difficult to see much cheer for the industry against the current economic backdrop. The company has already revised down guidance for the full year and even the prospect of plummeting oil prices is unlikely to deliver any positive sentiment. Current IG Markets [...]
Volatile trading and uncertainty are set to persist September 25, 2011 AFTER another roller-coaster week, which was the second-worst of the year for the FTSE 100, the only really safe call this morning is for the volatility to rumble on. Despite repeated international assurances that action will be taken to preserve financial stability and restore economic growth, the markets start another week without anything definite on [...]
WALL STREET WEEK AHEAD September 25, 2011 EARNINGS forecasts for US companies are starting to feel the pain on Wall Street and in the broader economy as the odds of another recession rise. Intense fear that global debt issues and stagnant growth cannot be resolved has pummelled market confidence in the past couple of months. Earnings have been one of the market’s [...]
What to do if markets fall in step September 25, 2011 AFTER a tempestuous time in the markets last week, the good news is that things could be worse. The bad news is that they are probably going to get worse. The markets look set to turn very ugly in the coming weeks – Eurozone sovereign debt worries, European banking equities and increasingly dire macroeconomic indicators [...]
THE WEEK AHEAD September 25, 2011 COMPANY NEWS ● Ricardo announces today. In 1915, entrepreneur Sir Harry Ricardo formed Engine Patents, which is today Ricardo. The global multi-industry engineering company is headquartered in Shoreham-by-Sea. ● Tomorrow, Albemarle & Bond and Close Brothers announce. The former is the largest pawnbroker group in the UK, while the latter is a British bank. ● [...]
THE TIPSTER September 25, 2011 SHARES in Dominos Pizza tumbled below 500p on Friday. However, spread betters have been in a largely positive mood ahead of the firm’s results on Wednesday. The long-term trend has been upwards for the firm over the past year, as penny-pinching Britons shun meals out for takeaway pizzas at home. Traders were anticipating longer-term gains [...]
FTSE suffers 5pc losses on Fed woe September 22, 2011 A TOXIC cocktail comprising a grim economic outlook from the US Federal Reserve and downbeat data in China left Britain’s top shares nursing a near five per cent drop yesterday, as investors pinned some hopes on this week’s G20 meeting. Commodity stocks, sensitive to data showing a stuttering recovery, were the biggest fallers by some [...]
Dire day of selling sinks US equities September 22, 2011 US stocks plunged yesterday, extending a selloff to four days, as policymakers’ failure to arrest global economic stagnation sent markets spiraling downward. The heavy volume of last night’s plunge signaled investors are selling in anticipation of more losses. Wall Street’s “fear gauge”, the CBOE Volatility Index, jumped 12 per cent, giving the index its biggest [...]