THE TIPSTER August 14, 2011 WITH Balfour Beatty reporting half-year results on Wednesday, investors will be hard pushed to draw their attention away from the technicals, which don’t ooze excitement. The stock appears to be in a lasting downtrend with an RSI level below 30, and the fact that it has penetrated its lower daily Bollinger band only backs up [...]
Stringfellow speaks out on his naked ambition August 14, 2011 ARE you really 100 per cent libertarian?” Peter Stringfellow asks a room of Adam Smith Institute supporters. “I consider myself a libertarian but I do question myself occasionally. I want the freedom to compete, but I don’t necessarily want other people to have the freedom to compete with me.” The audience laughs. He is speaking [...]
OUTRUNNING THE CORPORATE COMPETITION August 14, 2011 IT’S HOT and the big beasts of the corporate jungle are getting desperate for easy prey. Gathering around the entrepreneurial watering holes, they are hungrily eyeing up one species in particular, the gazelles. In business parlance being a gazelle is about as good as it gets. Often found on the open plains around London’s Silicon [...]
Volatile FTSE ends on a high August 11, 2011 AFTER another rollercoaster session, fuelled by rumours about French banks, sovereign debt, and a possible short-selling ban in Europe, Britain’s leading share index ended with triple-digit gains yesterday. “We’re just awash with rumours, dragging us from pillar to post… We’re calling propagators of such stuff the ‘Pinstriped Looters’. They come in, smash the market with [...]
Wall St roars back to black August 11, 2011 US stocks shot up four per cent or more yesterday as investors hungry for bargains overcame the recent wave of fear that has driven selling over the last two weeks. The rally marked the second bounce in a yo-yo week. After a sell-off that has pushed the S&P 500 down as much as 17 per [...]
FTSE turns downwards on unease over France’s banks August 10, 2011 SHARPLY weaker banks dragged Britain’s top shares lower yesterday as fears about Europe’s debt came into sharp focus on rumours France may be in danger of losing its triple-A credit rating, and on concerns over the outlook for French banks. The UK benchmark index ended down 157.76 points, or 3.1 per cent, at 5,007.16, its [...]
Stocks dive again as worries return August 10, 2011 Fear returned to Wall Street yesterday, sending the S&P 500 to another four per cent decline, triggered by worries that Europe’s debt crisis could engulf French banks and spill onto the US financial sector. Trading was once again marked by sharp moves on heavy volume. For a fifth straight day, the Dow industrials fluctuated in [...]
Millions in Britain don’t have a pension August 10, 2011 RESEARCH undertaken by Baring Asset Management (Barings) released exclusively to City A.M. estimates that 13.6m, or 38 per cent of British adults, don’t have a pension. This is worrying, as pensions remain the best option for those looking to hang up their working boots before popping their clogs – and the sooner you start the [...]
The rising renminbi August 10, 2011 IN 2003, the People’s Bank of China and the Hong Kong Monetary Authority came to an agreement to allow Hong Kong banks to conduct business in renminbi. Since then, the offshore renminbi market has expanded rapidly but has created a complex currency situation: one country with two systems, three currencies and four yield curves (see [...]
FTSE bounces up but all eyes move to Fed’s announcement August 9, 2011 BRITAIN’S top share index bounced off 13-month lows yesterday, along with indexes across the Atlantic, as investors hoped an announcement by the US Federal Reserve would calm nerves over global debt and growth problems. “There has been some chatter that the Fed will bring forward the FOMC meeting to announce QE3 [quantitative easing] to the [...]