African MBAs – beating Bono at his own game May 18, 2011 GOVERNMENTS, NGOs, rock-stars and politicians of all stripes have tried to help African development. Now a wave of business schools is trying to do its bit. Henley, Edinburgh, Duke, Spain’s IESE and even Shanghai-based CEIBS have all gone into the continent with varying amounts of fanfare. In theory, they should be able to do a [...]
Commodities rock FTSE as hits lowest level since April May 17, 2011 BRITAIN’S leading share index was driven down by weakness in commodity issues and banks on concerns over global growth which countered results-driven gains by market heavyweight Vodafone. At yesterday’s close, the FTSE 100 index was off 62.69 points, or 1.1 per cent, at 5,861.00, extending its losing streak to a fifth session. It ended below [...]
US stocks drop on poor retail earnings May 17, 2011 THE Dow and the S&P 500 fell for a third day yesterday after disappointing figures from Wal-Mart and Hewlett-Packard, although a late rebound suggested investors may be looking for a short-term bounce. Both the S&P 500 and Nasdaq dipped below their 50-day moving averages, but those levels appeared to bring in buying interest. Recent weakness [...]
The European sovereign debt bomb is ticking May 17, 2011 JEAN-CLAUDE Juncker, chairman of the Eurozone’s finance ministers, said yesterday that Greece may have to ask investors to either extend the maturities of its bonds or agree to a soft restructuring. This follows on from the Greek foreign minister Dimitris Droutsas saying that the country was open to soft debt restructuring if needed. But in [...]
CABLE STANDS AT THE FOREX CROSSROADS May 17, 2011 PITY the poor Monetary Policy Committee (MPC). Nowhere in the G10 universe is inflation so virulent and growth so anaemic as in the UK economy. Yesterday’s UK CPI data printed much hotter than expected, rising at an annual rate of 4.5 per cent versus 4.2 per cent eyed. UK inflation rose by 1.0 per cent [...]
THE TIPSTER May 17, 2011 AS crude oil fell below $97 in line with other commodities, the knock on effect was a negative impact for the Canadian dollar versus the US dollar. Crude oil is Canada’s biggest export and the largest supplier of crude to the US. If crude continues in its current trend, it could prove detrimental for the [...]
HEARD ON THE SQUARE MILE May 17, 2011 The Financial Traders and Brokers Network is hosting an event with Gregory Zuckerman on 26 May. Zuckerman pens the widely read “Heard on the Street” column for the Wall Street Journal and appears on CNBC twice a week to explain complex trades. He is a two-time winner of the Gerald Loeb Award for coverage of [...]
Growing debt will push the dollar lower May 17, 2011 IN A trick worthy of the great escapologist Harry Houdini, Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner has avoided hitting the US debt limit of $14,300bn by under-investing in social security and delaying debt auctions. However, creative accounting can only get a country so far. At some point the authorities need to deal with their fiscal profligacy and [...]
Sterling’s outlook waiting on rates May 17, 2011 IG INDEX DAVID JONES Tuesday saw the usual flurry in forex markets when the latest UK inflation figures were released, showing annual CPI at a larger than widely expected 4.5 per cent. The pound rallied half a cent against the US dollar in very short order and then over the course of the next few [...]
FOREX ANALYST PICKS May 17, 2011 FOREX STRATEGIST DAVID RODRIGUEZ My pick: Sell euro-dollar against $1.4340 Expertise: System Trading Average time frame of trades: 2 days to 10 weeks I remain short the euro against the US dollar from last week, as I think we have recently seen an important top in the euro-dollar. FXCM’s proprietary Speculative Sentiment Index (SSI) data [...]