PERSONAL FINANCE NEWS April 20, 2011 BURGLARS TO CASH IN ON WEDDING While the UK celebrates the royal wedding, AXA, the home insurers, predict a potentially huge surge in burglaries and accidental damage insurance claims. AXA’s research predicts that over four in ten of us will be away from our homes for the royal wedding while a further 21 per cent [...]
Now is the time to transfer old Isas April 20, 2011 MILLIONS of consumers know all about the benefits of sheltering savings under the umbrella of a tax-free Individual Savings Account (Isa), and for good reason. However, many people are losing hand over fist on previous years’ cash Isas and paying unnecessary charges on shares Isas. Transferring both is easy; although there are a few things [...]
FTSE shares rebound but debt worries still dog bank stocks April 19, 2011 STRENGTH in oversold commodity issues fuelled a modest rally by Britain’s top share index yesterday, while sovereign debt worries continued to dog banking stocks. At the close, the FTSE 100 index was up 26.79 points, or 0.5 per cent at 5,896.87, having dropped 2 per cent on Monday to hit its lowest level since March [...]
Goldman results limit market gains April 19, 2011 ENCOURAGING results from health care and materials companies lifted US stocks yesterday, but weak earnings from Goldman Sachs limited gains in a market skeptical of the growth outlook. Investors were reluctant to make big bets as the market readied for a spate of high-profile earnings. Volume was extremely low, with 6.56bn shares traded on the [...]
The dollar after S&P’s decision to downgrade April 19, 2011 YESTERDAY’S news of the downgrading of the sovereign debt outlook of the United States rocked markets on both sides of the Atlantic. The debt ratings agency Standard and Poor’s cut the long term outlook for the US from stable to negative for first time since the Pearl Harbor attack 70 years ago. S&P pointed to [...]
FEAR OF GREEK HAIRCUT CAPS EURO’S RALLY April 19, 2011 DIRECTOR OF CURRENCY RESEARCH, GFT FOR the past several months, the euro-dollar has been like the Terminator. Nothing could slow down its progress as markets ignored all sovereign debt problems in the periphery and focused only on yield differentials. A hawkish European Central Bank (ECB), which raised rates by 25 basis points last month, stood [...]
Euro is close to suffering the knockout blow as trouble rises April 19, 2011 THE euro is facing so many existential threats that markets don’t know where to look: anti-bailout elections have rocked Finland; umbrage is growing across Germany; austerity tightening is squeezing Portugal; Greece is on the precipice; banks are junked in Ireland; and jitters grow in Spain. POPULISM IN FINLAND In Sunday’s Finnish elections, the True Finns [...]
MY CHECKLIST THAT GETS ME SET TO TRADE April 19, 2011 CONSULTING ANALYST, INTERTRADER I’D LIKE to start my final column by inviting you to a round-up webinar taking place 5 May 2011 at 8pm. It’s free and will be an opportunity for you to ask questions and see the strategies I have described over the last eight weeks. Register on: intertrader.omnovia.com/webcasts. Before I sign out, [...]
THE TIPSTER April 19, 2011 In spite of the denial of talks between the Greek authorities and the EU on debt restructuring, the markets are losing faith in the single currency. This week’s trading has seen the euro drop against the dollar to lows of $1.4200, so we are seeing early signs that the upward trend might be broken. Cantor [...]
FOREX ANALYST PICKS April 19, 2011 FOREX STRATEGIST JOHN KICKLIGHTER My pick: Short Kiwi dollar-dollar, Short euro-dollar, long dollar-yen Expertise: Fundamental and Technical Analysis with Risk Management Average time frame of trades: 1 day to 1 week None of my setups from last week played out as a meaningful risk aversion move was still absent. We may have seen such a [...]