FTSE rises after upbeat Wolseley results outweigh bank dips and debt worries March 29, 2011 THE FTSE 100 rose moderately in light trade yesterday with support from miners and upbeat results from Wolseley outpacing falls in banks on European debt worries. The FTSE 100 climbed 27.68 points, or 0.5 per cent, at 5,932.17. The index regained more than 3 per cent the previous week following losses sparked by the earthquake [...]
US trading volume low amid uncertainty March 29, 2011 STRENGTH in energy lifted US stocks yesterday as investors concentrated on adding to winning positions as the quarter winds down, but uncertainty kept trading volume light. About 6.2bn shares traded in composite volume on the New York Stock Exchange, NYSE Amex and Nasdaq, the second-weakest of 2011 and below last year’s estimated daily average of [...]
Why jet-setting employees are a legal headache March 29, 2011 SUPPOSE an employee – let’s call her Snow White – works in Paris but lives in London. How much “home” or “train” work does White need to do to be covered by English laws? In the recent case of British Airways v Mak, the Court of Appeal decided that English tribunals have jurisdiction to hear [...]
Tweeting in court could damage your business March 29, 2011 IMAGINE that your business is in court. And now imagine that some people in that courtroom are sending out a constant barrage of tweets about the proceedings – every accusation, every negative claim and every judicial comment appears instantly on the internet, in a context-destroying 140-character form. And now imagine the effect it could have [...]
Watch out for Osborne’s foreign currency plans March 29, 2011 A FEW ears pricked up on budget day when George Osborne announced a surprising and potentially expensive plan to rebuild Britain’s foreign currency reserves. There are two methods of executing this plan. The first is to print sterling to buy foreign currency. This could be regarded as quantitative easing (QE) by another method. Indeed, it [...]
IRELAND MAY BE ENDING THE RISK TRADE March 29, 2011 DIRECTOR OF CURRENCY RESEARCH, GFT JUST take that castor oil and swallow it. It’s good for you.” That prescription no longer seems to be working in the periphery economies of Europe. From Portugal to Ireland, the public is starting to rebel against the fiscal austerity measures imposed by the EU and the IMF and the [...]
Peking over the top of China’s Great Currency Wall March 29, 2011 THOUGH there is constant talk of China’s rise, currency investors often find themselves frustrated by the apparent wall between them and the Chinese currency. However that doesn’t mean that those wishing to take a position on China’s currency, the renminbi (RMB) are without options. On first inspection, the Chinese currency seems as rigidly controlled as [...]
FOREX ANALYST PICKS March 29, 2011 FOREX STRATEGIST JOHN KICKLIGHTER My pick: Short euro-dollar, long euro-yen, short sterling-dollar Expertise: Fundamental and Technical Analysis with Risk Management Average time frame of trades: 1 day to 1 week My short Australian dollar-Canadian dollar wouldn’t keep traction from last week as the market-wide risk aversion effort was snuffed out by the rebound in Japanese [...]
THE TIPSTER March 29, 2011 THE dollar is continuing to regain lost ground against the yen, eyeing a move back above ¥82.00, which hasn’t been sustained since the wider implications of the earthquake and tsunami were priced into the market around two weeks ago. The repatriation risk for the yen still needs to be taken into account, but coordinated central [...]
Don’t let builders be the only beneficiaries March 28, 2011 Housebuilding companies have rallied since news in last week’s budget that £250m would be made available to help first time buyers get onto the property ladder. Dubbed Firstbuy Direct, the scheme will give those below a certain income threshold access to a 25 per cent equity loan to cover the deposit on a new home. [...]