Beware: the Japanese could intervene again February 1, 2011 THE famous samurai and military strategist Miyamoto Musashi once said: “If the enemy thinks of the mountains, attack like the sea; and if he thinks of the sea, attack like the mountains.” The Bank of Japan’s (BoJ) strategy to keep the yen weak against the dollar, however, is probably not that sophisticated. It intervened by [...]
FURTHER GAINS FOR CABLE ARE UNLIKELY February 1, 2011 DIRECTOR OF CURRENCY RESEARCH, GFT IF YOU ever wanted to see a classic example of a short squeeze you simply need to look at the recent chart of sterling-dollar. Less than 10 days ago, currency traders could not give away the pair fast enough in the aftermath of the disastrous fourth quarter UK GDP figures, [...]
Davos is over but volatility for the Swissie carries on February 1, 2011 WITH the end of the Davos conference last week, the Swiss franc lost 1.27 per cent of its value. While it would be nice to think of that as the direct result of thousands of politicians, financiers and journalists leaving, and so ending their spending on hotels, booze and so on, the reality was more [...]
FOREX ANALYST PICKS February 1, 2011 JOHN KICKLIGHTER FOREX STRATEGIST My pick: Short Aussie-US dollar at $1.0100 Expertise: Technical analysis Average time frame of trades: 1 to 6 weeks Our outlook has turned aggressively bearish in this pair following the formation of a bearish reversal a few weeks back. This now suggests that a major high is in place by $1.0260, [...]
THE TIPSTER February 1, 2011 THE pound continues to push higher after positive manufacturing purchasing managers index (PMI) figures yesterday threw further doubt on the accuracy of last weeks poor fourth quarter GDP figures. Comments from the National Institute of Economic and Social Research (NIESR) that the Bank of England may have to raise rates three times by the end of [...]
Amsterdam: 400 years on, and still rich in promise February 1, 2011 The Amsterdam Stock Exchange was established in 1602 by the Dutch East India Company to allow people to buy and sell its printed stocks and bonds. As such, it is considered the oldest stock exchange in the world. Things have changed a lot since then, though, and the Amsterdam exchange now forms part of NYSE [...]
Europe’s wealth of markets February 1, 2011 The Euronext exchanges in Brussels, Paris and Lisbon offer a wealth of opportunities for UK investors keen to diversify into new areas. Like the Amsterdam exchange, they became part of Euronext fairly recently, but all have much longer histories as individual markets. Euronext Brussels, for example, was formerly the Brussels Stock Exchange, founded by Napoleonic [...]
AS RECOVERY GROWS, THESE THREE EUROPEAN STOCKS SHOULD BENEFIT February 1, 2011 EQUITY STRATEGIST, BARCLAYS WEALTH Key investment themes in Europe include the likely increase in investment as the global recovery gathers steam, and the probable revival in mergers and acquisitions. These three stocks – in the technology, oil field services and electronics and engineering sectors – look particularly well placed to benefit from these two trends. [...]
Trichet’s hawkishness appears to be a bluff January 31, 2011 WAS Jean-Claude Trichet’s hawkishness on inflation earlier this month a bluff? He sounded tough until the market reacted, but then rolled back the strength of what he said, leaving us hanging in suspense. Now with European inflation rates hitting 2.4 per cent in January – the highest level for more than two years (see chart) [...]
FED HAS DONE A GOOD JOB ON US EQUITIES January 31, 2011 THE Federal Reserve has so far done an excellent job of goosing US equities through its ongoing asset purchase programme. As Fed chairman Ben Bernanke has intimated, boosting stock prices is now one of the Reserve’s aims, on top of its officially mandated dual role of ensuring price stability and full employment. So investors were [...]