Before bonuses come firings, so watch your back January 4, 2011 STEWARTS LAW The decorations are back in the loft, the shops would be full if it wasn’t for the VAT rise. It must be January. And that also means that it is bonus season, the time when managers start to take a close look at the bonus pot and wonder how to divide it between [...]
Solicitors have to become businesslike January 4, 2011 CROWE CLARK WHITEHILL There is a sense of pessimism about the future of the legal profession. The downturn has hit the law hard, with many City firms making redundancies, and it has triggered much debate about the future of such fundamental things as the partnership model and the fees structure. Add the fact that the [...]
UK stocks will start the new year with a bang January 3, 2011 An improved economic outlook for the US following manufacturing data released yesterday while trading on UK shares was closed is expected to give a strong boost to the market this morning. STRONG MARKET BOOST EXPECTED GFT is quoting the FTSE 100 index to open up 75 points from Friday’s lunchtime close, at a level of [...]
Wall street January 3, 2011 US stocks greeted the new year with a rally yesterday as encouraging signs about the outlook for manufacturing around the world prompted investors to inject new money into the market. Data from the United States, Europe and China set the tone, helping the Dow and S&P reach new two-year highs and the Nasdaq 100 closed [...]
Spread betting vs. contracts for difference January 3, 2011 THE new year is underfoot, and with European sovereign debt still looking problematic, Chinese inflation sky high and the Federal Reserve still emptying a bathtub of money onto the world, it is looking to be at least as interesting a year as 2010. For ordinary investors, volatility is not very much fun. Most people are [...]
THE MONTH AHEAD in association with GFT January 3, 2011 COMPANY NEWS ● International seed and fertiliser company Monsanto publishes its first-quarter earnings on Thursday. ● Spread betting company IG Group publishes its interim results on 18 January. ● AstraZeneca, BSkyB, Charles Stanley and Vedanta Resources all publish earnings announcements on 27 January. ● Aluminium producer Alcoa traditionally kicks off the US’s fourth-quarter earnings season, publishing [...]
Top stock picks for 2011 January 3, 2011 TRADING individual equities is always a risky business for contracts for difference (CFD) traders. An ill-considered, poorly executed trade will leave your fingers severely burnt and your account balance in the red. But get it right and you’re on track to rake in the profits. Even though equity strategists are cautiously optimistic about the prospects [...]
STOCKS MUST NOT RELY ON QE STIMULUS January 3, 2011 CFD MARKET STRATEGIST, GFT AS WE head into the new year, there are a number of significant financial and economic issues still unresolved. The most immediate problem is the European debt crisis. The potential insolvency of many banks and the high levels of public debt of many member states will continue to weigh on the [...]
Whatever you want to invest in, there’s an ETF available December 22, 2010 IN THE United States, there is an exchange-traded fund (ETF) for everything you ever wanted to trade and plenty more that you had never even considered. While the likes of ophthalmology and nanotech ETFs have not yet made it across the pond, European investors should certainly be satisfied with the range of ETF products on [...]
Spain: better to be safe than sorry December 22, 2010 IT IS still too soon to say whether the Spanish government’s austerity budget will be enough to calm the markets and quell fears that an economy twice the size of Greece, Ireland and Portugal combined will need a bailout. But even if the legislation does resolve Spain’s problems, exchange-traded fund (ETF) investors with exposure to [...]