Wall Street surges as euro panic eases December 1, 2010 THE Dow and the Standard & Poor’s (S&P) 500 posted their biggest gains in three months yesterday as efforts to resolve the European Union’s debt crisis helped push the S&P above 1,200, an important technical level that signals the potential for the rally to continue. The S&P 500 moved out of its recent trading range [...]
Spreading risk is crucial if you want to build a stable portfolio December 1, 2010 ONE traditional rule of investing is quite simple. Take your age, subtract it from 100 and invest that percentage of your portfolio in equities and the rest in bonds. When you are young, you have more of your money in stocks, which traditionally perform better over time. As you get older, you move more into [...]
FOOD PRICES PUT FOCUS ON AGRIBUSINESS December 1, 2010 SENIOR ANALYST, ETF SECURITIES Most agriculture prices have seen double-digit gains this year, reflecting a trend towards higher and more volatile prices since 2003. For agribusiness, this could lead to stronger returns for agriculture producers and support companies, irrespective of near-term gyrations in the business cycle, if suppliers strive to boost productivity. Rising prices have [...]
THE TIPSTER December 1, 2010 Few retail stocks have managed to see their share price recover to the halcyon days of 2007, but Carphone Warehouse has recently achieved that feat with the stock now eyeing the 400p level. Clearly the Christmas season has the potential to bring further cheer for the stock. Furthermore, given the ongoing tide of innovation in [...]
LISTED PRODUCT NEWS December 1, 2010 DB X-TRACKERS LISTS MORE ETFS IN SPAIN Deutsche Bank’s exchange-traded funds (ETF) arm db x-trackers yesterday launched its second set of ETFs on the Spanish stock market. Db x-trackers yesterday announced 10 more ETFs listed on the Bolsa de Madrid, which provide exposure to developed and emerging market equities, to two short indices, and also [...]
Five ways to cut costs, whatever your business December 1, 2010 1. ASK “WHY?” If you think that something is wasteful, don’t accept that it is “just the way we do it here”. Bad habits can become engrained. In her book 100 Great Cost-Cutting Ideas, Anne Hawkins tells the story of a technology manufacturer which had been including needless technical information with all its products for [...]
First develop a skill, and then add knowledge December 1, 2010 FOUNDER OF LUXURY SHOE BRAND LODGER REMAIN open to opportunities. Some of the best things that have happened to me have come from oblique angles. Opportunities come out of nowhere and you have to be prepared to open yourself up to them and investigate. Explore potential leads quickly and ruthlessly and shut down anything that [...]
A disappointing bonus should be a call to action December 1, 2010 HOW did you feel when Santa failed to come for the first time? Of course, you know that Father Christmas is a fiction; you are even warned that he isn’t coming this year. But the reality that he has gone forever only really hits home when you wake up on Christmas morning and find there’s [...]
BOOK OF THE MONTH December 1, 2010 The Wisdom of Bees By Michael O’Malley £9.99 Portfolio Penguin Did you know that Sherlock Holmes retired to keep bees? Apparently he said that a hive “provides as much incident as can be found on the streets of London.” And did you know that bees are the only invertebrates with symbolic language? Or that they [...]
Oils and financials weigh on FTSE offsetting miners’ rally November 30, 2010 BRITAIN’S leading share index retreated yesterday with a rally by miners more than offset by falls in oils and financials as investors fretted over Eurozone debt problems during a choppy session. The FTSE 100 closed down 22.68 points, or 0.4 per cent, at 5,528.27, a level not seen since the middle of September. The blue [...]