From Japan to Oman: the life of Mark Mobius October 12, 2010 EMERGING markets may be the most popular investment flavour of the past decade but Franklin Templeton’s charismatic and distinctive guru Mark Mobius can safely lay claim to having been one of the first to spot the opportunities these countries offered. Countries like Hong Kong and Japan were deemed emerging markets when Mobius started looking at [...]
FUND MANAGEMENT NEWS October 12, 2010 HEARTHSTONE TO LAUNCH PROPERTY FUND Hearthstone Investments yesterday announced that it would launch a residential property fund in the first quarter of 2011 and has hired David Gibbins as fund manager. The fund will be ungeared and it will seek to track the performance of the UK residential property market as well as provide a [...]
Looming currency war threatens world trade October 12, 2010 AFTER the crash in 1929, nations retreated inside protectionist walls. In 2009, they managed to refrain from the same action – but they may yet succumb to another ’30s blight on world trade: currency wars. A currency war consists of states pursuing competitive devaluations in an attempt to increase the attractiveness of one’s exports. But [...]
DOLLAR DROP COULD WELL BE OVERDONE October 12, 2010 OVER the past month euro-dollar has been in a near-vertical uptrend, rising more than 1,000 points in just 22 trading days. But now that the pair has reached the psychologically important 1.4000 level, it may be due for a pause as positioning becomes grossly overstretched. The reasons for dollar weakness are well known. The Fed’s [...]
Asia may rise but be careful of the dragon October 12, 2010 The Thai government attempted to pull on the reins of its rapidly appreciating currency yesterday. This should be a warning sign for traders putting their cash into emerging market currencies. Capital controls are one of the few weapons available to governments who need to keep their currency weak to compete with China in the export [...]
FOREX ANALYST PICKS October 12, 2010 FOREX STRATEGIST JOEL KRUGER My pick: Buy dollar-Swiss franc at SFr0.9705 Expertise: Classic technical analysis Average time frame of trades: 1 week-6 months Our buy order from last week never triggered and we will once again look to take a shot. Setbacks have finally stalled out after posting fresh record lows in the SFr0.9500s. Short-term [...]
THE TIPSTER October 12, 2010 While resistance has remained at $1.4000 for euro-dollar, the level was breached this week. The rate dropped off slightly while investors waited for an announcement from the Federal Open Markets Committee with regards to an extension of quantitative easing (QE). But regardless the overall bullish trend remains strong. Cantor Index offers a daily spread of [...]
Hitting all keys at once hides the tune October 12, 2010 ERIC Morecambe famously played all the right notes, but not necessarily in the right order. Narrative reporting – the non-financial context provided alongside financial information in a firm’s annual report – is likewise playing all the right notes, but the result is just as incoherent: it is playing all its notes at the same time. [...]
The grass is not always greener for shareholders in low-tax states October 12, 2010 RELOCATING overseas is becoming a fashion. This week it was reported that online bookmaker Betfair is considering a move after a row over tax. It follows building services firm Wolseley’s recent announcement that its base will move to Switzerland for tax reasons. Wolseley’s decision was welcomed by analysts and shareholders who saw a company seeking [...]
Patents the smart option in mobile skirmishes October 12, 2010 IN the past few days Motorola has announced that it is suing Apple under several of its smartphone patents. Normally, a clash of such technology titans might raise eyebrows, but not in this market, and not now. In recent months there has been a spate of patent lawsuits between the big players, which was kicked [...]