THE WEEK AHEAD March 21, 2010 IMPROVING sentiment over healthcare might not be enough to overcome anxiety that is now buffeting Wall Street as investors look for new catalysts to push ahead a year-long rally in US stocks. In the coming week, housing will be a dominant theme with the release of February existing home sales tomorrow and a report on [...]
FTSE closes flat as miners and banks fall, while pharmaceuticals gather pace March 18, 2010 BRITAIN’S top shares ended flat yesterday as banks and miners paused for breath after recent gains, offsetting a rally in drugmakers and energy stocks. The FTSE 100 finished almost unchanged at 5,642.62, having closed at a 21-month closing peak on Wednesday. Banks and miners slipped after recent strong gains, with Barclays, Royal Bank of Scotland [...]
Dow Jones gets a boost as Boeing shares take off March 18, 2010 THE DOW industrials rose for an eighth consecutive session yesterday, lifted by a rise in Boeing’s stock, while a mixed group of economic figures kept the broader Standard & Poor’s (S&P) 500 in check. Boeing, up 2.2 per cent at $70.87, gave the Dow its biggest boost. Boeing is the Dow’s best-performing stock so far [...]
A big success in any language March 18, 2010 OF all the things you might expect to see in a language-teaching classroom, a piano is perhaps not high on the list. But that’s one of the most noticeable objects in Yalan Chuang’s office in King’s Cross, where she teaches businesspeople Chinese. “It is a very musical language, some words are spoken like a soprano [...]
Incubators helping new firms to grow March 18, 2010 BONUS cuts, the recession and upcoming tax hikes for high-earners are tempting more and more City folk to start their own businesses. Indeed, Sturgeon Ventures, an “incubator” firm which specialises in helping people to establish their own businesses in the financial services sector, has seen a 10-fold increase in the number of enquiries from City [...]
FLOTATION March 18, 2010 Q. I am thinking about selling shares in my business to raise capital. Should I consider a public listing? A.The chief benefit of a public listing is that it can provide you with an injection of capital. Also, a listing can help raise the profile of the company. However, a public listing will change the [...]
Choose a professional to look after your money March 17, 2010 IF you want one of the world’s most successful fund managers to look after your money, it is time to look towards Asia. Fidelity’s Anthony Bolton has recently launched a new fund, the China Special Situations Fund, and it’s open to ISAs. While interest rates on cash ISAs remain low, equity investments can be a [...]
Get to grips with the details of ISAs March 17, 2010 A RECENT survey by Halifax said that 37 per cent of households now have an ISA. But how many of us actually use our full annual allowance or, more to the point, even know what our yearly tax-free entitlement is? And for experienced investors who already put their money to work elsewhere, the paltry returns [...]
Add corporate bonds to your ISA for income March 17, 2010 WHEN the Bank of England introduced its £200bn emergency quantitative easing (QE) programme last year, the expectation in the markets was that benchmark 10-year gilt yields would fall as the Bank soaked up the billions of pounds worth of debt that the government was issuing. In fact, yields are today much where they were a [...]
GLIMMERS OF HOPE WITHIN THE UK’S SLUGGISH RECOVERY March 17, 2010 IT seems that every week the UK economy clocks up more evidence of its disappointing recovery from the recession. The spectre of a hung parliament and a mountainous fiscal deficit is only adding to the image of the UK as the sick man of Europe. And the UK does indeed look sick. It can’t even [...]