Conditions are brewing for strong coffee prices February 22, 2010 WHILE the surge in sugar has dominated the headlines and the commodity markets over the past six months, prices of other soft commodities such as coffee have been steadily rising. Coffee has risen 23.2 per cent over the past year and there is now speculation that it could be the next bull story in the [...]
GILT MARKET REVEALS LESS DESIRABLE UK February 22, 2010 OVER the past two weeks, stock markets across Europe and the US have stabilised following a nasty New Year sell-off. The US fourth quarter earnings season began badly and this seemed to be the catalyst for an aggressive bout of profit-taking. Even as it became apparent that the vast majority of companies would end up [...]
Use pharma to ease the pain February 22, 2010 THE last few weeks have been torrid for UK drugs giant GlaxoSmithKline. It has been accused of taking insuffucient action over allegations that its diabetes drug Avendia causes heart attacks. This comes hot on the heels of a $1bn settlement over claims its antidepressent Paxil, causes birth defects. Its share price has fallen more than [...]
CFD ANALYST PICKS February 22, 2010 TECHNICAL STRATEGIST JOEL KRUGER My pick: Sell gold at $1,115 Expertise: Technical analysis Average time frame of trades: 5-10 days Our short gold trade from the previous week has been triggered and a new lower top now looks to be in place at $1,127. The market is adhering to the downtrend in gold that has [...]
Managers must know where to draw the line between banter and bullying February 22, 2010 THE accusations of staff bullying by the prime minister might sound familiar to many in the City. Whatever the truth or not of the weekend’s stories, workplace bullying is seen by many as a serious problem, and it can certainly be costly for companies. In 2003 a Cantor Fitzgerald trader, Steven Horkulak, was awarded almost [...]
WORKPLACE HARASSMENT | THE LEGAL VIEW February 22, 2010 THERE is no legal definition or claim for bullying, (writes Paul Reeves), so what employees mean legally is harassment, which is a stand-alone claim. There is also a potential civil and criminal claim under the Protection from Harassment Act. Employees who feel they are being harassed should firstly approach their line manager (if appropriate). If [...]
All eyes on Ben Bernanke’s testimony to Congress February 21, 2010 A QUICK look at last week’s performance data for European equities and bonds would suggest at first glance that the economic outlook for Europe had improved. The DAX and FTSE tacked on gains while German and UK bond yields moved higher. However, looks can be deceiving: we received a barrage of weak UK economic data [...]
ECONOMIC DIARY February 21, 2010 AFTER a week packed with economic data releases, the next five days promise to be a bit quieter. Last Thursday, the US Federal Reserve hiked the rate it charged banks to hold reserves in a surprise move that signalled a return towards more normal monetary policy. On Wednesday Fed chairman Ben Bernanke will be giving [...]
Fed move to lift US stocks and dollar February 21, 2010 ALTHOUGH the Federal Reserve was keen to downplay its surprise move last Thursday, the markets initially reacted strongly to its announcement that it would hike the rate it charges banks for emergency loans. But while the currency market saw the biggest moves – the dollar strengthened to a nine-month high of $1.5345 against the pound [...]
SPREAD BET GURU February 21, 2010 Q.Dear Josh, does Barclays’ stellar results for 2009 mean that RBS and Lloyds will follow suit this week? A.My first thoughts are to be careful as this is not a straightforward trading strategy. While there is always some form of a correlation between companies that are in the same sector, stocks can become very volatile [...]