How M&A-spotters can make big bucks October 4, 2009 F OR those of us trading the financial markets over the last two years, large mergers and acquisitions may now be a distant memory. Figures from markets analyst Dealogic indicate that acquisition volumes are down 55 per cent in Europe and 61 per cent in the US compared to this time last year. So much [...]
Legal &General buyout talk continues to dominate FTSE October 1, 2009 TALK that blue chip insurer Legal & General is to be a target for Clive Cowdery’s Resolution buyout vehicle continued yesterday. Traders were saying that L&Ghas already been approached by Cowdery, despite the fact his buyout vehicle is currently in a closed period ahead of its merger with rival insurer Friends Provident. But City A.M. [...]
Wall St has worst day for 3 months October 1, 2009 THE Dow and S&P 500 suffered their worst one-day fall in three months yesterday after economic reports fueled fears about the recovery’s strength. The pullback occurred a day after stocks ended the third quarter with strong gains, with the Dow and S&P each up 15 per cent from the previous quarter. Cyclical stocks, which are [...]
Gloomy data drags Wall Street down September 30, 2009 US stocks fell yesterday after a key index of business activity in the American Midwest region showed a surprising contraction, but buying of technology bellwethers like Cisco Systems at the end of a strong quarter limited losses. The top drags on the session were some of the quarter’s best performers including industrials, materials and banks. [...]
FTSE100 ends its best ever quarter with profit taking September 30, 2009 THE top share index closed lower yesterday with energy stocks, banks and miners among the biggest laggards on the last session of a record quarter. The FTSE 100 closed down 25.82 points, or 0.5 per cent, at 5,133.90 as investors locked in profits after the index put in its best quarterly performance since it was [...]
Clever traders use call warrants to profit from those M&A rumours September 30, 2009 WITH the exception of shot gun weddings in the banking sector, mergers and acquisitions (M&A) activity practically died a death during the financial crisis. But recently there has been a slew of rumoured buyout offers such as Kraft’s bid for UK confectionary giant Cadbury. Indeed, Credit Suisse analyst Richard Kersley believes that the Kraft bid [...]
USE COVERED WARRANTS AS A HEDGE September 30, 2009 WITH investors continuing to fear that the rally in stock markets could be over-extended and that a dip could be on the cards, covered warrant can be used as an efficient hedge tool of existing shares positions. Depending on what underlying they have and what precisely they fear might happen in the coming weeks and [...]
Create loyalty through trust to retain key staff September 30, 2009 A REPORT by financial services and banking recruitment firm Robert Half released last week which polled 3,000 workers found that 37 per cent are planning to leave their jobs as soon as the economy is more stable, and half would leave within six months of the recession being officially declared over. While people normally move [...]
Sterling will remain weak, and that’s a good thing too September 29, 2009 YOU’D need to have been living on a desert island not to have noticed the beating that sterling has taken lately. The pound has lost nearly a quarter of its value in the last two years, but saw the losing streak gather pace in the last week. True to form, that was accompanied by an [...]
Fallout from recession to put lawyers in the dock September 29, 2009 APART form Bernie Madoff, prosecutions in the wake of the financial crisis have been few and far between. Bankers, it seems, are in the clear over their behaviour during the boom. Lawyers, however, might be in the firing line. Last week two lawyers charged with insider trading by the Financial Services Authority (FSA) were committed [...]