CURRENCIES ARE NOW AT CRITICAL CROSSROADS September 8, 2009 BORIS SCHLOSSBERGDIRECTOR OF CURRENCY RESEARCH, GFT AS THE trading world returns from the holidays, capital markets find themselves at a critical juncture. The key question facing participants in the currency and equity markets is whether the economic recovery will continue into the year-end. Traders want to know if this is a sucker rally or just [...]
How to profit by turning the FTSE changes on their heads September 7, 2009 TOMORROW evening after the market close the FTSE 100 will undergo its quarterly reshuffle, which sees the UK’s leading blue-chip index updated to reflect fully the changing market capitalisation and liquidity of Britain’s listed companies. While the process is deliberately as transparent as possible and well publicised in advance in order to minimise any dramatic [...]
EXPECT MORE RISES IN THE GOLD PRICE September 7, 2009 MARTIN SLANEYHEAD OF DERIVATIVES, GFT DESPITE stock markets being jittery after a surging summer, investors and speculators didn’t have far to look before finding an alternative home for their trading buck. Gold is glittering once more, coming close to the $1,000 per ounce price tag, and trading levels on the spot gold CFD are soaring [...]
Take a view on future interest rate rises with short sterling contracts September 7, 2009 WHILE THE Bank of England’s monetary policy decision on Thursday is almost certainly a done deal – everybody expects a hold – and is not expected to shock the market, there is no doubt that everybody in the City will be watching the Monetary Policy Committee’s (MPC) accompanying statement for indications of a more upbeat [...]
Kraft’s Cadbury bid sparks a flurry of FTSEmerger hopes September 7, 2009 THE leading share index notched back up towards the 5,000-points mark yesterday, after a proposed bid for Cadbury by Kraft raised hopes of a more general pick-up in merger activity and lifted banks and commodity shares. The FTSE 100 rose 1.7 per cent to a close of 4,933.18, up 81.48 points, as it came close [...]
European stocks near 11-month high September 7, 2009 EUROPEAN shares closed higher yesterday, led by UKchocolate giant Cadbury which soared 38 per cent following a £10.2bn bid approach from US company Kraft Foods. The pan-European FTSEurofirst 300 index of top shares rose 1.4 per cent to 975.90 points, just 0.3 per cent away from an 11-month closing high. The European benchmark index has [...]
Market to eye consumer purse while MPC mulls rates September 6, 2009 THIS week will be all about consumers’ purse-strings and just how tightly they are pulled. Results from across the retail and leisure sectors will go some way to answering that question, while the Bank of England Monetary Policy Committee’s decision on interest rates and quantitative easing will tell us what the experts think about any [...]
Wall St turns the volume back up September 6, 2009 WALL Street’s mettle will be tested this week as traders return from summer vacations to resurfacing signs of weakness after a six-month rally for stocks. Increased volume last week has investors keen to see what direction the market will take when it opens tomorrow after the long Labor Day holiday weekend. So far, pullbacks have [...]
ber bears go bullish on bonds as deflation threat looms September 6, 2009 DURING the summer months global stock markets have rallied beyond what even die-hard bulls would have thought possible six months ago. Yet this is perhaps not the most surprising trend to have emerged out of the typically quiet August period. Strategists on both sides of the Atlantic have been trying to get their brains around [...]
Banks are back in favour with hedgies and the spread betters September 6, 2009 WHILE many market analysts are decrying the current stock rally as being overblown and fundamentally unjustified, not everybody agrees. Data last week from Thomson Reuters revealed that at least 20 top hedge funds boosted their positions in financial institutions during the second quarter. The group of 30 hedge funds in the analysis increased their exposure [...]