Oil surprise staves off Wall Street lull August 19, 2009 US stocks rose yesterday, shaking off a slide in China’s equity market as investors responded well to a surprise drop in crude oil stockpiles that might suggest an improving demand outlook. Exxon Mobil and Chevron led the blue-chip Dow industrials index’s advance. Exxon Mobil was up 2.3 per cent at $68.00, and Chevron gained 1.8 [...]
Picking the right moment is the key to forex trading August 19, 2009 SINCE Monday we have learnt that Japan exited recession in the second quarter, that German investors are more confident in August than they were last month, that UK inflation still stands at 1.8 per cent, and that three members of the UK’s Monetary Policy Committee considered extending quantitative easing in this country to £200bn. Today [...]
CENTRAL BANK POLICIES ARE DIVERGING August 19, 2009 GEORGE TCHETVERTAKOVHEAD OF MARKET RESEARCH, ALPARI UK LOOKING at macroeconomic events over the past few weeks, it is becoming increasingly clear that central banks around the world are considering different monetary policy frameworks going forward. Over the past 18 months, many central banks were forced to follow similar policies of cutting interest rates as quickly [...]
Tightening spreads and QE make corporate bonds more attractive August 19, 2009 CORPORATE bond issuance so far this year smashed through the $1 trillion mark, the first time that this amount has been raised by non-financial corporates in a single year, figures from data provider Dealogic showed earlier this week. And while the European corporate bond market has typically been less developed than the American market, European [...]
Bleak outlook means that the yen is going to rise and rise August 18, 2009 JAPAN’S return to growth for the first time since the first quarter of 2008 ought to have been cause for celebration in the markets. Hot on France and Germany’s heels, Japan grew 0.9 per cent in the three months to June on the previous quarter, putting the annual rate at 3.7 per cent. But even [...]
AUSTRALIA WILL NOT RAISE RATES August 18, 2009 BORIS SCHLOSSBERGDIRECTOR OF CURRENCY RESEARCH, GFT OVER the past several months, the Australian dollar has been the most appealing currency for the recovery trade. Unlike its G20 counterparts, the Australian economy barely felt the blows of the global recession, registering only one negative quarter of growth before rebounding in the second quarter to record a [...]
The beautiful game? It’s nothing without lawyers August 18, 2009 IT is hard to imagine the chant of “we love lawyers” rolling down the Kop, but as another season kicks off, football may be surprised to know that it owes the legal profession a considerable debt. It was a solicitor, Ebenezer Cobb Morley, who had the idea to form an organisation that became the Football [...]
Goldman Sachs backs banks and helps to lift the markets August 18, 2009 THE FTSE 100 closed 0.9 per cent higher yesterday, led by gains in banks and miners which recovered from losses in the previous session, while data showed inflation held steady in July. The large-cap index closed 40.77 points higher at 4,685.78, recovering from a 1.4 per cent drop on Monday, its biggest one-day percentage loss [...]
Wall St boosted by upbeat retail giants August 18, 2009 US stocks rose yesterday, rebounding after sharp losses in the previous session, as better-than-expected results from big retailers encouraged investors to get back into the market. Results at consumer giants Home Depot, Target and department store operator Saks were helped by cost-cutting as revenue growth remained slack. The trend has dominated earnings season, but investors [...]
THINK HARD BEFORE YOU GO INTO LAW August 18, 2009 SPEAKER’S CORNERDES HUDSONCHIEF EXECUTIVE, THE LAW SOCIETY NOBODY who reads the legal press can fail to have noticed recently that the legal profession is feeling the pain of the recession. Solicitors are facing tough times and there are fewer places for newly-qualified solicitors than there have been for years. Becoming a solicitor is still a [...]