NEW YORK REPORT August 4, 2009 US stocks edged higher yesterday, led by the financial sector as economic data pointed to a sustained if slow recovery from the recession, taking the Dow and the S&P 500 to nine-month highs. The Nasdaq achieved its highest close since early October. US consumers spent more in June, though partly because of rising gasoline prices, [...]
Madness in the markets means contrarians are flourishing now August 3, 2009 TO MANY an investor’s surprise, the FTSE 100 hit its highest level since the start of the year yesterday while the Dow surpassed the 9,000 mark just over a week ago and is still trading a comfortable couple of hundred points above it. But over the past fortnight, some sceptical analysts have described the rally [...]
MARKETS ARE PRICING IN GOOD NEWS August 3, 2009 MARTIN SLANEYHEAD OF DERIVATIVES, GFT THE FTSE 100 narrowly missed out on a record-breaking 12-day rally last week. After such a prodigious run for shares it’s exactly this sort of blip that could ultimately turn out to be the tipping point of the rally. With many traders getting their fingers burnt attempting to sell into [...]
Newfound appetite for stocks does not mean a bull rally August 2, 2009 INVESTORS are regaining their appetite for equities in the wake of generally positive second quarter earnings results, according to a fund managers’ survey conducted last week by financial information company Thomson Reuters. As a percentage of a typical balanced portfolio, equities were at their highest since the end of August last year, just a couple [...]
Banks gear up to report on the first half of a tough year August 2, 2009 The market’s attention is likely to be dominated this week by the banks, which will be reporting their first-half results during the five days. But there will be plenty more for investors to sink their teeth into, with insurers, bookmakers and industrials all on the radar too. Barclays and HSBC kick the week off this [...]
FTSE set to dip as banks hit spotlight August 2, 2009 MUCH of the rally of the past three weeks has been US earnings-led, but this week we’ll have the chance to see how a range of UK banks’ half-yearly numbers go down. The overall diagnosis is likely to be one of recoveries in profitability, with concerns mounting over soaring bad-loan losses. Two of the likely [...]
Tight supply drives sugar even higher August 2, 2009 IT MAY not attract the same attention as crude oil or gold, but the potential for multi-decade highs means that white sugar deserves a closer look from spread betters looking to diversify their trading portfolio. Raw sugar futures hit three-year peaks of at the end of last week with New York’s October contract touching a [...]
ONLY A WEAK YEN POINTS TO REAL GROWTH August 2, 2009 JANE FOLEYRESEARCH DIRECTOR,FOREX.COM President Obama last week claimed that the US may be seeing the “beginning of the end” of the recession and his words coincided with subtle improvements in the tone of some central banks, whose rhetoric provides a useful gauge as to how the world is moving on in the wake of the [...]
THE TIPSTER RESULTS ARE STILL THE MAIN DRIVER August 2, 2009 THIS week the focus will be clearly on the British banks, which will be releasing their second quarter earnings. While traders will be looking at the performance of the whole sector, spread betters should be particularly watching Lloyds Banking Group, which reports on Wednesday. Recently, there have been several bullish broker notes and the shares [...]
BP boosts FTSE as miners, telecoms and banks surge July 30, 2009 BRITAIN’S top share index ended close to a seven-month high yesterday, as better-than-expected earnings from the likes of BT boosted sentiment, lifting miners, banks and telecoms firms. The FTSE 100 closed up 1.9 per cent, or 84.08 points at 4,631.61 points, the highest level since January 6. The index is up 9 per cent so [...]