OPTIMISM IN THE POUND IS MISPLACED August 4, 2009 BORIS SCHLOSSBERGDIRECTOR OF CURRENCY RESEARCH, GFT BY ANY reasonable measure the recent rally in the pound appears to be overdone. The UK economy is still in the midst of the worst recession in the post-war era. The UK fiscal budget deficit is projected to exceed 12 per cent of GDP – the highest among all [...]
TAX CODE THREATENS UK BANKING August 4, 2009 ARABELLA SAKERPARTNER, MAURICE TURNOR GARDNER LLPHM Revenue & Customs recently published a consultation on a new code of practice on taxation for banks, setting out new rules with which banks are expected to comply “in light of the significant taxpayer support” that has been given to the industry. Although voluntary, banks which don’t sign up [...]
THE LONDON REPORT August 4, 2009 WEAKNESS in miners and banks sent the FTSE 100 0.2 per cent lower yesterday, retreating from the 2009 of the previous session. The index closed 11.09 points lower at 4,671.37, after ending at 4,682.46 on Monday. “When you’ve had such a strong run since March and after such a strong July, you can’t expect to [...]
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, [...]
A drop in stocks and a rise in QE will undermine sterling’s rally August 4, 2009 IN THE face of a ballooning fiscal deficit, quantitative easing and the deepest recession since the Second World War, sterling rose to a nine-month high against the dollar of $1.7005 in Asian trading yesterday morning. And against the euro, it is just shy of the June highs of €0.8426. It’s hard to believe that as [...]
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 [...]
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 [...]