It’s time to start re-thinking your attitude to trading the oil market July 12, 2009 WHAT a difference a year makes. With crude oil sinking below $60 a barrel on Friday for the first time since mid-May, it seems incredible that it was only 12 months ago that oil hit a record high of $147 a barrel, fuelling speculation among industry players that it could reach $250. Oil prices had [...]
First gains of the week as Alcoa boosts the markets July 9, 2009 THE FTSE 100 closed 0.5 per cent higher yesterday, ending a three-day losing streak on the back of gains in miners after reassuring earnings from Alcoa. The index closed 18.43 points firmer at 4,158.66, having fallen 1.1 per cent the previous session to its lowest closing level in more than two months. However trading was [...]
Results season off to a positive start July 9, 2009 US stocks edged higher yesterday as investors snapped up battered technology and commodity shares, while a positive broker comment on Goldman Sachs boosted the financial sector. Trading was choppy in light volumes for most of the day as investors remained cautious ahead of more corporate earnings reports in the coming weeks. Alcoa set a positive [...]
Women team up to beat the recession July 8, 2009 MORE women work in the City than they used to, but it’s still hard to get on. Only 13 women hold executive directorships on the board of FTSE 100 companies (that’s 3.6 per cent) and there are just 110 woman non-executive directors, 14.5 per cent of the total. During the recession, the situation for women has [...]
CAREERS CLINIC July 8, 2009 ANDREW EVANSMANAGING DIRECTOR OF MORGAN MCKINLEY, UK “I was made redundant from my risk management post at a bank in January. Having struggled to find a job, I finally decided to go travelling for a year and was due to leave at the start of August. I’ve just been offered a job after all, but [...]
Glaxo tops the table as the market hopes to feel better July 8, 2009 THE FTSE 100 ended down by 1.1 per cent yesterday, hitting its lowest closing level in more than two months, as weakness in banks, oil producers and miners offset minor resistance in some defensives. The index closed down 46.77 points at 4140.23, its third day of losses. Banks were under pressure on the economic outlook [...]
All eyes on Alcoa as reporting starts July 8, 2009 US STOCKS rebounded in late trading yesterday after a day of wild price swings, with the Dow and Nasdaq eking out gains as investors hoped that corporate results would top estimates as the quarterly earnings season prepared to kick off. Stocks were sharply lower for most of the day as investors worried that an economic [...]
MARKETS ANTICIPATE EUROZONE RATES MAY FALL EVEN FURTHER July 7, 2009 BORIS SCHLOSSBERGDIRECTOR OF CURRENCY RESEARCH, GFT LAST week the European Central Bank (ECB) left its monetary policy unchanged, stating that the current 1 per cent repo rate is appropriate. But the currency market may think differently. For the past several months pricing pressures in the Eurozone have been practically non-existent. Consumer inflation has been at [...]
Wall Street suffers on stimulus fears July 7, 2009 US STOCKS fell to their lowest level in 10 weeks yesterday as talk of a second government stimulus plan heightened fears that the economy is not yet on the path to recovery and that the corporate earnings season starting this week will be weak. A member of the Obama administration’s economic advisory panel said the [...]
Clifford Chance loses top spot, but global reach means it will still flourish July 7, 2009 IT WAS never going to be a great result, but even so the news that partner profits at Clifford Chance were down a whopping 37 per cent in the year ending in April compared to the previous one revealed the once globe-conquering law firm to be uniquely exposed in the financial crisis. A reordering of [...]