Q&A LOBBYING October 7, 2010 Q. I run a small business. Am I too small to lobby the government about my concerns? A.It is a myth that it is difficult to obtain the ear of government. It is in your constituency MP’s interest to listen to you because they want to at least appear to care about your company’s concerns. [...]
FTSE rises on stimulus expectation October 6, 2010 BRITAIN’S top share index closed higher, at a fresh five month peak yesterday led by miners and energy issues as commodities rose on optimism governments will act to stimulate economies around the world. At the close, the FTSE 100 was up 45.63 points, or 0.8 per cent at 5,681.39, its highest close since 26 April. [...]
Tech shares drag down Wall Street October 6, 2010 TECH shares slumped yesterday, hit by worries about demand for semiconductors and data storage. The Nasdaq bore the brunt of the day’s selling, led by data system services provider Citrix Systems. The stock was down in sympathy with small-cap Equinix, which plunged 33.1 per cent to $70.34 after it issued a revenue warning late on [...]
Christmas will come early to the high street October 6, 2010 HIGH-STREET retailers have every reason to be cautious right now. If it isn’t the government squeezing households’ disposable incomes with one hand and hiking VAT with the other, then surges in the prices of commodities such as cotton, which is at a 15-year high, are threatening margins. Only last month Next chief executive Simon Wolfson [...]
Don’t count on a future bailout for Euro bonds October 6, 2010 INVESTORS are increasingly looking for new ways to find decent income as most western bond yields sink ever lower. Many are flooding into emerging market (EM) debt, with iShares having seen its EM bond fund swell to over $1bn. Others are looking closer to home – and they don’t have to look far. Markets are [...]
YEN APPEARS TO BE OVERLY STRETCHED October 6, 2010 SENIOR ANALYST, ETF SECURITIES The Japanese yen has historically been considered as a barometer of risk appetite in the FX market. True to form, it has strengthened as bouts of risk aversion have hit financial markets. Recently, the yen reached 15-year highs and has rallied more than 10 per cent in 2010, prompting official intervention [...]
LISTED PRODUCT NEWS October 6, 2010 AMUNDI LISTED TWO ETFS IN PARIS European ETF provider Amundi this week expanded its product offering by launching two new funds on the Paris stock exchange. The first gives investors exposure to around 20 stocks in the European energy sector and replicates the performance of the MSCI Europe Energy index. The second tracks the EuroMTS [...]
THE TIPSTER October 6, 2010 The Dow is making efforts to reach its April high, but the major companies are about to bring out the next quarterly figures. This means that many are looking to short the Dow below 11,258 with a stop and reverse above, particularly if the market continues to be impressed with company news. WorldSpreads offers a [...]
The world’s best negotiator explains how to get more out of your work October 6, 2010 ON the day that Stuart Diamond arrived in London, a Tube strike had paralysed the city, and the next day when I met him he was still shaking his head in wonder at the whole thing. “The mayor should never have let it get to this stage, so that Londoners are suffering because of two [...]
BOOK OF THE MONTH October 6, 2010 THE MANAGEMENT MASTERCLASS BY EMMA DE VITA Headline, ££10.99 Jeremy Hazlehurst HALLELUJAH. In a world filled with pseudo-intellectual management books, at last comes a thoroughly practical, easy-to-use one bereft of posturing and pretension. If you want a book that gives you a quick-fire tour of the current state of management theory, then this is it. [...]