When work becomes a religious experience June 30, 2010 THE WAY WE’RE WORKING ISN’T WORKING BY TONY SCHWARTZ, JEAN GOMES AND CATHERINE MCCARTHY, £12.99 THE title might sounds a bit like the election poster from 1979 that proclaimed “Britain isn’t working”, but this book is American through and through. It reached number two on the New York Times Best Sellers List, which suggests that [...]
FTSE drags with not a single riser June 29, 2010 BRITAIN’S top share index hit a near 10-month closing low yesterday, led down by mining stocks and banks, as risk appetite was hurt by renewed concerns over the strength of global recovery and Europe’s debt problems. The FTSE 100 closed down 157.46 points, or 3.1 per cent, at 4,914.22, its lowest close since 4 ?September [...]
Economic gloom rocks US markets June 29, 2010 INVESTORS fled the US stock market yesterday and the S&P 500 tumbled to its lowest level in eight months in a sell-off triggered by a wave of increasing alarm over the global economic outlook. All but one stock in the S&P 500 ended lower as escalating doubts about the stability of Europe’s banks roiled markets [...]
Risk aversion will undermine euro June 29, 2010 DEMAND for risky assets has been undermined this week by concerns about both the strength of the US recovery and that Chinese growth may not be as rapid as had previously been thought. The euro has also started to wobble again, destabilised by a resurgence in fears about Europe’s banking sector. These worries about the [...]
Life settlement is the ultimate diverse asset June 29, 2010 ONE of the steps to fund management nirvana is ensuring that your portfolio is fully diversified. And after the financial crisis, the life settlements market could be the perfect uncorrelated asset. The market works like so: people – typically who reside in the US – sell their life insurance policies to the secondary market, which [...]
Investors prefer bonds June 29, 2010 ALTHOUGH European institutional investors are recognising the fragile green shoots of recovery, fixed income remains their safe haven of choice, according to the annual European Institutional Asset Management Survey conducted by IPE and Invesco, which was published earlier this month. Unsurprisingly, asset allocators across Europe slashed their equity exposure in 2008 and 2009 and retreated [...]
DON’T SING JERUSALEM TOO SOON June 29, 2010 DICK TURPIN MANAGING DIRECTOR, ARTEMIS WHAT a relief. Saving £100m, three-quarters of the government’s 820 websites are to go. Whitehall is reluctant to name the doomed. But it is widely believed that www.lovechips.co.uk – run by the marketing department of the Potato Council – is unlikely to survive the cut. As in the body politic, [...]
FUND MANAGEMENT NEWS June 29, 2010 SOURCE LAUNCHES VIX FUTURES ETF European institutional investors will benefit from the launch of the first volatility-linked ETF in Europe to track the S&P 500 VIX Short-Term Futures Total Return index. The performance of the index does differ from the Vix but historically the two have had a strong positive correlation. Issued by Source in [...]
ECB expiry hits euro June 29, 2010 IT IS crunch time for the European Central Bank (ECB) and the single currency this week. As of tomorrow, Eurozone banks will no longer be able to tap the central bank for unlimited long-term loans. It has already indicated that it will not renew its €442bn 12-month long-term refinancing operation (LTRO) and is likely to [...]
Inefficient FX markets offer an opportunity June 29, 2010 THE currency market is the most liquid in the world. Turnover tops $3.1 trillion a day, which dwarves both the equity and bond markets. Given the ubiquity of currency trading, it’s easy to assume that the FX markets would be efficient. But that is not the case. American Century Investments, an investment management firm, believes [...]
