A book by two bloggers is wise but concise May 5, 2010 REWORK BY JASON FRIED AND DAVID HEINEMEIER HANSSON Vermillion Books, £10.99 THIS is perhaps just the sort of book you would expect from internet entrepreneurs famous for a blog (called 37 Signals); rather than convoluted arguments, re-heated out-of-context quotations from Machiavelli or Nietzsche and endless, bulletpointed arguments, it’s a collection of short, sharp and thought-provoking [...]
Music is still playing for Latin America carnival May 4, 2010 LATIN America has always been seen as dangerously volatile by many institutional investors, but the recent stock market carnival is looking like a party too good to miss. The region’s leading economy, Brazil, is now firmly established as one of the BRIC big four. It is also due to host the World Cup in 2014 [...]
THREE CHEERS FOR MARKET DARWINISM May 4, 2010 MANAGING DIRECTOR, ARTEMIS ASKED by a journalist what had given him most trouble as prime minister, Harold Macmillan replied, loftily: “Events, dear boy. Events.” Uncertainty surrounds the result of tomorrow’s election. But whoever wins will know, sooner or later, how Macmillan felt. Stock markets certainly do. On economic and corporate news that was consistently better [...]
Moving away from equities can pay May 4, 2010 THE markets may have recovered from the credit crunch, but the investment community is still trying to navigate a post-crisis world and reduce portfolio risk. New research by Towers Watson, the professional services firm, has found that although many pension funds and institutional investors still rely on equities to generate their returns, in reality a [...]
FUND MANAGEMENT NEWS May 4, 2010 EXPENSIVE AND ATTRACTIVE TRUSTS Stockbroking firm Killik & Co yesterday listed three listed investment trusts that it finds expensive and three that look attractive from a discount perspective. The expensive trusts are Better Capital, Polar Capital Technology and 3i Infrastructure while Utilico Emerging Markets, Acorn Income Fund and BlackRock New Energy are attractive. In terms [...]
Return to normality will be bad news for the yen May 4, 2010 TODAY is the last day of Golden Week in Japan, one of the country’s most important public holidays. But the last few months have been anything but golden for the yen. The currency has fallen by more than 10 per cent against the US dollar and nearly 8 per cent against sterling. There are a [...]
CREDIT RISK WILL DECIDE EURO’S FATE May 4, 2010 DIRECTOR OF CURRENCY RESEARCH, GFT THE initial reaction of the currency market to this weekend’s announcement of a €110bn rescue package for Greece was less than overwhelming. After a knee-jerk rally higher at open of trade, euro-dollar slumped all the way to $1.3200 and came within a few points of the lows for the year. [...]
Making returns on the Russian rouble just got a whole lot easier May 4, 2010 AT THE end of last week, the Russian central bank chose to cut interest rates by 25 basis points to encourage loan growth and stimulate the economy – despite mounting concerns about inflationary pressures. Bank Rossii has been making it increasingly clear that the monetary easing cycle is now slowing. Indeed, finance minister Alexei Kudrin [...]
FOREX FLASH May 4, 2010 AUSSIE CENTRAL BANK HIKES RATES AGAIN The Reserve Bank of Australia yesterday decided to increase the cost of borrowing for the sixth time in seven meetings. The benchmark rate is now at 4.5 per cent. The Australian dollar fell in the wake of the announcement to US$0.9189 as investors anticipated a pause in the coming [...]
The Tipster May 4, 2010 ALTHOUGH the situation in Greece has put enormous pressure on the euro, the Swiss franc has held remarkably firm above the SFr1.4320 level over the past month when you might have expected euro-Swiss franc to fall even further. The Swiss National Bank has been supporting the franc at around SFr1.4325 in a bid to prevent [...]
