Majority of City lawyers support Tories May 4, 2010 HERE’S a thought: if our electorate comprised City lawyers – okay, maybe not that most appealing thought – the Tories would storm to an election win on Thursday. Legal Week magazine recently reckoned that almost two thirds of City partners (63 per cent) were backing Cameron. A survey by DLA Piper of 545 senior UK [...]
Parties ponder future of banking regulation May 4, 2010 PARTNER, FOX WILLIAMS LLP CRITICISM and reform of financial regulation is a political hot topic of debate and a powerful electoral tool. With the fast approaching general election and the narrowing lead in opinion polls between the main political parties, what exactly do Labour, the Conservatives and the Liberal Democrats have in store for financial [...]
Election night means bets for all you political punters May 3, 2010 TWO days to go and for the first time since 1992 there seems a real uncertainty about the result of this general election. Which makes spread betting on the event even more intriguing. And it doesn’t just mean betting simply on the next leader or the big party win, there are some cleverer ways to [...]
SPREAD BET GURU May 3, 2010 MARKET STRATEGIST josh@cityindex.com Q. Dear Josh, with the general election result looking increasingly tight is there any way to profit from such uncertainty? A. The market hates uncertainty so it is likely to frown upon any indication that we are heading towards a hung parliament. That said, the FTSE 100 is such an international index [...]
THE TIPSTER May 3, 2010 THE US banking sector has been a wild ride for traders of the Select Sector SPDR Financial ETF over the past two weeks. The index, which contains a range of diversified financial firms including JP Morgan Chase, Bank of America-Merrill Lynch and Goldman Sachs, had added almost 20 per cent since 1 January to a [...]
Oil spillage will add to pressure on fuel prices May 3, 2010 THE oil giant BP’s share price was punished by the markets last week after a fire at its Deepwater Horizon drilling rig on the Gulf of Mexico caused a leak that is pumping 5,000 barrels of oil per day into the sea. But on Friday, BP’s woes transformed into an industry-wide problem after the US [...]
GOLDMAN, GOLD AND GOLDILOCKS May 3, 2010 CFD MARKET STRATEGIST, GFT OVER the past week, a number of big stories have jostled each other off the front pages. The Greek debt crisis went critical and the odds of European contagion shortened after ratings agency Standard & Poor’s downgraded Greece, Spain and Portugal. On Friday it was reported that Goldman Sachs may face [...]
Spanish banks hold promise of strong profits this year May 3, 2010 SPANISH stocks had a torrid time last week. After Spain’s government debt was downgraded a notch from AA+ to AA, the Ibex 35, the Spanish stock market index, fell 4 per cent. But while domestic woes are far from resolved – unemployment is now more than 20 per cent – Spain’s biggest bank looks like [...]
CFD ANALYST PICKS May 3, 2010 TECHNICAL STRATEGIST JOEL KRUGER My pick: Sell the FTSE 100 at 5,740 Expertise: Technical analysis Average time frame of trades: 5-10 days We have done quite well trading the index over the past few weeks and have most recently booked profit on our short trade from 5,725 at 5,600 for 125 points. The overall structure [...]
European shares rise despite ongoing worries over Greek bailout package May 3, 2010 EUROPEAN shares rose on yesterday, as upbeat US data boosted hopes of an economic recovery, although doubts persisted on Greece’s ability to implement the tough austerity measures it has agreed to under a $147bn (£96bn) bailout deal. The FTSEurofirst 300 index of leading European shares closed 0.2 per cent higher at 1,064.56 points — after [...]
