Government’s RBS policy may cost the taxpayer December 16, 2009 ALISTAIR DARLING’S attack on bonuses last week has caused a furore in the Square Mile. However, the pre-Budget Report is perhaps in the long-term not the most important bonus-related event that has taken place in recent weeks. That was when the government acted to limit bonuses at RBS, of which it owns 84 per cent. [...]
M&A outlook is positive for 2010 December 16, 2009 MERGERS and acquisition activity was down 33 per cent in 2009 compared to the year before, but things could be changing in 2010. A survey by the Association for Corporate Growth and Thomson Reuters has found that M&A professionals are optimistic about a pickup of M&A in the next six months. This is heartening news, [...]
New banking body will not improve December 16, 2009 THE regulation of British banks has – to say the least – been in the spotlight since the financial crisis, with the tripartite system coming in for serious criticism. The government says that it wants to change the arrangement and create a Council for Financial Stability, which will co-ordinate the responsibilities and actions of the [...]
The return of the yen carry trade is just hype December 15, 2009 ONE of the big stories of the past six months has been the growth of the dollar carry trade. This trading strategy uses a low-yielding funding currency to purchase higher-yielding assets. For most of this decade the yen has been the funding currency of choice as investors took advantage of Japanese interest rates that remained [...]
EURO’S LUSTRE HAS STARTED TO TARNISH December 15, 2009 BORIS SCHLOSSBERG DIRECTOR OF CURRENCY RESEARCH, GFT AS THE dollar maintains its fundamentals- driven rally for the second week in a row and US economic data continues to surprise to the upside, the story in the Euro-zone is becoming decidedly murky. Last week concerns about the fiscal integrity of Greece weighed on the euro and [...]
FOREX FLASH December 15, 2009 Dovish RBA bad news for Aussie The strong Australian dollar was hit yesterday by the latest minutes from the Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA), which showed that the decision to raise rates was a finely balanced one. Although there are further RBA hikes in the pipeline, the central bank is aware of the impact that [...]
THE TIPSTER December 15, 2009 EUROPEAN policymakers have been complaining about an overly strong euro-dollar for weeks but it would appear that the price to pay for a weak euro is sovereign debt fears and renewed jitters over the Eurozone’s banking sector. While Greece is still struggling to bring its deficit under control, speculation that Austrian bank Oesterreichische Volksbanken has [...]
Fears over Greek and Austrian banks send FTSE shares down December 15, 2009 Britain’s leading share index shed 0.6 per cent yesterday, snapping a three-session rally with banks hit by some renewed sector caution, while oils and miners fell as a strengthening dollar weighed on metal prices. At the close, the FTSE 100 was 29.57 points lower at 5,285.77 after having gained one per cent on Monday to [...]
Inflation worries spark dollar rally December 15, 2009 Higher-than-expected November US inflation fuelled demand for the dollar yesterday. but weighed on stocks and bonds as investors feared the Federal Reserve may need to raise rates faster than anticipated. Oil futures prices rose almost two per cent to settle above $70 a barrel following nine sessions of losses, offering some support to energy stocks. [...]
The financial crisis has emboldened London’s rivals, but the City can survive December 15, 2009 ONE of the effects of the financial downturn has been to highlight to what extent the modern economy is globalised. This has happened in two ways. Firstly, the crisis proved just how interconnected economies are. As if by magic, dodgy mortgages in Arkansas can now cause job-losses in Manila, and deals made in Scottish boardrooms [...]
