Play the Bank’s QE decision with a punt on gilts October 25, 2009 THIS year we have witnessed the Bank of England take the unprecedented step of buying billions of pounds worth of assets – mostly government bonds – in order to loosen monetary policy further than can be achieved through interest rate cuts alone. It goes without saying that this policy of quantitative easing (QE) has had [...]
CHINA’S YUAN POLICY COMES UNDER FIRE October 25, 2009 JANE FOLEYRESEARCH DIRECTOR, FOREX.COMBY ALMOST everybody else’s standards, an annual growth rate of 8.9 per cent in the third quarter would be an opportunity to break open the champagne and put on the party hats. But expectations for Chinese expansion had been higher and this “disappointing” figure was enough to see investors lose, at least [...]
THE TIPSTER WATCH OUT FOR ENERGY FIRMS’ EARNINGS October 25, 2009 PROFIT taking has been the order of the day in energy stocks and with crude oil prices looking toppy at the $80 a barrel mark, the upward trend for some oil and gas equities may be over. Oil giant BP reports its third quarter results numbers on Tuesday and the stock has so far struggled [...]
THE LONDON REPORT October 22, 2009 The FTSE 100 closed one per cent, or 50.49 points, lower yesterday at 5,207.36, as weaker crude and metals weighed on energy stocks and miners. The index has rallied more than 50 per cent since hitting a low in early March, and is up 17 per cent this year. Energy stocks suffered with crude slipping [...]
NEW YORK REPORT October 22, 2009 US stocks rose yesterday after quarterly results from insurer Travelers and regional bank PNC Financial gave a boost to financial stocks. Financials were among the top gainers after insurer Travelers posted gains after it raised its full-year outlook and regional bank PNC Financial Services Group shares jumped 12.7 per cent to $50.65 on far better-than-expected [...]
If you’re stuck in a rut, you have to be ready to change care%r October 21, 2009 YOU’RE bored, you don’t feel as though your skills are being used properly, your colleagues seem to achieve more than you do, and worst of all, it’s been this way for months. In short, you feel you’ve hit a dead-end in your career. What can you do about it? If you’re in a rut in [...]
CAREERS CLINIC October 21, 2009 JOHN HACKSTON, MANAGING CONSULTANT, OPP I got promoted, and am now managing people I’ve worked with for a long time. We know everything about each other, and I’m concerned my mates won’t take my role seriously.First of all, it’s useful to recognise you may not know these people as well as you think you do, [...]
Speculation is driving the price of oil October 21, 2009 OIL’S break through to $80 per barrel earlier this week was attributed to yet another bout of dollar weakness in forex markets, or a strong gasoline inventory draw-down in the US. But looking at the truly fundamental factors – the Organisation of the Petroleum Exporting Countries’ (Opec) spare production capacity standing at a whopping 5.5m [...]
DOLLAR BEAR MARKET NOT DOLLAR CRISIS October 21, 2009 GEORGE TCHETVERTAKOVHEAD OF MARKET RESEARCH, ALPARI UK ONE of the biggest casualties of the financial crisis was trust in banks and financial institutions, sparking a collapse of confidence in the markets and precipitate falls across all asset classes from equities to commodities. The greenback was in extremely high demand throughout 2008 as panicking investors looked [...]
BE DEFENSIVE BY TRADING AGRICULTURE October 21, 2009 NICHOLAS BROOKSHEAD OF RESEARCH AND INVESTMENT STRATEGY, ETF SECURITIES DURING the first half of 2009, exchange-traded commodities (ETCs) in industrially-focused precious metals – silver, platinum and palladium – as well as industrial metals all saw rapid rises in inflows as cyclical indicators rebounded. Although recent months have seen outflows in individual industrial metal ETCs, the [...]
