Financials and miners lift the FTSE to a new high for 2012 March 14, 2012 BRITAIN’S FTSE 100 closed at its highest level this year yesterday as banks and miners rallied after encouraging economic data out of Europe and the US, although volumes were weak and traders said the market could be nearing its top. London’s blue chip index closed up 63.16 points, or 1.1 per cent at 5,955.91, but [...]
Banks boost rally across Wall Street March 14, 2012 THE US stock market posted its best day this year, with yesterday’s late spark coming from JPMorgan Chase & Co after the bank announced it will raise its dividend. Stocks gained throughout the session, helped by stronger-than-expected retail sales and benign comments from the US Federal Reserve, which said recent strains on financial markets were [...]
Keeping the world’s most complex event on the right side of the law March 14, 2012 COUNTDOWN TO THE LONDON 2012 OLYMPIC GAMES 135 DAYS TO GO Tim Jones explains why Freshfields is the official legal services provider to the 2012 London Olympics Q. what was your brand’s primary reason for being involved with the games? A. We’d been involved for a long time, since 2003 when we worked on the [...]
Dollar boosted by Fed QE3 stimulus restraint March 14, 2012 THE Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) followed expectations by holding rates yesterday, and at the same time dispelled the possibility of an immediate third round of quantitative easing (QE3). Federal Reserve chairman Ben Bernanke pointed to “an improving economic situation”, though checked any untoward optimism by acknowledging that economic growth would be moderate. The central [...]
RESOLUTION OF GREEK DEBT CRISIS IS KEY March 14, 2012 UK BRANCH MANAGER, EASY-FOREX IS THE Greek debt restructuring a turning point in the EU debt crisis? Despite the announcement of a Greek debt restructuring, the country’s debt woes are far from resolved. Even with the successful debt swap, the Greek debt burden will remain above 120 per cent of gross domestic product, which the [...]
FTSE lifts as defensive gains offset miner and bank losses March 12, 2012 BRITAIN’S blue-chip index ended with a small gain yesterday, as profit-taking on mining companies and banks was offset by gains among defensive shares. The FTSE 100 index ended up 5.26 points, or 0.1 per cent, at 5,892.75, having traded 90 per cent of its 90-day volume average. The index only moved into positive territory late [...]
US stocks up ahead of Fed’s statement March 12, 2012 DEFENSIVE names rallied in an otherwise flat day for Wall Street yesterday as investors paused after recent gains and looked ahead to the Federal Reserve’s monetary policy statement. Investors will eye today’s statement from the US central bank’s Federal Open Market Committee to see whether the Fed will cool down expectations of more easing of [...]
Avoiding rotten luck trading pairs March 12, 2012 PICKING out individual stocks from a sector can be a tricky business. Even if you think that a particular equity is ripe for the picking, it could be dragged down by a fall in the sector as a whole. This is where pairs trading can come in to help you. “Pairs trading is an often [...]
US GROWTH MEANS THE DOLLAR-YEN BREAKOUT SHOULD BE TAKEN SERIOUSLY March 12, 2012 DIRECTOR OF CURRENCY RESEARCH, GFT IS THE North American region the last bastion of global growth? After last Friday’s strong US non-farm payrolls (NFP) and this weekend’s disappointing Chinese trade data, it certainly appears to be the case. In February, the US was able to record its third consecutive month of more than 200K new [...]
The growing trend of active traders March 12, 2012 THE last 15 years or so have seen a sea change in how people manage their investments and approach financial markets. For anyone much under the tender age of 40 it’s probably taken for granted that real time prices, charts and news are all part and parcel of a trading or investing account. Of course, [...]
