Readying for another round with the King October 3, 2011 AS the markets look to Thursday’s Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) meeting and the possibility of Mervyn King giving the orders to fire up the printing presses once again, George Osborne voiced his support of monetary manipulation in a speech to the Conservative party conference. Saying that both he and David Cameron were “fiscal conservatives and [...]
IT’S NOT EASY TO BE BULLISH THIS QUARTER October 3, 2011 THE third quarter proved to be pretty grim for stock investors. Over the past three months the Dow lost 14 per cent, the NASDAQ fell 10 per cent, while the S&P 500 ended 16 per cent lower. It wasn’t just the US indices that took a hit. The UK’s FTSE 100 dropped 16 per cent, [...]
The devil’s in the detail of positive data October 3, 2011 GIVEN the rarity of positive data gracing the markets these days, yesterday’s Markit/CIPS manufacturing PMI headline activity statistics for September came as a welcome surprise – the forecast was for 48.6, which would have indicated further contraction, but the results pointed to an expansionary 51.1. However, champagne corks should remain firmly in bottles, as this [...]
THE TIPSTER October 3, 2011 FASHION retailer Ted Baker is reporting figures to the market on Thursday, and the expectations are good. Despite the high street gloom and the UK retail sales index being at a 16-month low, Ted Baker has supposedly bucked the trend, and will show a 15 per cent increase in sales. Global expansion is also being [...]
Fourth quarter set for an inauspicious beginning October 2, 2011 EUROPEAN stocks have just suffered their worst quarter in nine years, but anyone thinking that this might present us with an opportunity of restored calm to repair portfolios, or that some bargain-hunters would be tempted in to the market will be disappointed; the fourth quarter is expected to open with another day of dramatic falls. [...]
WALL STREET WEEK AHEAD October 2, 2011 INVESTORS are worried US earnings growth may finally fall back to earth as turmoil in Europe and signs of a less robust Chinese economy hurt foreign support. The Eurozone’s debt crisis and weakness in China have fuelled investor concern that the global economy could tip back into recession, possibly dampening US earnings growth at a [...]
Fronting a brand new family business October 2, 2011 THE Asprey name is undoubtedly familiar to you. The British luxury brand has been around since the time of Queen Victoria. For 200 years the family sold luxury goods to the world’s well-heeled before being bought out by a devoted customer. Sadly, when William Asprey, the seventh line of the family, came to start up [...]
Think about how you hand over the keys October 2, 2011 THE CORPORATE FINANCE NETWORK Management buyouts (MBO) seem to have fallen out of favour. You just need to look at the recent Experian Corpin figures to see that there have been huge reductions in recent years. From 2005 to 2011 the number of businesses involved in MBOs has halved from 403 to 217. The figure [...]
Plotting the growth of the market October 2, 2011 WHEN spread betting started in 1974, it was set up to get around the strict price controls that were in place in the UK – at the time it was illegal for retail investors to speculate on gold. Unemployed stockbroker Stuart Wheeler hit upon the idea of creating an index giving investors a way of [...]
THE WEEK AHEAD October 2, 2011 COMPANY NEWS ● James Halstead announces today. Its flooring can be found near and far: from the Scott Base in Antarctica, to the Svalbard Hotel on the edge of the polar icecap. ● Tomorrow, Wolseley will deliver its full year results. The FTSE 100 heating and plumbing distributor operates in 25 countries, with 4,400 branches [...]
