Best of the Brokers for 10 January 2014 January 9, 2014 WILLIAM HILL Barclays has cut William Hill from overweight to equalweight with a lower target of 420p. The broker thinks gambling firms will be hit by calls to crack down on gaming machines, but notes that William Hill makes 26 per cent of its earnings this way, compared to 43 per cent at Ladbrokes. TULLOW [...]
London Report: William Hill and retailers weigh the FTSE down January 9, 2014 BRITAIN’S FTSE 100 fell yesterday and underperformed shares in southern Europe, as a rise in the pound against the euro hampered prospects for the index’s exporters and most retailers fell after weak Christmas updates. The FTSE erased gains in the afternoon as the pound rose to its highest in a year against the euro on [...]
New York Report: Investors wait on jobs report for Fed hints January 9, 2014 US STOCKS ended little changed last night in a choppy session ahead of today’s payrolls report, which may provide insights into whether the Federal Reserve will announce another cut in quantitative easing at its meeting this month. Retail and telecom stocks ranked among the day’s biggest losers. The S&P retail sector index slipped 0.2 per [...]
Is the equity market really overvalued? This one bank isn’t convinced January 9, 2014 A lot of people are worried that equities are overvalued. But Saxo Bank thinks equity valuations have finally reached normality, and rising stock prices are now "solely dependent" on revenue and earnings growth. Head of equity strategy Peter Garnry explains why: Equity valuations have normalised Global equities, says Garnry, are still a bit below the [...]
Advertising giants Omnicom and Publicis get EU merger approval January 9, 2014 A tie-up between advertising mega firms Omnicom (the world's second biggest agency) and Publicis (the third) has been granted approval by EU antitrust regulators. When the deal was announced in July, the combined market capitalisation of the two stood at $35.1bn (£21.3bn). "The merged entity would be sufficiently constrained by several competitors, including large international [...]
Here’s how the US could be energy self-sufficient by 2020 January 9, 2014 The US has the potential to become energy self-sufficient by the end of the decade, according to the head of Exxon Mobil. Rex Tillerson, chairman & CEO of Exxon Mobil, told CNBC that US energy self-sufficiency had become "a realistic aspiration." Tillerson pointed to the fact that the US was already the world's largest natural [...]
Recruiters now seeing signs of broader economic recovery January 9, 2014 Hays has become the latest recruitment company to declare a thaw in the UK jobs market, with net fees in the last quarter of the year up 10 per cent. Hiring is on the rise in construction and there are pockets of jobs growth in financial services, finance director Paul Venables said. “In the City [...]
ECB holds policy with rates at historic lows January 9, 2014 Our second big central bank meeting of the day has seen no change. The European Central Bank (ECB) is holding policy, as forecast by 54 of the 55 economists Reuters polled about the decision. Most of those economists said that they expect rates to stay put until mid-2015, after the central bank cut its main [...]
Bank of England holds rates – but Carney will have to hike soon to avoid credibility crisis January 9, 2014 No surprises today. The Bank of England's Monetary Policy Committee has elected to hold policy. Rates stay at their historic lows, while asset purchases are held at £375bn. Yet the case for a rate hike is becoming ever stronger. Not necessarily because economic conditions warrant it – but because it's vital for the Bank's credibility. [...]
4G is coming to the Channel Tunnel January 9, 2014 Some exciting news for London to Paris commuters: the Channel Tunnel's going to get 4G. Eurotunnel announced this morning that it's teamed up with EE to bring UK 4G mobile coverage to the north tunnel by the summer. The south tunnel got 2G coverage in 2012. A new 10-year deal with EE and Vodafone [...]