HAWKISH FED IS BEST HOPE FOR DOLLAR October 20, 2009 BORIS SCHLOSSBERGDIRECTOR OF CURRENCY RESEARCH, GFT THIS Monday, during CNBC’s “Squawk Box” in the US, I remarked that these days it is easier to find a poor Goldman Sachs banker than to meet a dollar bull on Wall Street. But when everyone is so bearish on the currency and the trade becomes tremendously crowded, we [...]
Outlook for major currency pairs to depend on world economic recovery October 20, 2009 DURING the economic crisis, many central banks cut interest rates to near-zero and introduced further monetary expansion through asset purchase policies. With all major economies suffering from recession and little interest rate differential, currency traders looked to daily fluctuations for their profits. But with the global economy showing signs of a more entrenched recovery and [...]
Hargreaves’ asset values soar October 20, 2009 Stockbroker Hargreaves Lansdown said yesterday that it saw a 22 per cent increase in asset values in its first quarter, as the stock market rally encouraged investors. The firm said that total assets under administration stood at £14.5bn at 30 September, compared to £11.9bn at the end of June, while quarterly operating revenue rose 13 [...]
Autonomy shares drop amid margin concerns October 20, 2009 Shares in Autonomy dropped yesterday after the software firm said that the costs of meeting demand for its new database search product had hit its gross margin in the third quarter. Autonomy – which makes software that searches e-mail, telephone calls and documents for government departments – posted revenue of $191.6m (£116.4m) for the three [...]
Pearson says its full-year earnings rose October 20, 2009 PUBLISHING group Pearson raised its full-year guidance yesterday, saying it now expects adjusted earnings to be at or above 60p per share (EPS) following a strong performance from its education business. Pearson, the world’s largest education publisher and the owner of the Financial Times and Penguin Books, said nine-month sales were up two per cent [...]
Xstrata increases estimates of minerals at its Tampakan copper and gold mine October 20, 2009 XSTRATA, the mining group, has boosted an estimate of mineral resources at its $5.2bn (£2.8bn) Tampakan copper-gold project in the southern Philippines to 2.4bn tonnes from 2.2bn, it said yesterday. The mine, considered Southeast Asia’s largest undeveloped copper-gold prospect, is now estimated to contain 13.5m tonnes of copper and 15.8m ounces of gold, at a [...]
BEST OF THE BROKERS October 20, 2009 CABLE & WIRELESSAfter a 45 per cent underperformance, Investec said that negative fundamentals are increasingly factored into the concensus for Cable & Wireless, making a share price re-rating overdue. The broker said that demerger hopes could move the shares higher and upgraded the stock to “hold” with a new target price of 140p. BLUEBAY ASSET [...]
CITY MOVES WHO’S SWITCHING JOBS October 20, 2009 St Modwen PropertiesThe property group has appointed Katherine Innes Ker, pictured, and Lesley James as non-executive directors. Innes Ker currently holds non-executive directorships at Taylor Wimpey and Tribal Group, while James, who also becomes chair of the remuneration committee, was formerly group human resources director at Tesco and a non-executive at retailers Liberty International and [...]
FTSE hits a high but sale of Barclays shares prompts dip October 20, 2009 Britain’s top shares fell 0.7 percent yesterday, led down by banks after Qatar sold shares in Barclays while weaker-than-expected US data added to the negative sentiment. The benchmark FTSE 100 closed down 38.14 points at 5,243.40, having hit a fresh high for the year at 5,298.54 earlier in the session. Barclays fell 4.8 per cent [...]
US housing results bring down stocks October 20, 2009 US stocks retreated from 12-month highs yesterday as disappointing housing and inflation data prompted investors to book recent gains despite strong results from bellwethers including Apple and Caterpillar. New construction of US homes rose less than expected in September and US producer prices posted an unexpected decline, both pointing to an anemic economic recovery. DuPont [...]
