CLIPPED WINGS June 9, 2009 AUSTRALIAN flag carrier Qantas expects demand for passengers to drop by five per cent next year, it said yesterday. Chief executive Alan Joyce said it would cut capacity and expected next year to be “very tough.”
BEST OF THE BROKERS June 9, 2009 LONDON STOCK EXCHANGE (LSE)Analysts at Bernstein upgraded the LSE to “outperform” with a target price of 950p, based on the potential for cost-savings, a low interest rate environment and a strong post-trade environment to drive stock outperformance. The broker believes that consensus earnings for the group are understated and forecasts four per cent above average [...]
Fears of Baltic contagion are threatening krona’s health June 9, 2009 FOLLOWING Eastern Europe’s liberalisation in the early Nineties, the three Baltic states led the way in shifting towards an open market economy. They experienced stronger growth rates, lower unemployment and were more successful in bringing down inflation to manageable levels compared to the Central and Eastern Europe (CEE) countries. All three managed to peg their [...]
Defender of the realm June 9, 2009 THE FACTS: Land RoverDefender 90 XSStation Wagon6-speed manual PRICE (MODELTESTED): £26,8150-62MPH: Figuresnot availableTOP SPEED: Figuresnot availableMPG COMBINED/CO2: 28.3/266g/km A FEW years ago I was in mid-Wales for a weekend of tyre-testing, speed and lessons in the laws of physics with Welsh rally driver Mark Higgins and his team at the Forest Experience School. Having been [...]
HOW POUND IS BUFFETED BY POLITICS June 9, 2009 BORIS SCHLOSSBERGDIRECTOR OF CURRENCY RESEARCH, GFT THE currency market often reacts with more force to political news than it does to economic data. Currencies represent nations as well as economies so traders would do well to remember the golden rule of FX trading: in head to head combat, politics almost always trumps economics. Political instability [...]
Multinationals facing legal piracy challenge June 9, 2009 THE military dictatorship holds down oil-producing areas such as Ogoni by military decrees and the threat or actual use of physical violence so that Shell can wage its ecological war without hindrance.” So read Ken Saro-Wiwa’s closing statement at his trial before he and eight other leaders of the Ogoni people were hanged by the [...]
Defensives beat a retreat as investors hedge their bets June 9, 2009 THE FTSE 100 ended flat yesterday, with commodity stocks tracking gains in raw material prices as the dollar eased but cigarette makers and pharmaceutical companies fell. The index closed down by 0.43 points at 4,404.79 in a choppy session, after losing 1.2 per cent on Monday. The weaker dollar boosted metal prices, which in turn [...]
LEHMAN CASH PROVES HARD TO RECLAIM June 9, 2009 JAMES COILEYPARTNER, COILEY NINE months have passed since the collapse of Lehman Bothers. Yet many investors in its Special Purpose Vehicle (SPV) platforms are still waiting for their money. Disputes relating to these trades are now hitting the courts in earnest in both London and New York. The transactions are variations of “repackaging” structures. At [...]
Texas lifts Nasdaq but Dow stays flat June 9, 2009 THE Nasdaq rose yesterday after an improved outlook from Texas Instruments lifted technology stocks, but gains on other indexes were limited as plans by big banks to repay government bailout funds raised concerns whether the move would help the economy recover. Shares of Texas Instruments jumped 6.4 per cent to $21.03 after it raised its [...]
Lloyds closes C&G outlets June 9, 2009 LLOYDS Banking Group is to withdraw its Cheltenham & Gloucester (C&G) brand from the high street in a move that will see the bank wield the axe over up to 1,660 staff as it streamlines in the wake of its takeover of HBOS. The bank said it would close all 164 branches of C&G within [...]
