CITY MOVES | WHO’S SWITCHING JOBS July 23, 2012 Taylor Wessing Alix Prentice has been appointed partner in the law firm’s financial services regulatory team. She joins from Cadwalader, Wickersham & Taft, where she was special counsel in its financial services group. Prentice has also worked for the Financial Services Authority. Allianz Global Investors Corinne Crawford has been appointed director in the European consultant relations [...]
BEST of the BROKERS July 23, 2012 HOME RETAIL Numis has moved the owner of Argos and Homebase from “sell” to “add” citing an improvement in the electricals market following the digital switchover and latest iPad launch. STAGECOACH Jefferies has upgraded the transport firm from “hold” to “buy” and upped its price target to 335p, calling the stock “the default choice in [...]
FTSE plummets into red territory for 2012 as Europe worries return July 23, 2012 BRITAIN’S top share index plunged yesterday to its lowest level in three weeks and fell back into the red for the year as fresh Eurozone worries hit banks across the continent, while technical charts pointed to further weakness over the summer. Eurozone concerns focused on Spain, whose ten-year sovereign bond yields spiked to more than [...]
Stocks suffer from euro fear on Wall Street July 23, 2012 US STOCKS fell for a second straight session yesterday, as Spain appeared closer to needing a national bailout and poor corporate results weighed on the market. Weak results from McDonald’s added to the cautious tone on Wall Street. Materials stocks were among the day’s weakest, hurt by across-the-board declines in commodities prices. Still, stocks ended [...]
UK energy policies are sabotaging industry’s global competitiveness July 23, 2012 THE revelation that George Osborne wants fossil fuels to remain a key and important supplier of Britain’s electricity generation shows he can talk the talk. But the chancellor will struggle to give legs to his policy. His statement comes immediately unstuck when you consider how the Treasury is preparing to lump huge taxes on such [...]
Tax and morality: Complicated laws make gaming the system inevitable July 23, 2012 I RECENTLY spent a family holiday in a static caravan in northern France. As we sat outside with a glass of wine, my wife and I wondered why the caravan had wheels – it seemed unlikely that they would need to be moved, and I doubted they would carry its weight. Perhaps it has something [...]
A one-size policy on pay won’t suit all firms equally July 23, 2012 PROFESSOR John Kay is right to try and tackle a culture of short-termism that some listed companies can get caught up in, as set out in his government-backed review of the financial sector. The downsides of short-termism are easy to identify: if investors focus too much on short-term returns, boards are left preoccupied with the [...]
Will Italy and Spain’s decision to ban short selling have any serious effect whatsoever? July 23, 2012 YES Ian Marsh This move by Spanish and Italian regulators was widely expected, as many others have used similar bans in recent years, hoping to stabilise volatile markets or support plunging stock prices. Unfortunately, bans on short selling don’t seem to do either, at least not for long. Apart from some hard-to-verify bounces on the [...]
RAPID RESPONSES July 23, 2012 No quick fix [Re: Coalition’s lack of courage threatens a triple-dip recession, yesterday] Until Britain makes deep cuts in government expenditure to make room for cuts to taxation, there will be no great increase in the spending power of consumers. Pumping up quantitative easing and demanding that banks lend more is a waste of time without [...]
Trading trends change despite a stuck record July 23, 2012 AFTER a disappointing summer to date, we finally have some sunshine. But in the European markets, things are distinctly more gloomy. Italy and Spain have both brought in short selling bans. Their financial equities have taken a battering as the market lacks confidence in their long-term funding abilities. Both markets saw short-term relief rallies before [...]
