RAPID RESPONSES January 16, 2012 Clubcards are gold I disagree with Richard Perks’s analysis of Tesco. [Tesco’s marketing strategy needs a new broom in 2012 to sweep away its Clubcard, last Friday] If Tesco invested in a cost-cutting exercise it would probably discover what most businesses using voucher/discount schemes are finding; that cheap customers pay at the cheap price and [...]
Powering your trading ambition January 16, 2012 AS MORE and more providers hone their mobile trading apps, you can almost trade from anywhere. But if you are serious about your trading then you will probably want a dedicated computer. But what features are important and what do you get for your money? Generally speaking, you will get faster processing, the ability to [...]
GOLD REMAINS A PRECIOUS COMPONENT OF A PORTFOLIO January 16, 2012 Ionce heard an analyst say that gold should be viewed as an insurance policy, not as an investment. That’s good advice for anyone who is contemplating a position in the yellow metal in 2012. Gold has very little industrial use and yields no return, so its investment credentials are dubious. However, throughout history gold has [...]
THE TIPSTER January 16, 2012 WHEN Rio Tinto becomes the first of the big miners to update the market this year with its full-year report, there will be plenty of informative nuggets for investors to dig through in the update. The memory of Alcoa’s update and bullish forecast last week is still fresh in everyone’s mind. Traders will be hoping [...]
Analyst picks for 17 January 2012 January 16, 2012 FOREX STRATEGIST JOHN KICKLIGHTER My pick: Short sterling-dollar, long euro-Swiss Expertise: Fundamental and technical analysis Average time frame of trades: 1 day to 1 week The Eurozone’s financial troubles have deepened heading into the new year, and we will feel the repercussions. However, euro-dollar is already exceptionally downtrodden. The spillover hasn’t fully happened for the [...]
AAA-ratings are ready to go the way of the dodo January 16, 2012 THE downgrades of France and Austria on Friday followed by yesterday’s walloping of the European Financial Support Facility (EFSF) may have been widely anticipated, but that does not mean that they are irrelevant. After all, analysts have predicted the timings of seven of the last three sovereign downgrades. But more than anything this latest move [...]
Tom Aikens’ return is a hit January 16, 2012 Tom Aikens Restaurant 43 Elystan St, SW3 3NT T: 020 7584 2003 FOOD ***** SERVICE ***** ATMOSPHERE **** Cost per person without wine: £90 Popular culture can be a depressing economic barometer. In the 90s and early 2000s British music was all working-class swagger and barefaced ambition. It was a time when it didn’t seem [...]
Wine trade goes Burgundy mad January 16, 2012 HEAD SOMMELIER AND MANAGER OF LUTYENS RESTAURANT Last week saw one of the English Wine Trade’s odd annual rituals, the Burgundy en primeur tastings. For a week, we all traipse around assorted grand venues, tasting samples of wines from the new vintage about to be released. In many cases the wines have not even been [...]
FOOD & BOOZE NEWS January 16, 2012 MUDDY WATERS’ SON TO PLAY BOISDALE If you’re a fan of Chicago blues, head down to Boisdale at Canary Wharf (pictured left) on 28 January to see the closest thing to the legendary Muddy Waters: his eldest son Mud Morganfield. Muddy Waters was the founder of the Chicago electric blues sound and his son has [...]
ECB triples bond purchases January 16, 2012 The European Central Bank more than tripled its bond purchases last week to the highest level since late November, spending €3.77bn (£3.11bn) as a calm start to the New Year gave way to an intensification of the euro zone debt crisis. The ECB’s bond purchases face renewed scrutiny after Standard & Poor’s mass euro zone [...]
