CITY MOVES | WHO’S SWITCHING JOBS February 6, 2012 Deloitte Mark Williams has been appointed as a partner in Deloitte’s economic consulting practice. Williams, who joins Deloitte from the World Bank, will join a team of more than 30 in Deloitte’s economic consulting practice, where he will focus on telecoms clients. He worked at the World Bank for five years, where he led the [...]
BEST OF THE BROKERS February 6, 2012 ROYAL DUTCH SHELL Credit Suisse downgrades the oil major from “outperform” to “neutral” and cuts its target price from 2,750p to 2,600p after a key part of the broker’s positive investment case – the long-awaited inflection point in free cash flow in 2012 – failed to materialise. Capex has been re-estimated to a higher figure [...]
FTSE 100 falls on doubts over deals for Greece and Glencore February 6, 2012 MINERS dragged Britain’s top share index lower yesterday, after doubt surfaced about Glencore’s potential merger with Xstrata, while banks waned in the absence of a debt deal for Greece. The FTSE 100 index ended down 8.87 points, or 0.2 per cent, at 5,892.20, remaining near six-month highs after strong US jobs data boosted appetite for [...]
Corporate results worries sink stocks February 6, 2012 US stocks closed slightly lower yesterday as lingering questions about Europe’s debt crisis and corporate earnings overshadowed growing optimism about economic growth after a five-week rally. The S&P has risen about seven per cent so far this year, helped by a slew of better-than-expected US economic data, which was capped by Friday’s solid jobs report. [...]
Britain must become a land of opportunity once more to attract the world’s workers February 6, 2012 COUNTRIES receive the immigrants they deserve. A migrant has 192 countries to choose from. He or she will choose according to his own preferences and reasons. The possibility of economic betterment is the most important: nobody aspires to end up on the breadline. What forms of economic betterment are available will determine what sorts of [...]
We must resist a tax that isn’t FTT for purpose February 6, 2012 AS THE European Parliament held its public hearing on the proposed financial transaction tax (FTT) on Monday, the battle positions were clearly drawn. For the Eurozone, an FTT represents a smallish subsidy to repair damaged national balance sheets; for the UK, the adoption of an FTT would represent a massive drag on the country’s economic [...]
It’s hard to account for flaws in the rule-book February 6, 2012 IT SHOULD be no surprise that socialist economies give the impression of creating more output than capitalist ones. Under socialism you get rewarded based on what you produce – hence an incentive to overstate production. Under capitalism you get taxed based on what you produce – hence an incentive to understate production. These are two [...]
RAPID RESPONSES February 6, 2012 Shrinking R&D It is not correct to blame intensified regulation for the pharmaceutical industry’s woes [Regulation has pushed pharma off a cliff-edge, yesterday]. The statistics actually show that per new drug application, the FDA’s record of approving new drugs has stayed more or less unchanged over the past decade. The problem is that research and [...]
Grey trading on the Facebook IPO price February 6, 2012 AS THE buzz continues about the Facebook public offering later this year, IG Markets is offering grey market trading on the social networking site’s market cap. The grey market allows shares to be traded on an unofficial market ahead of the IPO expected in May. When it filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission on [...]
A NEW THEME FOR THE EURO DESPITE AN AILING ATHENS February 6, 2012 ANOTHER week has passed by without a deal from Athens and the currency markets are clearly starting to suffer from headline fatigue. While the risks are quite serious, the markets continue to believe in an 11th hour deal – which is why the fallout in the euro has been relatively modest. Yet the longer the [...]
