A light comedy with dark intentions April 7, 2010 SOLAR BY IAN MCEWAN Jonathan Cape, £18.99 by Zoe Strimpel THOSE who read 2005’s disappointing Saturday may have felt that Ian McEwan had forfeited his right to tackle major political issues of the day ever again. The protagonist’s endless weighing up of the rights and wrongs of the Iraq War came across as irksome, clunky [...]
OUT OF OFFICE April 7, 2010 BOOK NOW:?WHIPPING IT UP In case you didn’t notice, there’s a general election on. That makes it a good moment for a revival – at the City’s Bridewell Theatre – of Steve Thompson’s rip-roaring dissection of Westminster double dealing and dirty tricks. Set just after a general election that’s returned the Tories to power with [...]
Poor performance among miners pushes FTSE down April 7, 2010 WEAKER miners and energy stocks, weighed by falling commodity prices, outweighed gains in defensive tobacco firms and drugmakers to drag Britain’s top share index down 0.3 per cent by the close yesterday. The FTSE 100 index ended 18.29 points lower at 5,762.06. Volume was thin as many traders extended their Easter holidays, with just 74 [...]
Wall St slides on Fed rate concerns April 7, 2010 US STOCKS fell in a broad late-day drop yesterday after a top Federal Reserve official said interest rates should not stay low for much longer, giving investors an excuse to take profits. A speech by Kansas City Federal Reserve Bank President Thomas Hoenig drove afternoon selling after he said keeping interest rates too low for [...]
Get a shortcut to hedge fund gains with ETFs April 7, 2010 FOLLOWING a terrible 2008, hedge funds managed to bounce back last year both in terms of assets under management and performance. In 2009, the Credit Suisse/Tremont hedge fund index recorded annual performance of 18.57 per cent compared to a loss of 19.07 per cent the previous year, largely as a result of the financial crisis. [...]
Covered warrants help you play the election April 7, 2010 IF there is one thing that markets hate, it is uncertainty. With some polls pointing to a hung parliament after the election, many traders are tempted to take their money off the table until it is clear who is in charge of the British economy. If that means waiting until a second election – a [...]
LISTED PRODUCT NEWS April 7, 2010 INVESTING IN THE EAST Societe Generale launched 51 new covered warrants at the start of this month. Now investors can trade call and put warrants on Hong Kong’s stock index the Hang Seng, the Nasdaq 100 and Japan’s Nikkei 225 index. The Hang Seng has been fairly volatile this year and remains below the recent [...]
THE TIPSTER April 7, 2010 THE weekly US inventory data may have shown a surprise build up in oil stocks, but with global demand set to keep ticking higher as the recovery gains pace then yesterday’s dip back to the $86 per barrel mark is likely to be nothing more than a short-term blip. Oil at $100 could be around [...]
INVESTORS’ GLOSSARY April 7, 2010 HAIRCUT Rather than something you might get done at the hairdressers, this type of haircut applies to collateralised agreements in the financial markets. In a lending agreement, the lender may subtract a certain percentage from the value of the assets that are being put up as a collateral to reflect the risk associated with holding [...]
Parties clash over jobs tax April 7, 2010 GORDON Brown was mauled over his plans to hike National Insurance yesterday, as the “tax on jobs” dominated the second day of the general election campaign. David Cameron used the last session of Prime Minister’s Questions to hit out at Brown, who earlier said the Tories had “deceived” business leaders into supporting their plan to [...]
