European markets rise on Greek talks February 20, 2012 EUROPEAN shares closed at a near seven-month high yesterday as Eurozone finance ministers edged closer to a long-awaited agreement on a rescue package for Greece. The pan-European FTSEurofirst 300 index of top shares rose 0.7 per cent to 1,090.95 points. Volume was low, at 69.5 per cent of the 90-day average, with Wall Street closed [...]
China’s monetary easing puts FTSE close to the 6,000 level February 20, 2012 A SURPRISE easing in China’s monetary policy drove Britain’s FTSE 100 within striking distance of a seven and a half month closing high as miners rallied on the prospect of revived demand from the world’s most voracious consumer of raw materials. Miners were the top gainers as London’s blue chip index climbed 40.18 points, or [...]
Is the NHS reform bill a cure for Britain’s healthcare ills? February 20, 2012 YES DAVID SKELTON ANY changes to the NHS are always going to provoke controversy. But in a healthcare landscape characterised by changing health needs, rapid technological innovation and rising patient expectations, reform is vital if the NHS is to meet the challenges of the coming decades. That is one of the reasons that these proposals [...]
Keeping zombie companies alive is a scary policy February 20, 2012 COMPANY insolvencies are a sign of a healthy economy and preventing companies from failing stifles the innovation this country needs to grow. Insolvencies, together with mergers and acquisitions, new company registrations, recruitment, and redundancies are, strange though it may seem to some, a sign of a healthy economy. Analysis of the number of new companies [...]
A new way to explain how much they spend February 20, 2012 SOME readers may be familiar with recent attempts to make US government spending plans easier to grasp by converting them to a representative family budget. Having recently returned from a weekend teaching in Croatia, I want to use it as a European example, hopefully shorn of the partisan emotions that can arise when discussing the [...]
RAPID RESPONSES February 20, 2012 Water pipedream [Re: Time to invest in infrastructure we actually need, yesterday] In 2006, the Institution of Civil Engineers (ICE) studied the potential to transfer water using the established river network. At the time this was mistaken in media reports as recommending a national water grid but that was not what ICE proposed. ICE concluded, [...]
Oil’s recent surge may sink in sands February 20, 2012 TRADERS looking at the recent actions of the theocracy of Iran – which confirmed its ban on the sale of crude oil to the UK and France on Sunday – might be forgiven for assuming that the escalating tensions between it and the West are going to be the biggest factor impacting the price of [...]
NEAR-TERM EURO-DOLLAR RISKS MAY LIE TO UPSIDE February 20, 2012 FX 360 Despite every possible effort by the shorts, euro-dollar refuses to go down. Over the past four weeks the pair has traded in a narrow $1.3000-$1.3300 range, rebounding every time it has broached the key $1.3000 level. One reason for this remarkable resilience is the persistent skew in positioning. After a few weeks of [...]
THE TIPSTER TRADERS HOPING TO BOOK SUITE OF PROFITS February 20, 2012 RESULTS last week from Intercontinental Hotels pointed to a resurgence in bookings outside of the beleaguered Eurozone, so investors in Millenium & Copthorne will be hoping that the company can replicate its larger peer’s success in areas such as China and the US. The operations in these areas should benefit from continuing economic growth, so [...]
Why not to position for a gold crash February 20, 2012 GOLD has traded in a channel for the last month, but despite this, it remains at a price nigh on unimaginable 18 months ago. “Although the last month has been a quiet one for the price of gold, the metal is still up by around 10 per cent for the year and is still almost [...]
