Festive cheer gives Wall Street a boost December 20, 2011 US stocks rallied nearly three per cent yesterday as investors bought surging banks, homebuilders and networking companies, though low volume was seen as amplifying the market’s move. Investors jumped on a banking sector that was already riding high, extending gains after the US Federal Reserve released new capital proposals that turned out to be less [...]
German data and Spain auction lift FTSE December 20, 2011 BRITAIN’S top share index hit a one-week closing high yesterday, after a drop in Spain’s borrowing costs and encouraging data from Germany overshadowed fears over Europe’s debt crisis. Short-term financing costs for Spain more than halved as banks lapped up debt at an auction, with much of the purchasing power said to have come from [...]
This Christmas, let’s all lift a glass to mark the birth of Homo sapiens urbanus December 20, 2011 MORE than half the world’s population now lives in cities. And with 1m people every week migrating to emerging cities, all developing regions, including Africa, are expected to have more people living in urban than rural areas by 2030. Across the planet, Homo sapiens will have become Homo sapiens urbanus. In this, the largest migration [...]
Plan to ringfence banks will leave us all in the dark December 20, 2011 THE government has announced it will implement the recommendations of the Independent Commission on Banking (ICB). The two headline proposals are to “ring fence” the retail banking parts of universal banks from their supposedly riskier investment banking parts, and to roughly double banks’ regulatory minimum equity ratios. Many bankers are complaining. They claim the ICB [...]
RAPID RESPONSES December 20, 2011 Europe’s agenda Roland Rudd is a respected enthusiast for the European project [The City of London needs a Europe strategy that does not lead to it being sidelined, Monday]. But he is mistaken in our relationship with Europe and it is time for fundamental review. Rudd highlights Margaret Thatcher’s acceptance of qualified majority voting, driven [...]
Krona and krone won’t be safe-haven kings December 20, 2011 ALONG with Apple’s shares plummeting 50 per cent in value, Australia’s looming recession and wheat doubling in price, in its self-styled outrageous predictions for 2012, Saxo Bank speculates that Sweden and Norway could replace Switzerland as the safe haven currencies of choice. But could Sweden’s krona or Norway’s krone really become the security blankets for [...]
THE POUND IS ABOUT TO HIT TURBULENCE December 20, 2011 THIS year, trade in sterling has been relatively subdued. With market attention focused on the euro, UK credit markets escaped scrutiny. This lack of limelight helped cable to maintain relative strength throughout the year. Some traders even argued that the pound deserved to be viewed as a safe-haven currency given the country’s independent monetary policy. [...]
FOREX ANALYST PICKS December 20, 2011 FOREX STRATEGIST JOEL KRUGER My pick: Long euro-yen at ¥101.70 Expertise: Technical analysis Average time frame of trades: Multiweek Euro-yen is trading near multi-year lows and just off the psychological barrier of ¥100.00. The recent failure to break below this and a subsequent minor bounce suggests we could be seeing the formation of a material [...]
THE TIPSTER ECONOMIC FUTURE MIGHT REIN IN KRONA PRESENTLY December 20, 2011 THERE’s no shortage of debate as to where Santa Claus actually lives – but deep forests, plenty of snow, an abundance of reindeer and an economy that has in recent years seemed to be tinted with magic certainly makes a compelling case for Sweden. With its resource based economy, it’s perhaps no surprise that the [...]
Preparing for flawless execution: BT takes on the Olympic challenge December 20, 2011 COUNTDOWN TO THE LONDON 2012 OLYMPIC GAMES 219 DAYS TO GO Gavin Patterson, BT Retail chief executive, explains why his firm is the communication partner at the Games Q. WHAT WAS YOUR BRAND’S PRIMARY REASON FOR BEING INVOLVED WITH THE GAMES? A. We went through a rigorous exercise where we looked at what impact it [...]
