FTSE retreats from 3-month high as ECB’s failure to act disappoints August 2, 2012 BRITAIN’S leading FTSE share index fell yesterday, retreating from a three-month high after the European Central Bank (ECB) failed to deliver widely expected stimulus measures to help tackle the Eurozone debt crisis. ECB president Mario Draghi said the bank would draw up a mechanism in coming weeks to make outright debt purchases to stabilise peripheral [...]
Shares drop for fourth straight day on Wall St August 2, 2012 US stocks fell for a fourth day yesterday after European Central Bank President Mario Draghi disappointed investors hoping for immediate action to contain the Eurozone debt crisis. One of Wall Street’s top market makers, Knight Capital Group, was fighting for its survival after a trading glitch that roiled markets on Wednesday wiped out $440m the [...]
INVESTMENT BANK OF THE YEAR August 2, 2012 2012 will go down as an immensely difficult year for investment banks. Profitability came down as most banks in most markets saw a fall-off in activity. Mergers & acquisition activity fell 16 per cent globally; equity capital markets business was down 31 per cent and many IPO markets were effectively closed. Facebook’s controversial IPO in [...]
TRADER OF THE YEAR August 2, 2012 TODAY’S City A.M. awards shortlist, summarises the nominations for the trader of the year award, sponsored by spread betting specialists GFT. The award is designed to seek out this year’s front runners – traders who have performed exceptionally against a backdrop of complex regulation and great volatility. Experience, discipline, performance under pressure – all these [...]
Fantasy economics: Nationalising RBS would be an epic nightmare August 2, 2012 HOW many investors would lose £26,000 on a £45,000 investment and then come back for more? That is the kind of investment strategy which only makes sense when you are gambling with someone else’s money. And apparently the government is considering playing the same game on a million times this scale. “Senior government figures” are [...]
We no longer have the vision to celebrate artists’ Olympic achievements August 2, 2012 ONE hundred years ago, the first Olympic medals were awarded for cultural achievement. In the summer of 1912 in Stockholm, exponents of architecture, literature, music, painting and sculpture were celebrated alongside the runners and the jumpers. The tradition continued for decades, with a final hurrah at the London Games of 1948, when the medallists’ work [...]
Forget G4S: The UK is hosting the safest Games ever August 2, 2012 WITH Great Britain basking in the golden hue of success in the Velodrome and beyond, you might be forgiven for forgetting that just a few weeks ago the Olympics was mired in serious safety concerns. But we have been able to rest easy, safe in the knowledge that the British armed forces have risen to [...]
Was the Bank of England correct to leave monetary policy unchanged yesterday? August 2, 2012 YES Adam Chester We believe that the decision of the Bank of England’s Monetary Policy Committee to keep interest rates on hold at 0.5 per cent was the right one. Having announced a range of measures to stimulate growth last month – including an increase in quantitative easing and the Funding for Lending Scheme – [...]
RAPID RESPONSES August 2, 2012 Many hues of Boris [Re: After calls for Boris Johnson to stand for the Tory leadership, could it happen before 2015?, yesterday] The Olympics has provided Boris with an opportunity to allow his exuberant personality to be let rip. There are even more stages to be centre of than normal, which suits the mayor’s longer-term [...]
The very finest of the Fringe August 2, 2012 Daniel Kitson reminds Steve Dinneen why he is still the comedian’s comedian COMEDY DANIEL KITSON Battersea Arts Centre **** The last time I saw Daniel Kitson was 12 years ago, at Glasgow’s The Stand comedy club, at which point he was an up-and-coming young comedian. With milk bottle bottom glasses, lank, greasy hair and a [...]
