Banks and miners hit by Greek jitters January 30, 2012 WEAKNESS in banks and commodity stocks dragged Britain’s leading share index lower yesterday as the protracted search for a Greek bond deal and concerns about economic growth kept investors nervous. The FTSE 100 index closed down 62.36 points, or 1.1 per cent, at 5,671.09, extending Friday’s falls and retreating further from Thursday’s six-month closing high. [...]
US stocks falter on worries over euro January 30, 2012 US stocks edged lower yesterday on stalled Greek debt talks, but an afternoon rally cut losses in a sign of the underlying resilience the market has shown early in the year. Major indexes had fallen more than one per cent as negotiations between the Greek government and private bondholders over the restructuring of €200bn of [...]
Devastating pensions crisis requires companies to take a more inventive approach January 30, 2012 DEFINED benefit (DB) pension schemes are rarely out of the news these days – the latest headlines being from Shell, which has become the last of Britain’s biggest companies to scrap its final salary scheme for new entrants. And while the death of DB – which has been predicted from as far back as 2004, [...]
UK tech sector is positioned for a global challenge January 30, 2012 BY THE end of this year, the US technology company Apple could see its cash reserves outstrip those of the US government. While the UK hasn’t yet produced an equivalent, there are signs that technology might be the key sector in Britain’s future. Last year, the sector outperformed the broader equity markets, with investors being [...]
The line’s fine between credit booms and busts January 30, 2012 THE Bank of England’s current monetary policy rule is inflation targeting – they use the tool of interest rates (and more recently quantitative easing) to target a particular level of consumer price inflation (2 per cent). This is common practice among contemporary central banks, but the continued lack of recovery has meant that people are [...]
RAPID RESPONSES January 30, 2012 Generally agree Nice timing in the article by Sir Rob Fry (This former general says the real essence of strategy has been forgotten by business, yesterday) on the decline of strategy as a leadership competency – the Institute of Leadership and Management has been having just this debate recently. As an inveterate strategist, I share [...]
Technological change drives better trading January 30, 2012 THE latest foray in the ongoing battle of technology that has griped retail trading since the invention of the internet comes from IG Index. As part of its shiny new Insight portal, it is releasing details of its clients’ net positions (see right for an example of the information now available). More information and collaboration [...]
THE EURO IS VULNERABLE TO A SELL-OFF DURING THE WEEK January 30, 2012 SINCE the start of the year the euro has surprised many market participants by staging a vicious short covering rally that has added more than 500 points to the pair over the past two weeks. There were three key reasons for the euro’s recent strength. First and foremost, the Eurozone credit markets have become markedly [...]
THE TIPSTER OMAHA’S ORACLE FEASTS AT THE BARGAIN BUFFET January 30, 2012 THE shares of Tesco plunged in mid-January after the retail giant announced an unexpected fall in Christmas sales. The sell-off took the price down through support at 350p and also broke the long-term up-trend. News that Warren Buffett increased his holding to 5 per cent from 3.2 per cent helped to lift the shares, but [...]
Analyst picks for 31 January 2012 January 30, 2012 STRATEGIST JOHN KICKLIGHTER My pick: Short S&P 500 below 1,300 Expertise: Fundamental and technical analysis with risk management Average time frame of trades: 1 day to 1 week We have kept the capital markets afloat for months on the expectation that policy officials are willing to feed moral hazard and inject stimulus whenever investors are [...]
