Wall Street stays flat ahead of vote October 11, 2011 US stocks were little changed yesterday, with major indices seesawing between gains and losses before a key vote by Slovakia on expanding the Eurozone rescue fund. The back-and-forth moves on Wall Street follow several days of sharp gains. The S&P 500 has risen 8.7 per cent over the past five days, its biggest five-day move [...]
America’s solar scandal is a warning: Bankrupt climate policies boost tax, not jobs October 11, 2011 IN SEPTEMBER 2009, the United States Department of Energy gave a $530m (£339m) loan guarantee to the solar company Solyndra. President Barack Obama said at the plant: “It’s here that companies like Solyndra are leading the way, towards a brighter and more prosperous future.” In September 2011, the company collapsed, the jobs which the Vice [...]
Cameron’s own cabinet doesn’t meet his target October 11, 2011 DAVID Cameron has written personally to the chairmen of many of our largest companies, admonishing those who have failed to set out plans for how they will appoint female directors to a quarter of all board seats by 2015. He will be hosting a meeting in Downing Street this evening with Lord Davies to trumpet [...]
Subsidising the fat is no way to slim the UK October 11, 2011 DAVID Cameron is worried about how much fat people are costing his government. “Look at America, how bad things have got there” he implored a Five News reporter only last week. “What happens if we don’t do anything? Yes, that should be a wake-up call.” What he thinks we should do – or, at least, [...]
RAPID RESPONSES October 11, 2011 Losses for lenders Andrew Lilico’s plan for passing bank losses to lenders, as laid out in The Forum yesterday [This economist believes we shouldn’t bail out the banks: Let their lenders pay instead], makes complete sense and lots of people would agree. But where can we vote for this, where can we demonstrate, where can [...]
Looking at both sides of the Eurozone debate October 11, 2011 AS the Eurozone crisis rumbles on, it is easy for traders to get caught out by the news headlines. But too much pessimism can blind you to short term opportunities. Yes, there are weekly crisis talks from European leaders, banks being nationalised, recapitalisations and bailouts. And when those aren’t quite enough, a ratings agency decides [...]
CHINA IS KEY TO A FURTHER RALLY IN RISK October 11, 2011 AS global markets stabilised last week in the wake of better than expected US employment data, the bulls breathed a sigh of relief that the broad sell-off in risk assets may be finally over. Last week’s better than expected economic data may have quelled concerns that the world is headed for a double dip recession, [...]
THE TIPSTER October 11, 2011 THE Aussie dollar has scrimmaged its way back to parity in the last week as the US dollar rally receded and risk appetite picked up again. Once again though, it is finding it hard to get over the line and yesterday almost fell back to $0.990. Look for the $1.000 level to hold as firm [...]
FOREX ANALYST PICKS October 11, 2011 FOREX STRATEGIST JOHN KICKLIGHTER My pick: Short euro-sterling and Canadian dollar. Long sterling-dollar. Expertise: Fundamental analysis with risk management Average time frame of trades: 1 day to 1 week With France and Germany promising a “no holds barred” solution to Europe’s deepening crisis, my euro-dollar short is under extraordinary pressure. So while we haven’t closed [...]
A sound pound is nowhere to be found October 11, 2011 ALPARI JAMES HUGHES The pound has come back into focus at the start of the week after last week’s surprise announcement of further asset purchases by the Bank of England. Monday’s fall in sterling was in part due to MPC policymakers suggesting that the extra £75bn of QE announced last week could well be the [...]
