WALL ST WEEK AHEAD January 23, 2011 The much anticipated pullback is finally under way, some investors say, after a mid-week wobble. But the market is showing it still has some juice left – if earnings can meet towering expectations. This earnings season, if you’re good, you’re just OK. If you’re just OK, you’re bad. And if you’re bad, you’re quickly taken [...]
S&P 500 is on the edge of a painful correction January 23, 2011 THE SCOTTISH journalist Bertie Charles Forbes once said: “Optimism is the stuff of which American business success is fashioned”. He would have seen much to be happy about in the USA now. Though unemployment remains stubbornly high, American investors at least are seeing the bright side. The S&P 500 index of stocks has rallied by [...]
THE WEEK AHEAD January 23, 2011 COMPANY NEWS ● Electronics company Philips publishes its 2010 full year results on Monday. ● Sodexo, the food services provider, releases its first quarter 2011 results on Monday. ● Tuesday sees Ericsson report its fourth quarter 2010 results and Siemens its first quarter 2011 results. ● WH Smiths will hold its annual general meeting and issue [...]
THE TIPSTER January 23, 2011 AN INTERIM management statement is due from Sage, the software service provider, on Wednesday. Renewed confidence in the economy should bode well for the company, which has seen shares creep back to the levels it achieved before the credit crunch. Admittedly, the stock remains a long way below the all time highs of the dot-com [...]
Israel’s land of plenty January 23, 2011 “WOW,” says my (non-Jewish) friend. “Whenever you’ve banged on about how gorgeous Israeli men are, I always thought you were just being biased. But you weren’t. They are. This is madness.” Olivia and I are one-and-a-half hours off our brilliantly Israeli El Al flight – think warm bread rolls, smoked salmon, mid-aisle prayer, non-stop gossiping [...]
Boutique chic comes to Jerusalem January 23, 2011 WHO can begin to describe Jerusalem? The religious centre of the Western world and much of the East, it is Tel Aviv’s polar opposite. Tel Aviv has a beach, Jerusalem has mountains. Tel Aviv has a party atmosphere; Jerusalem has a studious one (though you can still stay out to 4AM any night of the [...]
Nintendo leaps ahead with 3DS January 23, 2011 AFTER being surrounded by the latest in 3D technology for a week at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas, the sight of two-dimensional images – a video of a puppy playing, for example, or a photograph of a friend’s newborn baby – now makes me uncontrollably and violently sick. Watching standard 2D TV is [...]
Levy: Stadium decision must be head over heart January 23, 2011 TOTTENHAM chairman Daniel Levy has urged London 2012 legacy chiefs to ignore “emotive” rhetoric and focus on facts as they prepare to decide between bids from Spurs and West Ham for the Olympic Stadium. Levy spoke out yesterday as West Ham vice-chairman Karren Brady compared Tottenham’s proposals to bulldozing 100 primary schools, and Lord Coe [...]
United rebuff talk of £2bn takeover by Qatar Holding January 23, 2011 MANCHESTER UNITED insist the club is not for sale and have denied suggestions that the Glazer family, which owns the club, has held talks with a Qatari consortium over a potential £2bn takeover. Qatar Holding, the £40bn investment company owned by the Gulf kingdom’s royal family, is thought to have had a £1.5bn offer for [...]
Lemi’s winner proves a mere consolation as Wasps are left to regret Glasgow defeat January 23, 2011 WASPS (21) vs TOULOUSE (16) WASPS director of rugby Tony Hanks admits his side have been left with a sense of ‘what could’ve been’ after they crashed out of the Heineken Cup despite a last-gasp win over reigning champions Toulouse at Adams Park. In front of a record home crowd (10,014) at the Wycombe venue [...]