BEST OF THE BROKERS January 18, 2011 GREENCORE RBS rates the Irish convenience foods producer “buy” with a target price of €1.50. The broker believes Greencore enjoyed solid trading over Christmas, though it expects raw material cost inflation to continue to dampen profits. RBS believes its short-term price is likely to be driven by its proposed merger with Northern Foods. PRUDENTIAL Nomura [...]
Families need to talk about long term care January 18, 2011 A THIRD of Britons aged over 55 who own their homes expect that they will have to sell their property to meet the costs of long term care for themselves or their partner. That figure comes from new research, commissioned by the wealth management team at solicitors Dickinson Dees. The YouGov survey also finds that [...]
Banks propel FTSE upwards to end three-day losing streak January 18, 2011 BANKS and commodity stocks helped Britain’s top share index break a three-day losing streak yesterday, as upbeat corporate results from Burberry, SAB Miller and Rio Tinto lifted investor sentiment. The FTSE 100 index closed up 70.73 points, or 1.2 per cent, at 6,056.43, eradicating losses sustained over the previous three trading days. Banks were among [...]
US stocks climb on hiked price targets January 18, 2011 US stocks gained yesterday, overcoming weak Citigroup results and concerns circling Apple after Chief Executive Steve Jobs’ medical leave. Investors focused instead on increased price targets for Google, which reports later this week, and Dow component Caterpillar, whose results are due next week. Shares of Apple slipped 2.3 per cent to $340.65 ahead of its [...]
Inflated expectations are driving up sterling January 18, 2011 INFLATION is the curious way in which, over time, the same amount of money buys progressively less stuff. So it was strange to see yesterday that, as a result of higher than expected inflation in Britain, the value of sterling hit its highest level in two months. Against the dollar, the pound rose by about [...]
POLITICIANS ARE DRIVING EURO-DOLLAR January 18, 2011 DIRECTOR OF CURRENCY RESEARCH, GFT THE euro/dollar found itself on a decidedly more shaky ground at the start of this week’s trade after Germany’s Finance Minister stated that the EU’s largest and most important economy had no intention of adding more capital to the EFSF fund. Wolfgang Schauble told German media he does not support [...]
Aussie’s upstream adventures could be over for now January 18, 2011 AUSSIE traders might feel a little like the 19-year-old Australian (pictured right) who tried to use a blow up doll to work his way through the floodwaters last week. It wasn’t so long ago that the Aussie dollar looked certain to be travelling upstream; the Reserve Bank of Australia was sure to raise rates. But [...]
THE TIPSTER January 18, 2011 THE sovereign debt woes that were strangling the euro last week may have been diminished after the successful bond issues, and further upside has been delivered from agreement amongst finance ministers to increase the size of the bailout fund. However both the psychological level of $1.3500 and the fact that further draws on the stability [...]
FOREX ANALYST PICKS January 18, 2011 FOREX STRATEGIST JOEL KRUGER My pick: Buy US dollar-Canadian dollar at Ca$0.9800 Expertise: Technical analysis Average time frame of trades: 1 to 6 weeks The market has been under some intense pressure and, after managing to match the lows of last April on the final day of the year, has now extended declines to fresh [...]
Electric cars get their city socks on January 18, 2011 THIS year will belong to zero emission cars, particularly the electric vehicle. A bunch of small city cars are coming to market with nine of them officially recognised by the government’s incentive grant scheme. And with city populations increasing, even the most cynical of car drivers must at least concede that this could be a [...]