SUGAR HITS NEW 30-YEAR PEAK November 2, 2010 SUGAR is trading at its highest level for three decades, raising fears about global food price inflation. The soft commodity yesterday surpassed the 29-year high it hit in February this year, on concern about low crop yields in Brazil and restricted exports from India. Raw sugar futures topped 30.6 cents per pound yesterday before settling [...]
Airlines trade group wary of quick changes November 2, 2010 GOVERNMENTS should not rush to implement new security measures after bombs were found on UPS planes last week, says the head of the International Air Transport Association (Iata), the airlines trade group. Speaking at a security conference in Frankfurt, Iata’s head Giovanni Bisignani said: “Effective solutions are not developed unilaterally or in haste.” He insisted [...]
MasterCard sees quarterly profits jump November 2, 2010 MASTERCARD announced third quarter net profit of $518m (£323m) yesterday, up 14.6 per cent on a year earlier as a result of increased global card activity. It said net revenue for the third quarter was $1.4bn, a 4.7 per cent increase on last year. Meanwhile gross dollar volume, or spending on MasterCard branded cards, grew [...]
BEST OF THE BROKERS November 2, 2010 MEARS Altium rates the housing repair firm a “hold” with a target price of 270p. The broker has downgraded its 2010 pre-tax profit forecasts by £0.6m, or two per cent, due to costs linked to small contract wins in the wake of Connaught’s collapse. The firm’s social housing pipeline has slipped slightly to £2.8bn, however, [...]
Australia looks fantastic. Time to get out then November 2, 2010 IN AUSTRALIA, it is summer in more ways than one. The Fed might be gearing up the printing presses again for winter, but down under the economy is actually booming. In a move unseen anywhere else in the developed world, the Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA) decided on Monday night to increase interest rates by [...]
THE TIPSTER November 2, 2010 UK CONSTRUCTION data came in weaker than expected on Tuesday and the recent sterling-euro strength was reversed. Considering that the bulk of the GDP number was heavily dependent on construction figures, analysts fear that the next release of GDP data may come in weaker. If this is the case sterling-euro could face further weakness. Capital [...]
FOREX ANALYST PICKS November 2, 2010 FOREX STRATEGIST JOEL KRUGER My pick: Buy dollar-yen at ¥79.50 Expertise: Classic technical analysis Average time frame of trades: 1 month-12 months This market has been under intense pressure for several months, with the price dropping to fresh multi-year lows and now quickly closing in on a retest of the 1995 record lows by ¥79.75. [...]
US equities will regain their appeal November 2, 2010 MARKETS have certainly been focused on the United States in recent months in anticipation of further quantitative easing from the Federal Reserve and in the run-up to yesterday’s mid-terms. But despite their interest in events in the US, investors have not been putting money into US equities. According to data from the Investment Management Association [...]
FUND MANAGEMENT NEWS November 2, 2010 RENAISSANCE UNVEILS THREE NEW UCITS FUNDS Renaissance Asset Managers, the emerging and frontier markets investment firm, launched three new Ucits funds offering international institutions exposure to fast growing emerging market asset classes. The Emerging Europe Long Short Equity and Emerging Europe Equity Fund were launched last week while it is anticpated that the Russia Debt [...]
Regulatory revamp must not erode UK’s good reputation November 2, 2010 AT the CBI last week the business secretary Vince Cable fleshed out some earlier comments made by David Cameron on the future direction of competition policy in the UK. The merger of the OFT and the Competition Commission has already been floated, but in his speech the business secretary raised three more specific issues: an [...]
