BP gulf spill triggers new row September 8, 2010 BP admitted it made several mistakes that led to the Gulf of Mexico oil spill yesterday, but tried to deflect some blame to rig operator Transocean and contractor Halliburton in the first detailed report into the cause of the disaster. BP claimed in the report that “a sequence of failures involving a number of different [...]
AT A GLANCE | BP’S COUNTDOWN TO THE GULF OIL SPILL September 8, 2010 Weak cement work The day before the accident, cement was pumped down a pipe in the well, which squeezed back up the space between the pipe and the rock layers, known as the annulus. That “light, nitrified foam cement slurry” failed to block oil and gas from moving up into the annulus. Cement design, testing, [...]
A rare good news story about UK Plc September 8, 2010 FOR a country supposedly poised for a double-dip recession, we are doing surprisingly well. Take the factory figures released yesterday: manufacturing output rose strongly in July and is now up by 4.9 per cent over the past year, the fastest growth since 1994. The recovery in manufacturing is mainly reflecting higher demand for capital goods [...]
PM’s father dies in France September 8, 2010 Prime Minister David Cameron’s father has died after falling ill during a holiday in southern France. Conservative leader Cameron had flown to his 77-year-old father Ian’s hospital bedside earlier after the former stockbroker suffered a stroke and heart problems. The Prime Minister, who rushed to Toulon after being alerted by his mother, will remain in [...]
US Beige Book shows growth rate is slowing September 8, 2010 THE US Federal Reserve released its snapshot of the economy yesterday, which showed “widespread signs” of slowing in recent weeks. The Fed said in its Beige Book survey of businesses that three of the 12 districts questioned said economic growth was mixed or slow. Seven districts away from the east cost reported modest growth between [...]
WHAT THE OTHER PAPERS SAY THIS MORNING September 8, 2010 FINANCIAL TIMES PROPOSAL FOR GRADUATE HIGH-FLIERS TO PAY EDUCATION PREMIUM Government officials are considering a plan to make graduates who become big earners pay a premium for their education as the coalition seeks ways to find extra money for universities. The novel policy proposal reflects a desire by Conservative coalition members to appease Liberal Democrat [...]
FSA set to hit Goldman with a £20m fine September 8, 2010 WALL Street titan Goldman Sachs has been fined £20m by the Financial Services Authority (FSA) for failing to disclose it was under a fraud investigation by its US counterpart. The fine, expected to be announced this morning, concludes a five-month long probe by the City watchdog launched after the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) [...]
Hedge funds lost out in August after stocks fell September 8, 2010 MOST hedge funds lost money in August as some of the industry’s best-known names were caught out by dips in the stock market. The average fund lost 0.55 per cent last month after gaining 1.9 per cent in July, according to data released yesterday by New York consulting firm Hennessee Group. Hedge funds lost 1.29 [...]
Lloyds offloads Crest Nicholson stake to Varde September 8, 2010 LLOYDS Banking Group confirmed last night it has agreed to sell its interest in bank-owned housebuilder Crest Nicholson to US investment fund Varde. Lloyd’s has held around a quarter of Crest’s debt and 30 per cent of its equity since January 2009 when it took part in a debt-for-equity swap. The construction firm remains around [...]
Volatility can add to an ETF’s tracking error September 8, 2010 GIVEN that investors’ prime reason for buying exchange-traded funds (ETF) is to gain exposure to indices, in an ideal world the performance of an ETF ought to reflect movements in the benchmark index as closely as possible. Unfortunately, ETFs do suffer from tracking error, which is defined as a divergence between the performance of the [...]
