Like football, financial services is truly global July 4, 2010 THE ENGLISH team may be out of the 2010 World Cup in South Africa, but there is no question that, when it comes to finance, we are in the premier league. However we cannot ignore the fact that our rapidly developing counterparts are becoming more important on the global stage and challenging Europe’s competitiveness. That [...]
Twilight eclipses movie rivals July 4, 2010 The latest “Twilight” movie sailed past the $100m ( £65.8m) mark during its third day at the North American box office, and was forecast to approach a record-breaking $200m by the end of the US Independence Day holiday weekend, according to weekend estimates say. “The Twilight Saga: The Eclipse,” knocked “Toy Story 3” from the [...]
Obama gives $2bn for solar energy July 4, 2010 US president Barack Obama, under pressure to spur job growth, said two solar energy companies will get nearly $2bn (£1.3bn) in US loan guarantees to create as many as 5,000 green jobs. The US Energy Department offering includes $1.45bn in loan guarantees to Abengoa Solar to help it build Solona, one of the largest solar [...]
Warburg, maker of the modern City July 4, 2010 WITH a tan topped up over the weekend by a stay on a Greek island and his TV don’s hair – which looks like a tame version of Melvyn Bragg’s – a crisp white shirt, relaxed manner and a gentle Scottish accent, Niall Ferguson is without doubt a smoothy-chops. He’s also one of the best-known [...]
CITY GOES RURAL IN A PASSION FOR SPEED July 4, 2010 CITY petrol-heads were out in force over the weekend, among 175,000 visitors to the Goodwood Festival of Speed at Goodwood House outside Chichester. Among the business visitors to the F1 racing event were Arnauld Bamberger of Cartier, Audi’s Peter Duffy, BlackRock’s James Charrington, and Alfa Romeo/Fiat Group’s Richard Gadeselli. They turned out to watch top [...]
BILL OF THE WEEK July 4, 2010 THAT 4 July feeling clearly caught on in London last week as a gaggle of hungry City boys went to town this week at the diner-style Blues Kitchen in Camden. To start, they ploughed their way through piles of crispy onion rings and ribs washed down with creamy passion fruit and peanut-butter chocolate milkshakes. For [...]
Markets nervy over US results and MPC meeting July 4, 2010 A disappointing close on US markets on Friday and low volume from the Independence Day holiday which closes many US markets today is leaving the door open for renewed selling on UK and European markets this morning. GFT is calling the FTSE 100 to open down 12 points at 4,826. The German DAX 40 is [...]
US MARKETS July 4, 2010 US MARKETS closed before the Independence Day holiday on the brink of a bear market after their seventh straight losing session, and the worst week for two months. The S&P 500 lost 4.8 points to 1,022.6 on Friday to finish down 5 per cent for the week, leaving it 16 per cent below April highs [...]
Uncertainty to keep US and UK bond yields at their low levels July 4, 2010 SINCE the start of April, yields on US, UK and German government bonds have only been going one way and that’s down. Surprising as it might seem, they are all perceived to be relative safe havens as fears of a double-dip recession escalate and the Eurozone debt turmoil appears to rumble on. On Friday, a [...]
THE TIPSTER July 4, 2010 GOLD took a spectacular tumble at the end of last week, falling to as low as $1,196 at one point on Thursday. There were rumours that the fall was caused by some funds liquidating long gold positions to fund margin calls in other products such as equities; and the dollar took a hammering. The $1,196 [...]
