THE TIPSTER April 7, 2010 THE weekly US inventory data may have shown a surprise build up in oil stocks, but with global demand set to keep ticking higher as the recovery gains pace then yesterday’s dip back to the $86 per barrel mark is likely to be nothing more than a short-term blip. Oil at $100 could be around [...]
INVESTORS’ GLOSSARY April 7, 2010 HAIRCUT Rather than something you might get done at the hairdressers, this type of haircut applies to collateralised agreements in the financial markets. In a lending agreement, the lender may subtract a certain percentage from the value of the assets that are being put up as a collateral to reflect the risk associated with holding [...]
Parties clash over jobs tax April 7, 2010 GORDON Brown was mauled over his plans to hike National Insurance yesterday, as the “tax on jobs” dominated the second day of the general election campaign. David Cameron used the last session of Prime Minister’s Questions to hit out at Brown, who earlier said the Tories had “deceived” business leaders into supporting their plan to [...]
Greenspan defends record April 7, 2010 FORMER Federal Reserve chairman Alan Greenspan came under fire for failing to take measures to prevent the financial crisis yesterday, but defended himself by arguing banks – not regulators – were to blame. In a heated appearance at the Financial Crisis Inquiry Commission in Washington, Greenspan insisted reckless mortgage lending and the securitisation of home [...]
Rambourg not probed by SEC April 7, 2010 GARTMORE management has written to intermediaries stressing that Guillaume Rambourg, the trader who is embroiled in a number of investigations, is not part of a US probe into the fund manager’s business. The letter, written by UK head of retail Richard Pursglove, said that the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) investigation did not involve [...]
WHAT THE OTHER PAPERS SAY THIS MORNING April 7, 2010 FINANCIAL TIMES ITALY NEEDS DEEP REFORM, SAYS INDUSTRY Italy’s centre-right government must take advantage of a three-year period without elections – a relative rarity for a country often at the polls – to steer through radical reform or face long-term decline and falling competitiveness, the head of the employers’ federation has warned. Confindustria said economic [...]
Stronger growth won’t save Labour April 7, 2010 IT beggars belief that the government is continuing to fight for higher national insurance contributions. Contrary to what their name suggests, these are merely another form of income tax (albeit of a stealth kind which allows the state to pretend that direct taxes are much lower than they really are); the money raised is thrown [...]
Citi tells how it lost $50bn April 7, 2010 CITIGROUP took advice from outside consultants on moves that led it to lose $50bn (32.8bn) on complex debt securities, a former executive told the Financial Crisis Inquiry Commission yesterday. Thomas Maheras, a former co-head of Citi’s capital markets team, said the bank decided to up its exposure to certain parts of the fixed income universe [...]
Morrisons man’s £6.1m welcome April 7, 2010 Wm Morrison, the supermarket chain, will give incoming chief executive Dalton Philips a “golden hello” worth £6.1m. Philips, who joined from Canadian retailer Loblaw at the end of last month, has been handed a £2.2m target-linked share incentive plan along with £950,000 to compensate him for awards he would have received in his last job, [...]
M&S bonus spree for shop staff April 7, 2010 Marks & Spencer is to resume bonus payments to around 77,000 workers after sales continued to improve in the first three months of the year. Shop staff will receive between £500 and £1,000 each as analysts expect M&S to deliver a 1.7 per cent rise in earnings for the 13 weeks to 27 March. The [...]
