Add corporate bonds to your ISA for income March 17, 2010 WHEN the Bank of England introduced its £200bn emergency quantitative easing (QE) programme last year, the expectation in the markets was that benchmark 10-year gilt yields would fall as the Bank soaked up the billions of pounds worth of debt that the government was issuing. In fact, yields are today much where they were a [...]
GLIMMERS OF HOPE WITHIN THE UK’S SLUGGISH RECOVERY March 17, 2010 IT seems that every week the UK economy clocks up more evidence of its disappointing recovery from the recession. The spectre of a hung parliament and a mountainous fiscal deficit is only adding to the image of the UK as the sick man of Europe. And the UK does indeed look sick. It can’t even [...]
LISTED PRODUCT NEWS March 17, 2010 BASIC RESOURCES ETF OUTPERFORM Basic resource-related ETFs issued by ETF Securities saw fantastic performance last week as investors regained their appetite for risk. The ETFX Dow Jones STOXX 600 Basic Resources Fund rose by over 9 per cent last week and the ETF is up 130.9 per cent on this time last year. The ETFX [...]
Placing of shares makes G4S look less secure as markets enjoy a strong day March 17, 2010 SHARES in security services group G4S were the biggest fallers in the leading index for the second day running, even as the market closed near a 21 month high on renewed economic optimism and a spate of takeover news. Hot on the heels of a disappointing 2010 forecast, G4S was hit by news of the [...]
NYSE trading light before quadruple witching hour March 17, 2010 US stocks gained yesterday, pushing the Dow to a 17-month high, after a benign February inflation reading supported the Federal Reserve’s renewed pledge of low interest rates. The market reacted positively to a drop in the February Producer Price Index, further supporting the near-zero interest rates that have propelled the rally in equities. On Tuesday, [...]
City: cut deficit sooner not later March 17, 2010 THE NEXT government should start cutting public spending later this year, rather than waiting until 2011, according to our panel of City and business professionals. Seventy-seven per cent of panelists said spending should start to be cut shortly after the May general election, amid worries over the UK’s yawning £178bn budget deficit and exploding national [...]
Four banks in Italian fraud trial March 17, 2010 DEUTSCHE Bank, JP Morgan Chase, UBS and Germany’s Depfa Bank have been called to stand trial in Italy over a complex derivatives deal with Milan which was designed to reduce interest payments on a €1.68bn (£1.5bn) bond issued by the city. The outcome of the trial will prove crucial in determining whether the flood gates [...]
Bernanke: do not rein in Fed March 17, 2010 THE US Federal Reserve should keep its powers to regulate banks of all sizes, chairman Ben Bernanke insisted yesterday. Fighting back against proposals that could see the central bank stripped of most of its supervisory powers, Bernanke argued the Fed’s duties to set interest rates and regulate lenders were closely connected. He told the House [...]
Memo to government: cut spending March 17, 2010 CUT spending as soon as the election is over: that is the resounding message from the City A.M./PHI panel, our unique gauge of opinion among London’s City, financial and business community. The news is good for the Tories – unlike the results of our last survey, which found that our panel favoured Ken Clarke against [...]
Chambers to leave LGIM March 17, 2010 THE chief executive of Legal & General Investment Management, the institutional giant which owns five per cent of the UK stockmarket, is to step down in September after nearly five years at the helm. Peter Chambers, 52, said he would spend a quiet summer with his family before leaving in the autumn. A successor has yet to [...]
