Best of the Brokers for 13 August 2013 August 12, 2013 To appear in Best of the Brokers, email your research to notes@cityam.com CAPITA Citigroup has cut the outsourcing group from “buy” to “neutral” and raised its target from 990p to 1,075p. After a strong run for the stock since the start of the year, the broker no longer sees a chance for a big re-rating, [...]
London Report: FTSE 100 takes breather during corporate lull August 12, 2013 THE FTSE 100 ended down 9.1 points yesterday, or 0.1 per cent, at 6,574.34 points, with technical sellers dragging down the index after it failed to break 6,600, a level that has capped its value since last week. A new failure to break this resistance was seen as a sign of waning appetite for FTSE [...]
New York Report: BlackBerry and Apple keep US stocks sweet August 12, 2013 THE DOW and the S&P 500 indexes dipped slightly yesterday, extending losses from Wall Street’s worst week since June last week, but Apple and BlackBerry kept the Nasdaq index afloat. Trading volume was light, marking one of the five days this year with fewer than 5bn shares traded over a full session. Many traders are [...]
Don’t blame immigration policy for the problems in our labour market August 12, 2013 TWO years ago, as the recovery stalled, a number of commentators suggested that the main problem with the UK economy was too much “red tape” preventing employers creating jobs. In response, the government commissioned a report from Adrian Beecroft on labour market regulation. It was deservedly mocked for ignoring the evidence – and, in particular, [...]
The Bank’s low interest rates will block our path to sustainable recovery August 12, 2013 THE Bank of England wants to secure sustainable growth and reduce unemployment by promising to keep rates near zero for three more years. Its new “forward guidance” commits to maintain rates at current emergency levels, even in the face of economic growth and above-target inflation. The success of this strategy depends on encouraging more lending [...]
Why we must not write off coal’s potential to solve our energy crisis August 12, 2013 THE DEBATE over Britain’s abundant shale gas reserves is welcome. It reflects an acknowledgement, at last, by policymakers that energy security and costs are at the top of voters’ priorities, and need to be urgently tackled. The hype about shale gas’s incredible potential is sweeping all before it, but policymakers must not overlook coal – [...]
Letters to the editor – 13/08 – Board quotas, Forward guidance, Best of Twitter August 12, 2013 Board quotas [Re: We must be more meritocratic – but quotas are not the answer, yesterday] The quota plans come at a time when there is an existing organic trend towards greater workplace equality. More females apply to university than males, and 60 per cent of law and medicine students are women. Figures from the [...]
CNBC Comment: A property bubble propelled by fear August 12, 2013 HOW many UK seaside resorts claim to be “Chelsea-on-Sea”? There are at least a dozen in Cornwall and Devon alone. One of them is Salcombe – where I was holidaying last week, and which has more Chelsea 4x4s clogging up its narrow streets than SW10. This may not be relevant to you, but a [...]
DailyFX: Analyst picks August 12, 2013 CURRENCY STRATEGIST CHRIS VECCHIO My pick: Closed short Aussie dollar-dollar Expertise: Fundamental and technical analysis Average time frame of trades: A few hours to a few weeks The Reserve Bank of Australia meeting led to steeper declines, but a quicker than anticipated reversal knocked my short Aussie-dollar position for a solid (but admittedly poorly managed) [...]
Fast, sexy, cool: the Seat Leon SC August 12, 2013 Seat may not be the hippest car brand in the world, but the Leon SC provides a welcome injection of street cred BACK in 1990, When VW Group bought Spanish automaker Seat, it wanted to position it in its stable the same way Alfa Romeo sits within the Fiat Group. It has, however, struggled to [...]
