Best of the brokers January 21, 2013 ADMIRAL GROUP Goldman Sachs yesterday upgraded Cardiff-based insurer Admiral from “neutral” to “buy”, sending the company’s share price up five per cent. The banking giant said the stock had underperformed over the last six months due to “softening premium rates and regulatory intervention” but it now presents an investment opportunity, as there is “potential for [...]
FTSE 100 soars to a 4 1/2-year high as investors take heart from the US January 21, 2013 BRITAIN’S FTSE 100 scaled fresh 4-1/2 year peaks yesterday, with signs of progress in US budget talks encouraging investors’ shift from low-yielding government bonds into higher risk, higher return equities. US Republican leaders signalled they would allow the government to raise the debt ceiling and borrow to prevent a default in the next three months [...]
Investors sell off European luxury shares January 21, 2013 EUROPEAN shares rose yesterday, climbing back towards near two-year highs, as investors bought back into relatively “undervalued” sectors such as utilities and steel as they bet Europe’s economy will improve. A sell-off in luxury stocks capped gains, however, sparked by comments from Swiss watch maker Richemont about weak sales growth in China. Its shares lost [...]
Economic perfect storm: The four trends that killed Western growth January 21, 2013 THE West lies at the confluence of four extremely dangerous long-term developments. Individually or collectively, they have already begun to reverse more than two centuries of economic expansion. The first is well-known: the creation of the worst financial bubble in history – “the great credit super-cycle”. Since the 1980s, a relentless shift to immediate consumption [...]
The eurosceptic case for renegotiating EU trade relationships with caution January 21, 2013 OECD secretary-general Angel Gurría summarised succinctly, last week, the extent to which globalisation has led to the interconnectedness of countries through trade. In a speech in Paris, he said: “A good produced in the EU and exported to the US includes components from China and Japan, using raw materials and services from Australia, Russia or [...]
US budget battle looms as leading concern at Davos January 21, 2013 IT’S that time of year again. High streets are full of bargain-hungry shoppers, Christmas decorations are back in their boxes, New Year’s resolutions are still holding, and a ski resort in Switzerland is preparing itself for an influx of global economic power-brokers. The World Economic Forum is about to descend on Davos. The Eurozone’s enduring [...]
After recent heavy snow, is the UK uniquely poor at dealing with bad weather conditions? January 21, 2013 YES Adam Marshall All businesses are impacted by severe weather. This week’s heavy snowfall, and the slow response, are no exception. The closure of schools comes first. When parents have to take time off, productivity falls, affecting local and national economies. There’s also the impact on international trade. Many businesses are inconvenienced by flight disruptions. [...]
Letters to the editor January 21, 2013 North Africa crisis [Re: Does the crisis in North Africa represent the start of a new wave of global instability, yesterday] Media portrayals of recent events in Mali and Algeria paint a picture of a high-risk continent, blighted by radical jihadists, chronic instability and incompetent governments. But Africa is far larger and more varied than Europe, [...]
Japan hopes to stimulate itself back to prosperity January 21, 2013 SINCE taking office in December, the Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe has been determined to throw everything he can at his economy to try to get it moving again. As well as a massive ¥10.3 trillion (£72bn) government stimulus package, the newly-installed Japanese government has fixed the strong yen in its sights, and has made [...]
Bank recovery is unlikely but true January 21, 2013 Chief Market Strategist, Cantor Index WHO would have thought that the banking sector would make such a spectacular recovery in 2012? And who expected it would do so in the wake of a breathtakingly toxic European sovereign debt crisis, which came to a crescendo when the European Central Bank president Mario Draghi made that immortal [...]
