Recent sell-off reason to buy oil, not short it February 8, 2010 AFTER a week where the price of crude oil futures slid to below $70 a barrel and oil giants disappointed the markets with poor earnings and weak outlooks, contracts for difference (CFDs) traders might be finding it difficult to justify going long on crude right now. The markets are still cautious – sovereign debt crises [...]
IT’S STILL TOO EARLY TO STOP THE STIMULUS February 8, 2010 WE ARE two-thirds of the way through the US fourth-quarter earnings season and 74 per cent of S&P 500 firms that have already reported have beaten analysts’ estimates. A further 9 per cent were in line while 17 per cent of companies fell short. The earnings season has not been good enough so far to [...]
Benefit from yield not price February 8, 2010 THE outlook for the FTSE 100 looks bleak. Lacklustre economic growth and the prospect of rising taxes have all helped push the index down by nearly a tenth since the start of the year. With massive profits unlikely to come from stocks themselves, investors should be looking for good dividend yields. Despite the gloomy outlook, [...]
CFD ANALYST PICKS February 8, 2010 TECHNICAL STRATEGIST JOEL KRUGER My pick: Buy oil at $68 Expertise: Technical analysis Average time frame of trades: 5-10 days Explanation: The oil price has more or less been trading in a choppy consolidation over the past several months, without moving too far in any one direction. While we still see room for additional falls [...]
Rallying miners offset weaker finance firms to help the FTSE 100 edge up February 8, 2010 BRITAIN’S top share index closed 0.6 per cent higher yesterday, as gains in rebounding miners and strength in defensive issues more than offset weaker financials, which were weighed by ongoing eurozone debt issues. The FTSE 100 rose 31.41 points at 5,092.33 in choppy trade. The index fell 2.5 per cent last week, its fourth straight [...]
Eurozone debt concerns push Dow below 10,000 February 8, 2010 THE Dow industrials closed below 10,000 for the first time since November yesterday as investors sold bank shares due to heightened concerns about the eurozone’s sovereign debt troubles. Bank of America shares lost more than three per cent, while JPMorgan slipped 1.6 per cent, and Citigroup shed 2.2 per cent. The S&P financial index dropped [...]
Why City folk are finally taking charge of their teeth February 8, 2010 AS a 16-year-old, braces seemed preposterous enough. If I didn’t have shame about my smile before, I certainly did when sporting train-tracks of metal, elastics flashing with every word I spoke. As for adult braces – well, it was commonly accepted that only youth could carry off the indignity of the oral railroad. The few [...]
VEXED IN THE CITY SOLVING YOUR RECESSION PROBLEMS VEXED IN THE CITY SOLVING YOUR RECESSION PROBLEMS February 8, 2010 DEAR VEXED: I work with a guy that has highly disturbing views about women and minorities – he’s always making quips and I find them really difficult to live with. On one hand I don’t want to start a fight or create tension, but on the other, his remarks have become really bothersome and I [...]
CASE STUDY | CONNOR NOLAN, 33, FORMER BLOOMBERG ANALYST, NOW A DIRECTOR AT AQUILA PROPERTY GROUP February 8, 2010 “Getting braces is a new lease of life. I used to play rugby quite a lot, and got hit in the teeth. They were crooked and bent, so I eventually started to hide my smile without realising it. It wasn’t until my business partner and I went on TV that I noticed how he was [...]
For a late winter ski trip, north-east France is a red hot option February 8, 2010 YOU will hear many British voices on the slopes of the French ski resort of Morzine, but despite the fact that “the Brits are here” the region still retains a Gallic shrug. Unlike Meribel, which has long since been colonised by Brits, and where the main town is full of raucous British pubs like Dick’s [...]
