HAWKISH FED IS BEST HOPE FOR DOLLAR October 20, 2009 BORIS SCHLOSSBERGDIRECTOR OF CURRENCY RESEARCH, GFT THIS Monday, during CNBC’s “Squawk Box” in the US, I remarked that these days it is easier to find a poor Goldman Sachs banker than to meet a dollar bull on Wall Street. But when everyone is so bearish on the currency and the trade becomes tremendously crowded, we [...]
Weaker dollar means central banks more likely to enter forex markets October 20, 2009 WATCHING for central bank intervention has once again become a critical part of following the currency markets. The Swiss National Bank has been the most active and open in its interventions, decidedly entering the forex markets whenever the Swiss franc approaches the SFr1.5 level against the euro. Equally, countries such as Singapore and Taiwan are [...]
A poor economic backdrop will see UK stocks trail their overseas peers October 20, 2009 IT’S hard to be optimistic about Britain’s economy. It lags behind both France and Germany in exiting recession and a sharp contraction in industrial output in September cast doubt over how positive third quarter GDP data – released this Friday – will be. A slow and protracted recovery lies ahead, according to the Bank of [...]
Don’t be afraid to dip your toe in the volatile forex waters October 20, 2009 OVER recent years one market type more than any other seems to have grabbed the attention of spread betting clients – foreign exchange. At the beginning of 2009, as equity markets continued to plumb the depths and were shunned by investors, our spread betting firm saw forex overtake equities in monthly trading volume. Of course [...]
Crystal Amber cuts JJB stake and takes profits October 19, 2009 CRYSTAL Amber Fund, one of JJB Sports’ largest shareholders, yesterday said it had cut its stake from 14 per cent to just under eight per cent, ahead of the retailer’s £100m fundraising. Crystal Amber made a 45.3 per cent profit on the sale of 13.6m shares that it bought when the stock was 22.4p a [...]
FSA outlines its crackdown on mortgages October 19, 2009 CITY watchdog the Financial Services Authority (FSA) has unveiled a crackdown on the mortgage-lending market that includes plans to ban the self-certification loan industry. FSA chief executive Hector Sants unveiled a range of proposals including a ban on the self-cert, or “liar loans” industry, where borrowers are able to get mortgages without giving proof of [...]
MORE DELAYS FOR HERITAGE October 19, 2009 HERITAGE Oil’s planned merger with Turkey’s Genel Energy has been delayed again, as the Kurdistan Regional government – which will hold 20 per cent of the merged company – is taking longer than expected to elect a new cabinet to sign off on the deal. But the company said it still hopes to close the [...]
Billionaire Carl Icahn says he offered a $6bn loan to stricken US lender CIT October 19, 2009 Corporate raider Carl Icahn said he offered to underwrite a $6bn (£3.7bn) loan to CIT Group and complained that trading between the troubled lender and its largest creditors was harming other bondholders. In a letter to CIT’s board yesterday, Icahn said the cash-strapped commercial lender is offering certain large bondholders the opportunity to purchase $6bn [...]
US FINANCIALS BEAT EUROPE FOR GROWTH October 19, 2009 THE US cemented its dominance in financial markets in 2008 at the expense of Europe, according to the International Financial Services London (IFSL) annual report. The Financial Market Trends Europe vs US report showed that the US financial markets had increased in size compared to Europe across eight different indicators, such as foreign equity trading, [...]
CITY VIEWS: HAS THE CITY LOST ITS CHAMPION? October 19, 2009 DAVID COLES ATLAS PARTNERS“Boris changes his mind every five minutes. He is now simply jumping on the bandwagon of bashing the banks. But, who knows? Next week he might change his tune again. The City doesn’t take much notice of the London Mayor anyway – but Boris is a fickle character.” CARLOS PEREZGROVAS DAIWA SECURITIES“I [...]
