RATE CUTS AREN’T ENOUGH TO SOLVE ECONOMIC GLOOM July 9, 2012 FX360 LAST Thursday brought rate cuts from the European Central Bank (ECB), the People’s Bank of China (PBOC), and the Danish and Kenyan central banks. On top of this, the Bank of England’s Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) raised its asset purchase facility by a further £50bn. Whether coordinated or not, these actions represented substantial monetary [...]
THE TIPSTER | Female fashion fails on attractiveness July 9, 2012 HIGH street retailer Marks and Spencer’s is today expected to announce its worst performance since the first quarter of 2009. Despite attempts to revitalise its female clothing arm through celebrity advertising, this area is clearly struggling and weighs on its non-food sector. Given that women’s clothing makes up 60 per cent of M&S’s general merchandise, [...]
China’s thirst is beginning to quell July 9, 2012 CHINESE domestic demand isn’t keeping pace with its industrial production. According to figures released at the weekend, Chinese June consumer price index-based inflation figures (CPI) fell to 2.2 per cent year on year, down from 3 per cent in May. Chinese macro statistics are notoriously unreliable, with suspicions that the communist government smoothes figures by [...]
Analyst picks for 9 July 2012 July 9, 2012 CURRENCY STRATEGIST CHRIS VECCHIO My pick: Short Aussie-dollar, long dollar-yen, short euro-yen Expertise: Fundamental and technical analysis Average time frame of trades: A few hours to a few days Our bearish risk case continues to build, and we now have some compelling technical cases for a further flight to safety ahead. Mainly, we look at [...]
Emails reveal Tucker contact with Barclays July 9, 2012 Bank of England deputy governor Paul Tucker (pictured) contacted Barclays ex-chief executive Bob Diamond several times in October 2008, newly released emails show, and on one occasion directly remarked on the high level of the price of a bond. “Struck that your govt gnteed bond was issued at around 140 over gilts,” the subject line [...]
Barnier calls for Libor rigging to be criminalised July 9, 2012 Europe’s top regulatory official intends to propose new rules that would criminalise the manipulation of benchmarks such as Libor, a spokesman for the EU commissioner in charge of financial reform said on Monday. Michel Barnier wants to amend proposed market-abuse legislation that is designed to clamp down on insider trading and other wrongdoing to include [...]
FTSE pegged back by miners July 9, 2012 The FTSE 100 edged down in early trading today as disappointing jobs data out of the US on Friday continued to cast a shadow over global markets. The 80,000 increase in payrolls in June was slightly below market expectations for an increase of about 90,000 and was not enough to reduce the unemployment rate, which [...]
VW sales grow 13pc in June July 9, 2012 Volkswagen’s premium brand Audi continued to narrow the gap versus rival BMW in June, increasing sales by 13.1 per cent to 133,050 vehicles. For the first half, sales rose 12.3 per cent to 733,250 vehicles, powered by a 37.8 per cent gain in its China volumes. These amounted to 193,871 vehicles during the same period. [...]
JJB sales fall July 9, 2012 British sportswear retailer JJB Sports said sales fell significantly short of expectations for the crucial second quarter. The company also said Robert J. Corliss would replace Mike McTighe as chairman, effective 1 September. The European Football Championships in June did not boost sales of its football merchandise as it had expected, JJB Sports said. Like-for-like [...]
Michael Page profit slips July 9, 2012 Recruitment firm Michael Page International said it expected a challenging third quarter as economic uncertainty disrupted British and European markets, after posting a slip in second-quarter profit. The British firm, which places people in accounting, financial and legal jobs across 35 countries, said on Monday second-quarter gross profit was £138m, 6.6 per cent below what [...]
