French pension protests flop May 3, 2010 The French government’s plans to reform the country’s costly pension system were given a boost by a lower than expected turnout at weekend protests against the measure. President Nicolas Sarkozy wants to increase the retirement age beyond the current 60 years. The 1 May trade union demonstration attracted 350,000 people. Last year, the number was [...]
EU carbon prices hit 17-mth high May 3, 2010 European carbon prices rallied into a second month yesterday, surging to a new 17-month high on the back of higher German power prices, a bailout package for debt-stricken Greece and a leaked EU document, traders said. EU Allowances futures for delivery in December climbed as high as 16.56 euros a tonne, up 62 cents or [...]
BUFFETT PULLS OUT ALL THE STOPS BY CAVORTING WITH HOUSEWIVES May 3, 2010 WARREN Buffett has been a well-recognised face over in the States for what seems like forever, but the old man certainly hasn’t lost his star appeal yet. Buffett’s no stranger to popular culture – he’s even made cameo appearances before in US soap opera All My Children (when he came to the rescue of one [...]
BILL OF THE WEEK May 3, 2010 THESE six successful property tycoons hit Boyd’s Brasserie near the Embankment last week to continue celebrating a big deal after a night out on the town the evening before. Coffees were ordered all round as tonic for the sore heads, along with full English breakfasts – Lincolnshire sausage, grilled bacon, mushrooms, tomato, scrambled eggs, baked [...]
Election night means bets for all you political punters May 3, 2010 TWO days to go and for the first time since 1992 there seems a real uncertainty about the result of this general election. Which makes spread betting on the event even more intriguing. And it doesn’t just mean betting simply on the next leader or the big party win, there are some cleverer ways to [...]
SPREAD BET GURU May 3, 2010 MARKET STRATEGIST josh@cityindex.com Q. Dear Josh, with the general election result looking increasingly tight is there any way to profit from such uncertainty? A. The market hates uncertainty so it is likely to frown upon any indication that we are heading towards a hung parliament. That said, the FTSE 100 is such an international index [...]
THE TIPSTER May 3, 2010 THE US banking sector has been a wild ride for traders of the Select Sector SPDR Financial ETF over the past two weeks. The index, which contains a range of diversified financial firms including JP Morgan Chase, Bank of America-Merrill Lynch and Goldman Sachs, had added almost 20 per cent since 1 January to a [...]
Oil spillage will add to pressure on fuel prices May 3, 2010 THE oil giant BP’s share price was punished by the markets last week after a fire at its Deepwater Horizon drilling rig on the Gulf of Mexico caused a leak that is pumping 5,000 barrels of oil per day into the sea. But on Friday, BP’s woes transformed into an industry-wide problem after the US [...]
GOLDMAN, GOLD AND GOLDILOCKS May 3, 2010 CFD MARKET STRATEGIST, GFT OVER the past week, a number of big stories have jostled each other off the front pages. The Greek debt crisis went critical and the odds of European contagion shortened after ratings agency Standard & Poor’s downgraded Greece, Spain and Portugal. On Friday it was reported that Goldman Sachs may face [...]
Spanish banks hold promise of strong profits this year May 3, 2010 SPANISH stocks had a torrid time last week. After Spain’s government debt was downgraded a notch from AA+ to AA, the Ibex 35, the Spanish stock market index, fell 4 per cent. But while domestic woes are far from resolved – unemployment is now more than 20 per cent – Spain’s biggest bank looks like [...]
