The 3 big changes set to shake hedge funds in 2014 January 29, 2014 A great deal of opportunity it turns out, if you listen to the world’s biggest money manager BlackRock. Despite citing some startling statistics at a briefing in London today – more on that later – its strategists think increased volatility in markets this year will open up a pandora’s box of opportunity for smart managers. [...]
Here’s how Turkish tightening could prompt global rate hikes January 29, 2014 Last night's decision from the Central Bank of Turkey managed to catch everyone off guard. An emergency meeting saw the overnight lending rate hiked from 7.75 per cent to 12 per cent, and the one week repo rate up from 4.5 per cent to 10 per cent. The central bank's hand was forced into announcing [...]
Nearly 80pc of economists believe that Bernanke’s QE1 will be seen positively by the history books January 28, 2014 It's often said that it's hard to find agreement among economists. That's taken to be especially true when you approach the more heavily politicised areas of the discipline – such as macro policy. So that 78 per cent of economists agree with this statement is quite a surprise: Informed postmortems of Ben Bernanke’s Fed chairmanship [...]
Oil giant Shell to see revenues tumble on Thursday January 28, 2014 Oil companies have had a pretty rough start to the year and analysts aren’t holding out too much hope for Royal Dutch Shell’s results on Thursday. The FTSE 100-quoted firm has already warned that fourth-quarter earnings will be “significantly lower”. Earnings are expected to fall to $2.9bn (£1.8bn), from $5.6bn in the equivalent quarter the [...]
Super Mario! How the plucky plumber could revive Nintendo’s fortunes January 28, 2014 The classic video game character Mario could be Nintendo’s saviour, according to pundits weighing in on the company’s options ahead of its expected new management strategy, due to be announced on Thursday. Nintendo’s Wii console – which shipped over 100m units, the most successful gaming console it has ever sold – featured 13 Mario released [...]
Tomorrow’s DLR strike called off January 28, 2014 A 48-hour strike on the Docklands Light Railway due to start tomorrow has been called off, according to reports from RMT London Calling. The GGC has agreed to accept pay offers from Serco Docklands AND Carlisle. As a result all strikes are called off. Transport for London has confirmed the announcement, saying that services will [...]
European commercial real estate market is swimming in debt January 28, 2014 Research out today by CBRE shows how the European commercial real estate market is still up to its eyeballs in debt – a large chunk of which is unlikely to meet its maturity deadlines unless new lenders such as insurers ramp up their activity. According to the property consultancy, there is €926bn (£762bn) of outstanding [...]
The 3 things the IMF says are keeping Spanish unemployment so high January 28, 2014 A new report released by the International Monetary Fund (IMF) this morning digs into the details on the labour markets in the Eurozone, and offers some new insights into Spain’s eye-watering unemployment levels Spanish unemployment actually passed above Greek levels during parts of last year, despite a much less dramatic fall in output. Greece is [...]
US durable goods orders for December are shockingly ugly January 28, 2014 Durable goods orders have fallen off a cliff in December. Down 4.3 per cent in a single month, consensus estimates suggested that orders would rise by 1.8 per cent in that period. Michael Hewson, chief narket analyst at CMC Markets, has suggested that the ugly numbers could be a result of the harsh weather conditions [...]
Former Deutsche Bank executive found dead at London home January 28, 2014 Former Deutsche Bank executive, William Broeksmit, has passed away at his west London home according to an internal e-mail sent to bank employees. Broeksmit was a key founder of Deutsche's investment bank, and left the company last February. The internal e-mail said that the former banker was "considered by many of his peers to be [...]
