Gloomy recruiter outlook sees shares monstered January 26, 2012 ONLINE recruitment firm Monster Worldwide yesterday forecast a weak start to the year and said it will cut jobs since it does not expect the global job market to improve drastically in the near term. Shares in the company, which will reduce its global workforce by about seven per cent or 400 jobs, tumbled 15 [...]
Ratings agencies won’t be trusted without a fight January 22, 2012 THE Big Three rating agencies hardly seem to be out of the news with their ability to move markets. Following Standard & Poor’s (S&P) decision to reduce its assessment of the health of France’s sovereign debt by one notch to AA+ from AAA status, top German politicians like Michael Fuchs and others have jumped on [...]
Wall Street’s rally leaves Citi behind January 17, 2012 US stocks advanced yesterday, pushing the S&P 500 to its highest since early August, but sharply pared gains late in the session as Citigroup’s steep drop in profit gave investors a reason to unload bank shares. The financial sector, which has outperformed the broader market so far this year, took a hit on investors’ disappointment [...]
Bankruptcy looms for Kodak January 4, 2012 KODAK shares plummeted to an all-time low as reports claimed that the camera company could be close to filing for bankruptcy. If Kodak fails to sell the 1,100 digital patents it has been trying to offload since last summer, the company’s next move would be to seek Chapter 11 protection from creditors and sell these [...]
Indices hold gains even as euro falls January 4, 2012 MAJOR US stock indices were little changed in a low-volume session yesterday, but some investors were encouraged to see equities avoid a sell-off amid lingering Eurozone debt problems. Indices held on to the previous day’s large gains even as the euro dropped sharply against the dollar. Notably, US banks held up well, even though bad [...]
US markets begin the year on a high January 3, 2012 STOCKS and the euro started the year with a sharp rally yesterday, boosted by better-than-expected global data and hopes the Fed could ease monetary policy further, even as crude surged on tensions between the US and Iran. A number of Federal Reserve officials believed economic conditions could “well” warrant a further easing of monetary policy, [...]
BofA settles loan bias case December 21, 2011 BANK of America Merrill Lynch’s Countrywide mortgage division has settled an agreement to pay a record $335m (£213.7m) for discriminating against minority homebuyers in what Justice Department officials have said is the largest discrimination settlement in US history. The case, brought against subprime mortgage company Countrywide for its conduct between 2004 and its 2008 acquisition [...]
Bank of America shares slide to their lowest since March 2009 December 19, 2011 SHARES of Bank of America closed below $5 yesterday for the first time since the depths of the bear market in March 2009. The stock closed at $4.99, down four per cent, after dropping as low as $4.92. Bank of America accounted for roughly six per cent of composite volume on the New York Stock [...]
Bank of America leads US stock fall December 19, 2011 BANKS dragged the US stock market lower yesterday, with losses accelerating late after Bank of America’s stock price fell below $5 for the first time in nearly three years. When BofA, the largest US bank, plunged through $5, it ignited a late-day decline in the sector and the broader market, which fell by one per [...]
Don’t lock the world out of London: New rules send the City back to the dark ages December 15, 2011 THERE is a well-used phrase in management, that it is better to make a wrong decision than none at all. The exception must be Mark Makepeace, chief executive of the FTSE Group, who this week ruled all listings in London from next month must have a 25 per cent free float In enforcing this, he [...]