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 [...]
Cleggmania may soon fade, so now is the time to place election bets April 25, 2010 THE televised debates have caused a seismic shift in British politics and we are likely to be spending a good part of election night on the edge of our seats. On Friday, after the second televised debate, the average of all five post-debate polls showed that Nick Clegg and David Cameron were neck and neck [...]
WHAT THE OTHER PAPERS SAY THIS MORNING April 19, 2010 FINANCIAL TIMES HCL FUELS DEBATE The head of one of India’s biggest IT outsourcing companies has waded into the debate on UK public sector efficiency savings, complaining of an “old boys’ network” in government procurement. Vineet Nayar, chief executive of HCL Technologies, hit out at the “stranglehold of a few companies” in Britain’s £17bn market [...]
Goldman stands by fraud suspect April 18, 2010 GOLDMAN Sachs has stood firm behind the man at the centre of the storm over the $1bn (£651m) fraud allegations against it, adding that he may even turn up to work in London this morning as normal. Goldman said the status of Fabrice Tourre was unchanged after he was named in two counts of securities [...]
Lexus sales hit the skids as Toyota calls halt April 15, 2010 TOYOTA has put a global halt to the sale of the 2010 Lexus GX 460 model after a US magazine Consumer Reports yesterday warned potential buyers of a potential safety risk that the vehicle could tip over. While the vehicle is not available for purchase in the UK, the world’s largest car maker by volume [...]
If you fix your mortgage now pick carefully April 15, 2010 EARLIER this week we learned that mortgage applications climbed back to pre-recession levels last month. Research from mortgage broker Countrywide showed that a growing number of Britons are now choosing fixed products rather than flexible tracker mortgages. Fixed products made up 61 per cent of applications in March – an increase of 4 per cent [...]
PROPERTY BARONS PAY TRIBUTE TO THEIR SAGE April 13, 2010 IT WAS a hop, a skip and a jump over to the Dorchester yesterday lunchtime for the slap-up annual lunch hosted by Gerald Ronson, the seasoned chief of property group Heron International. Ronson’s list of invitees reads like a who’s who of the upper echelons of property and high finance, including ex-Lloyds chair Sir Victor [...]
CONSERVATIVE MANIFESTO | AT A GLANCE April 13, 2010 Economy • Safeguard Britain’s credit rating with a credible plan to eliminate the bulk of the structural deficit over a Parliament. • Cut wasteful government spending to bring the deficit down and restore stability. • Increase spending on health in real terms every year and honour our commitments on international aid. Financial regulation • Enable [...]
Conservative manifesto takes on big state April 12, 2010 THE Tory manifesto will be unveiled this morning at Battersea Power Station. The 130-page hardback document is titled “An invitation to join the government of Britain”. The key theme will be the stripping back of big government in favour of social mobility and personal responsibility. It will include: • A drop in the headline rate [...]
Hedge funds pile into financials April 11, 2010 Hedge funds are on the verge of becoming net buyers of financial shares for the first time in several years, according to research from Swiss bank UBS. Market strategist Karen Olney said long/short funds were buying into global equities at their fastest pace since 2007, particularly banking shares where they believed fears over tighter regulation [...]