China will avert crisis despite its slowing growth March 11, 2012 PREMIER Wen Jiabao’s speech to the National People’s Congress has caused a wobble in Chinese equities and reduced the optimism that was building on China. His forecast for 7.5 per cent GDP growth in 2012 is below what some international agencies were expecting. The biggest surprise about Wen’s forecast is that it is also a [...]
WHAT THE OTHER PAPERS SAY THIS MORNING March 7, 2012 FINANCIAL TIMES CURRENCY TRADING VOLUMES DROP Volumes in the world’s multi-trillion dollar foreign exchange market have dropped to six-year lows as nervous investors have shied away from trading the euro and central banks have continued to maintain a tight grip on the value of their currencies. SOCGEN TO FACE REGULATOR PROBE Société Générale is to [...]
THE TIPSTER March 6, 2012 THE dollar-yen pair has been on the tear since the start of February, climbing over 500 pips to hit highs not seen since May of 2011 around ¥81.84. The strong month-long trend line was broken though yesterday around ¥81.30 and it does look ripe for a correction. Look to sell any rebounds towards ¥81.40/50 with [...]
WHAT THE OTHER PAPERS SAY THIS MORNING March 5, 2012 FINANCIAL TIMES REGULATORS CONSIDER AN OVERHAUL OF LIBOR UK regulators and global banks are discussing a potentially far-reaching overhaul of the calculation and regulation of interbank lending rates, amid claims that the benchmark for $350 trillion contracts worldwide may have been subject to manipulation. STARBUCKS TAKES COFFEE WARS TO NESPRESSO Coffee capsule wars are set [...]
FTSE slides as miners hit by China’s cut in growth targets March 5, 2012 BRITAIN’S FTSE 100 fell yesterday, as weakness in miners and engineers outstripped strength in defensive stocks after China cut its growth forecasts, while mixed economic data in Europe and the United States dimmed the outlook for global growth. London’s blue chip index shed 36.31 points or 0.6 per cent to 5,874.82, although it held within [...]
CANADIAN DOLLAR SHOWS SOME PROMISE, AS AUSSIE DOLLAR HIT BY SLOWDOWN March 5, 2012 THE RESERVE Bank of Australia is expected to keep rates on hold at today’s meeting, but the news may prove cold comfort for the Aussie dollar-dollar pair as currency traders become increasingly concerned about the rate of economic growth in the Asia-Pacific region. As this week opened for trade, the Aussie was the weakest link [...]
ED BREWSTER MAKES A START ON HIS LATEST PR ADVENTURE February 29, 2012 FORMER Pru spinner Ed Brewster has made an appearance at giant telecoms event Mobile World Congress. Brewster is now tasked with looking after PR for Chinese behemoth Huawei as it attempts to conquer the consumer handset market. Attempting to break Apple and Google’s stranglehold over the industry may seem like a tall order but it’s [...]
Speed rules new generation of phones February 29, 2012 Mobile World Congress saw dozens of new handset releases, as the industry’s big players laid out their stall for the rest of the year. The overriding theme was power, with a new generation of quad-core processors imbuing mobile devices with speeds that were unimaginable even on desktop PCs only a few years ago. The new [...]
Hysteria over student visas is damaging our reputation and Britain’s future growth February 28, 2012 THE UK’s higher education sector is an export success story. Only the United States recruits more international students. Those from outside the European Union contribute £2.5bn each year in fees to our universities and spend a further £2.5bn while they are here. If students in further education and private sector colleges are included, the figure [...]
DOLLAR-YEN PAIR BENEFITS FROM US RECOVERY THEME AS OIL CASTS ITS SHADOW February 27, 2012 DESPITE the generally positive tone of recent global economic data, analysts remain concerned about the prospect of sustained growth in 2012. At the moment, their chief source of worry is the surging price of oil. In the US, West Texas Intermediate has risen to nearly $110 a barrel, while in Europe the price of Brent [...]