EUROPE GETS ANOTHER SCROOGE: OSBORNE NOW JOINED BY MERKEL December 20, 2010 LAST time The Capitalist reported on the activities of Evolution Securities’ head of fixed income Gary Jenkins, he was fantasising about taking over ratings agencies and hiring Natalie Portman as his PA. He has been putting his wild imagination to other productive uses recently, it seems, churning out a re-imagining of Charles Dickens’ A Christmas [...]
Keeping a lookout for possible shocks December 19, 2010 MAY YOU live in interesting times may sound like a blessing, but in ancient China, it was considered a curse. Spread betters may be divided on which they think it is, but 2011 certainly looks likely to be interesting. Next year could see more bank crises in Europe, burst bubbles in Asia and painful austerity [...]
London to lose out in £30bn mega-float December 16, 2010 THE Hong Kong Stock Exchange is mounting an aggressive bid to lure away part of a float that looked set to be the biggest in London’s history. Glencore International, the world’s biggest commodities trader and a mining giant valued at £30bn, is planning an initial public offering (IPO) that could generate fees of up to [...]
WHAT THE OTHER PAPERS SAY THIS MORNING December 15, 2010 FINANCIAL TIMES SIENNA MILLER CLAIMS REIGNITE HACKING ROW Lawyers representing the actress Sienna Miller have alleged that a senior executive at the News of the World ordered a private detective to hack into her mobile phone voicemail account, reigniting a controversy over journalistic practices at the tabloid Sunday newspaper. GOLDMAN’S SZE TO LEAVE FOR HEDGE [...]
Look closer to home to play the emerging markets’ story December 15, 2010 EMERGING markets have been one of the most popular trades of 2010. If it wasn’t concerns about the outlook for developed markets and the desire for higher returns further afield, it was Fed-fuelled liquidity that was driving flows towards the developing economies. The case for investing in equities rather than bonds is becoming stronger by [...]
THE TIPSTER December 15, 2010 NOW that the Chinese inflation figures are out and the People’s Bank of China has once again refused to raise rates, fears that European commodity stocks might suffer on the back of slower Chinese growth have subsided slightly. This might offer an opportunity for the likes of gold miner Randgold Resources to bounce off the [...]
Fed’s doves will keep cash cheap December 14, 2010 INTEREST rates will stay “exceptionally low for an extended period”, the US Federal Reserve announced last night. And despite claims from home and abroad that it is fuelling a fresh bubble, the Fed will continue its lastest phase of quantitative easing (QE2), buying around $75bn (£47.5bn) of Treasury assets every month. Markets reacted to the [...]
Looking ahead to 2011: some likely winners and laggards December 14, 2010 FROM sovereign debt crises threatening the very future of the euro to currency wars and more quantitative easing, 2010 has been an eventful year in the foreign exchange markets. Currency traders will be pleased to hear that volatility, which has been so characteristic of the FX markets since the crisis, is unlikely to disappear any [...]
EURO’S RALLY IS DEPENDENT ON THE DATA December 14, 2010 DIRECTOR OF CURRENCY RESEARCH, GFT With the euro bears still fixated on sovereign debt problems, Monday’s 200 point rally in euro-dollar caught many currency traders by surprise and created a massive short squeeze. As Ireland appeared to be on its way towards finalising the EU bailout, risk aversion flows abated and credit spreads stabilised, leaving [...]
All-round positive outlook for 2011 worrying December 12, 2010 This is it – the last meaningful trading week of the year. This is the final opportunity for anyone wanting to move around a decent amount of stock or trying to place an order without sending prices haywire. The week when the futures and options expire and we all settle in to the two-week lull [...]