China offers to give help to Portugal November 7, 2010 PRESIDENT Hu Jintao said yesterday China will back Portugal’s efforts to deal with fallout from the world financial crisis, but stopped short of promising to buy Portuguese bonds as the debt-ridden country had hoped. “We are willing to take concrete measures to help Portugal cope with the global financial crisis,” he said after meeting Prime [...]
Stock markets are wrong about QE2 November 5, 2010 YESTERDAY’S stock market rebound is the proof that investors don’t always get it right – or at least, that they still love to get drunk on the prospect of cheap money. Stock markets in the US and UK jumped, taking equities back to the time when Lehman Brothers was just another big investment bank. One [...]
Chinese thirst sees money pouring into sales of fine wines November 4, 2010 WINE has gained more value this year than either gold or shares, driven largely by Chinese demand. According to research from the Bordeaux Index – which tracks live changes in the prices of 80 to 100 of the most traded wines – demand for fine wine grew by 26 per cent in the year to [...]
Time to reverse global imbalances November 3, 2010 THIS has been a pivotal year for global economies. But if 2010 is the pivot then next year will be the fulcrum. 2011 is likely to be the year for developing economies to crowbar the debt-laden west out of its economic woes. Archimedes of Syracuse once boasted that if he stood in the right place [...]
G20 PUTS FX MARKETS IN SHARP FOCUS November 3, 2010 DIRECTOR OF THIRD PARTY DISTRIBUTION, ETF SECURITIES CURRENCIES are currently very much in focus. Bizarrely, however, many investors shun direct currency exposure because they view currencies as being more volatile compared to other asset classes. This leads investors to play currencies through their asset allocation decisions rather than trading the foreign exchange markets directly. Indeed [...]
FTSE lifted more than one per cent on the back of strong corporate earnings November 2, 2010 STRONG corporate earnings hoisted Britain’s top shares by more than one per cent on yesterday, led by energy stocks after BP and BG Group results and ahead of the outcome of the eagerly awaited US Federal Reserve policy meeting. At the two-day meet in Washington which started yesterday, the Fed will consider the prospect of [...]
BG Group’s new project could be revolutionary November 1, 2010 THE coverage of third quarter oil company earnings published today will mask a more interesting story for the energy sector. Natural gas giant BG Group announced on Saturday that it had been given the go ahead to become the first company to liquefy gas from coal deposits. The new venture will have the capacity to [...]
US is where it all happens this week October 31, 2010 IT used to be the case that the most important market-moving news for the FTSE 100, sterling and the UK fixed income markets often came from the US. While that remains largely true – London traders become fixated with Wall Street the moment it opens – Chinese statistics have now become almost as important for [...]
Chinese demand will keep the German engine roaring October 31, 2010 GERMANY certainly is the engine of Europe at the moment; it has powered its way out of the recession. Exports are booming, unemployment is expected to fall to levels last seen in the early 1990s and its current account is firmly in surplus. The blue-chip Dax index is the model of this good health, outperforming [...]
AIA float sees 17 per cent share surge October 29, 2010 AIA Group surged 17 per cent in its Hong Kong debut as investors, chasing exposure to Asia’s fast-growing life insurance business, piled into the record offering in the world’s hottest IPO market. The stronger-than-expected listing is a relief for bailed-out insurer American International Group Inc after a two-year effort to sell its Asian unit, including [...]