Chinese head backs a stable euro currency October 3, 2010 CHINA pledged yesterday to support a stable euro and not reduce its holdings of European government bonds in an effort to deflect criticism of its foreign exchange policy ahead of an EU-China summit this week. China, at loggerheads with the US over the yuan and likely to face similar complaints during his tour of European [...]
Report mulls impact of BHP bid for Potash October 3, 2010 AN INDEPENDENT report on the impact of a takeover of Canada’s PotashCorp will today reignite the country’s debate over the implications of such a move, as expectations of a Chinese-led counterbid to BHP Billiton’s $39bn (£24.7bn) offer begin to dwindle. The report by the Conference Board of Canada will make no recommendations, though it will [...]
US defies China in currency row September 29, 2010 THE RISK of a global currency war escalated yesterday as the US passed a measure threatening trade with China in response to its efforts to keep the yuan undervalued. Politicians voted 348 to 79 in favour of a measure that would allow – but not require – the US Department of Commerce to assess levies [...]
ETFs: how to sort the wheat from the chaff September 29, 2010 INNOVATION is not always a good thing, or at least, that is what David Norman of TCF Investment says about the boom in exchange traded funds (ETFs): “There’s been a big rush to launch products: a lot of innovation, not all of it is good. Say you want exposure to a certain emerging market, for [...]
EURO-DOLLAR TRADE IS AN UGLY CONTEST September 28, 2010 DIRECTOR OF CURRENCY RESEARCH, GFT LET’S just retrace Tuesday’s euro-dollar price movements. First, the pair rallied in early Asian trade when a Wall Street Journal article reported that the Fed is considering a quasi-permanent QE policy, raising fears that the central bank will eventually monetise more than a trillion worth of US debt. Then, before [...]
The African consumer will drive growth beyond mining September 28, 2010 THE time of Africa is coming,” says Renaissance Asset Managers’ Plamen Monovski. His firm has just launched two new equity funds that give access to African stocks (one pan-African, one sub-Saharan) and to say he is bullish on the continent would be an understatement. He argues that with stock so cheap and foreign direct investment [...]
FUND MANAGEMENT NEWS September 28, 2010 PICTET LAUNCHES LONG-SHORT ASIA FUND Pictet funds, the fund distribution arm of private Swiss bank Pictet & Cie, has launched a long-short UCITS III-compliant Asia fund. It will be managed be Lan Wang Simond and seeks to capture Chinese growth while minimising losses during periods of high volatility and reducing correlation to the broader market. [...]
China bid for UB gives Cable a headache September 27, 2010 United Biscuits could be the next iconic British firm to be snapped up by a foreign buyer, posing a fresh problem for embattled business secretary Vince Cable. China’s Bright Food Group has its eye on a $3.2bn (£2bn) bid for the maker of Jaffa Cakes and McVities biscuits. Cable has campaigned for tougher regulation to [...]
EQUITY RALLY NOT MATCHED BY OIL PRICES September 27, 2010 CFD MARKET STRATEGIST, GFT THE rally in equities this September has wrong-footed those of us who felt that the August sell-off was the start of something more serious. Now we’re just a few days away from October, typically another worrisome month for markets. While the major US indices have broken above significant resistance levels, recent [...]
A tarnished outlook for base metals September 26, 2010 UBS SHOCKED short-term traders on Friday when it issued a report calling time on copper’s upside. Spread betters should take note of the conditions facing industrial metals and consider switching to precious ones. UBS’s research says that the global environment in the fourth quarter will not sustain the big mining companies’ Antofagasta and Kazakhmys’ current [...]