Australian mining tax June 29, 2010 YESTERDAY should have been a good day for the miners – it almost was. Having unceremoniously ousted Prime Minister Kevin Rudd, the government has lost the upper hand in the battle over a supertax on miners’ profits. Julia Gillard, Rudd’s nemesis and successor, is now trying to enforce a softer version of the levy, although even this [...]
FTSE drags with not a single riser June 29, 2010 BRITAIN’S top share index hit a near 10-month closing low yesterday, led down by mining stocks and banks, as risk appetite was hurt by renewed concerns over the strength of global recovery and Europe’s debt problems. The FTSE 100 closed down 157.46 points, or 3.1 per cent, at 4,914.22, its lowest close since 4 ?September [...]
Risk aversion will undermine euro June 29, 2010 DEMAND for risky assets has been undermined this week by concerns about both the strength of the US recovery and that Chinese growth may not be as rapid as had previously been thought. The euro has also started to wobble again, destabilised by a resurgence in fears about Europe’s banking sector. These worries about the [...]
DEBT WORRIES RAISE MARKET INSTABILITY June 29, 2010 GEORGE TCHETVERTAKOV HEAD OF MARKET RESEARCH, ALPARI GOVERNMENT bond yields in developed countries have been steadily falling over the course of 2010 alongside a broad retrenching of risk preferences. Fiscal austerity measures are being implemented across Europe following the emergence of plausible default risk. The cuts planned in most EU countries are being supplemented by [...]
Executives see euro weakening as public debt woes rumble on June 28, 2010 TWO thirds of business leaders and finance directors expect the euro to slide in the coming year as concerns over sovereign debt refuse to dissipate, according to a survey. More than 66 per cent of company executives interviewed by the Economist Intelligence Unit for investment bank RBC Capital Markets thought the single currency would continue [...]
City’s competitive edge blunted by bank levy June 27, 2010 THERE can be no doubt that Asia holds the key to the future growth of the global financial services industry, providing a whole host of new opportunities for the international business community, including many UK firms. And it is in all of our interests to help these rapidly emerging markets succeed and grow. That is [...]
Manage your risk when trading the markets June 24, 2010 For many years, trading the financial markets and spread betting in particular, was felt to be the reserve of City professionals. But advances in technology over the last decade or so and an increased awareness of the impact that the gyrations of financial markets can have on our everyday lives have meant that financial trading [...]
WHAT THE OTHER PAPERS SAY THIS MORNING June 22, 2010 FINANCIAL TIMES GUINEA THREAT OVER RIO DISPUTE The government of Guinea has raised the stakes in a dispute with Rio Tinto by threatening to strip the mining group of more of its rights to one of the world’s biggest undeveloped iron ore deposits. Officials in Guinea have been angered by what they see as Rio’s [...]
SLOW SHIFT IN YUAN WILL HELP RISK FX June 22, 2010 BORIS SCHLOSSBERG DIRECTOR OF CURRENCY RESEARCH, GFT LAST weekend Chinese monetary authorities announced that they were ending the yuan peg to the dollar that was adopted during the credit crisis to protect the country’s exporters. The People’s Bank of China (PBoC) noted: “In a continuation of the foreign exchange reforms launched in 2005, the yuan [...]
WHAT THE OTHER PAPERS SAY THIS MORNING June 21, 2010 FINANCIAL TIMES LEHMAN CREDITORS GET A LIFT AFTER $620M OF ASIAN ASSETS ARE SOLD The Hong Kong-based liquidators of Lehman Brothers’ Asian operations have sold $620m (£420m) of the failed investment bank’s portfolio of loans, bonds and equity positions in the region. The transactions, which achieved an average recovery rate of 100 per cent, mark [...]