London Report: Slide in energy shares helps to drive FTSE down September 25, 2013 BRITAIN’S top shares fell yesterday, led down by Carnival after a profit warning triggered downgrades, while Centrica and SSE fell after the opposition Labour Party talked of an energy price freeze. Carnival slid 6.7 per cent to 2,098.26 pence, the FTSE 100’s top faller for the second session in a row, after Tuesday’s warning of [...]
New York Report: US stocks slide for fifth day on jitters over Fed September 25, 2013 US stocks fell yesterday and the S&P 500 put in a fifth day of losses, its worst losing streak since the end of 2012, on jitters funding for the federal government would run out and after a drop in shares of the world’s largest retailer, Wal-Mart Stores. Investors worried about two looming Washington deadlines: action [...]
House sales in US pushed up by rising interest rates September 25, 2013 The number of homes bought in the US in August has jumped up 7.9 per cent to 421,000 exceeding expectations of 420,000 and a July figure of 390,000 (revised from 394,000). Despite Fed uncertainty, US residents have still bought more houses, with rising mortgage rates prompting sales. The figure still remains well below the 700,000 [...]
BlackRock study highlights pain of QE for insurers September 25, 2013 A study by asset management firm BlackRock has found that uncertainty around Quantitative Easing (QE) is "hurting insurers' income streams and driving them into riskier assets". 73 per cent of insurers say that low yields are largest driver of change for industry, whilst 80 per cent say that change is needed to produce adequate shareholder [...]
Before the open: markets remain lackluster as Fed indecision continues September 25, 2013 With the Fed's message on tapering somewhat muddled, US markets remain dulled for a fourth day, following last week's highs. This, along with the impending debt ceiling debate and potential for government shutdown over Obamacare, is also slowing down European markets, which are expected to open lower this morning. Just over half an hour to [...]
The Royal Mail should present a fair valuation for investors September 24, 2013 BUSINESS minister Michael Fallon has certainly added some missing “zip” in promoting UK industry and commerce. Despite union opposition, his infectious enthusiasm, together with Royal Mail chief executive Moya Greene’s visionary management, has given the scheduled floatation of Royal Mail in October every chance of success. Governments are notoriously bad managers of commercial enterprises, so [...]
London Report: FTSE reverses slide despite US uncertainty September 24, 2013 BRITAIN’S top share index halted a two-day slide yesterday but a selloff in cruise operator Carnival and uncertainty about the US fiscal outlook curbed investors’ appetite. Shares in Carnival fell 5.6 per cent in volume nearly four times its average for the past three months after it warned about a possible loss for the current [...]
New York Report: Stocks fall for a fourth straight session in US September 24, 2013 THE DOW and S&P 500 ended lower yesterday, extending their recent slide to a fourth session as worries over a possible US government shutdown added to investor caution. Although uncertainty remains over the Federal Reserve’s intentions to scale back its stimulus since its decision last week to leave its current programme unchanged, some of the [...]
How the Fed data leak illustrates the problem of central bank power September 24, 2013 One chart has the US' Federal Reserve worried that it has a secrecy problem. Research from Nanex shows that trades were made on data at exactly the same time in both Chicago and New York at the time of the Fed's "no taper" decision last Wednesday. That should be impossible, even with the latest technology [...]
Fed’s Dudley says taper possible this year September 24, 2013 The Fed's William Dudley has said that tapering is possible this year, depending on the data. It's hard to see how the data could improve significantly enough in just a couple of months to change the Federal Reserve decision not to taper though. Dudley says that a decision to taper would require an improvement in [...]