Wall Street may be heading for a pullback as earnings season starts October 7, 2012 WALL Street may be bracing for a pullback as US earnings season begins this week – if the clouds of profit warnings from bellwethers ranging from FedEx to Hewlett-Packard lead to a downpour of lower profits, or even losses. Thanks to aggressive stimulus plans from central banks around the world, the Standard & Poor’s 500 [...]
Fed minutes reveal unease over quantitative easing programme October 4, 2012 SEVERAL senior members of the US Federal Reserve are concerned over the risks surrounding its huge asset-buying stimulus programme, according to minutes of its September policy meeting released last night. The Fed announced last month that it would kick off a third spell of quantitative easing (QE3) at a rate of $40bn (£24.7bn) per month, [...]
Aussie outlook spinning around October 2, 2012 THE Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA) yesterday called the end of the country’s commodities boom, citing the effects of the Chinese slowdown on the mining sector. At the same time, it announced that the official cash rate will be cut by a quarter of a point – down to 3.25 per cent. This latest drop [...]
Stimulus could lift FTSE index October 2, 2012 THE FTSE 100 is the only G5-nation equity index (ex-Japan) yet to hit a new high for the year. The index is up a mere 5 per cent this year, compared to 24 per cent for the Dax 30 and 15 per cent for the S&P 500. But we deem the FTSE’s underperformance to be [...]
Bears prepare to pull British bulldog down October 2, 2012 THE FUNDAMENTAL CASE I F CURRENCIES reflect the health of their economies, there are many reasons to be bearish on sterling. Although recent data has been mixed, sterling-dollar (or cable) looks overvalued. The days of the UK’s position as an apparent safe haven look to be numbered. MYTH OF SAFETY The idea of the UK [...]
Wall St tumbles as debt crisis in Europe weighs September 26, 2012 THE S&P 500 fell for a fifth straight trading day yesterday as protests in Spain and Greece over Eurozone austerity measures raised fresh concerns over Europe’s ability to get its debt crisis under control. Investors sold risk-sensitive sectors such as energy and tech, while they poured money into more defensive areas like utilities and consumer [...]
Europe can take advantage of the USA’s home crowd September 26, 2012 THE Ryder Cup begins in Chicago tomorrow and I have to say that though I still fancy Europe to win – and I have done for some time – this is the time when all of the advantages given to the home team, this year the USA, means that there’s everything to play for. These are the [...]
Strong US data helps lift the FTSE as miners and banks take a dive September 25, 2012 BRITAIN’S top share index rose yesterday, with energy stocks in the lead, improving on small gains earlier in the day after US data allayed some concerns over a stalling of the global economic recovery. At the close, the FTSE 100 index was up 20.87 points or 0.4 per cent at 5,859.71 points, near the session [...]
Earnings woes push Wall St into the red September 25, 2012 THE S&P 500 suffered its worst day since June yesterday, pulled lower by Caterpillar after it cut its profit outlook, the latest high-profile company to warn about profit growth. Technology shares came under pressure after a second day of weakness for Apple, the world’s most valuable public company. Shares fell 2.5 per cent to $673.54 [...]
Silver surfers prepare to leave gold bugs behind as they ride the wave September 25, 2012 FOLLOWING recent policy announcements from the Federal Reserve, European Central Bank (ECB) and the Bank of Japan, making an investment case for metals may not be original. But, with rallies off lows in June, some may prefer silver over gold. It can be argued that silver has more scope to regain its record high, as [...]