FedEx lowers its 2013 profit view as stretched customers cut back September 18, 2012 FEDEX lowered its 2013 profit target yesterday, saying earnings could slide as much as six per cent for the year, as a weakening world economy prompts customers to shift toward lower-priced and slower shipping options. The world’s second-largest package delivery company said makers of electronics and mobile phones had begun to move more of their [...]
US stocks flat as bellwether cuts forecasts September 18, 2012 US stocks ended flat to slightly lower yesterday after bellwether FedEx cut its profit forecast and investors pulled back after last week’s rally on central bank stimulus. Falling oil prices weighed on the market for a second day, with the S&P 500 energy index, down 0.7 per cent, the day’s biggest decliner among the S&P’s [...]
Twenty-four carat case for gold September 18, 2012 AS WARREN Buffett famously said: “You can’t eat gold.” But US dollars are not particularly nutritious either and neither are pounds sterling. However, the amount of food you can buy with your gold is steadily increasing, and has been for the last decade; whereas what you can buy with a wallet full of fiat currency [...]
Central bankers finally deliver September 18, 2012 MUCH has happened since Lehman collapsed four years ago: three rounds of easing from the Fed, four from the Bank of England, five Eurozone bailouts, two waves of bond purchase programmes and two rounds of long-term refinancing operations from the European Central Bank (ECB). The result is that G7 policy rates are at or near [...]
US stocks fall as oil prices hit energy shares September 18, 2012 US stocks fell yesterday in light trading after a rally that drove the S&P 500 last week to its highest level in nearly five years and as falling oil prices hit energy shares. The decline broke a four-day streak of gains for the S&P 500. On Friday, both the Dow and the S&P 500 ended [...]
Russian central bank to sell off Sberbank stake September 18, 2012 A MAJOR stake in Russia’s largest bank will go on sale this week, it was announced yesterday, as the country’s central bank takes advantage of positive market sentiment. The 7.6 per cent stake of Sberbank is expected to bring in roughly $5bn (£3.1bn) for the Russian state, with 85 to 90 per cent of the [...]
JP Morgan warns QE3 could hit, not help, the US economy September 18, 2012 INTEREST rates could rise rather than fall as a result of the latest round of money printing announced by the Federal Reserve last week, analysts at JP Morgan warned yesterday. The potentially unlimited asset purchases under the latest quantitative easing programme (QE3) could increase inflation, pushing up yields and so hurt the economy rather than [...]
FTSE retreats from half-year highs reached after Federal Reserve fillip September 17, 2012 BRITAIN’S FTSE 100 retreated from half-year highs yesterday, in what strategists said was likely to be a profit-taking pause in a threemonth- long rally stimulated by global central banks. The benchmark share index has risen some 12 per cent since the start of June, propelled by expectations of central bank action that took effect in [...]
Learning how to live with open-ended QE September 17, 2012 FEDERAL Reserve chairman Ben Bernanke last week did what the markets had been waiting for. He announced that the US central bank would be rolling out another round of its controversial quantitative easing program (QE3). The Fed will commit to monthly asset purchases of $40bn (£ 24bn) until a substantial improvement is seen in the [...]
Analyst picks for 18 September 2012 September 17, 2012 CURRENCY STRATEGIST CHRIS VECCHIO My pick: Long Aussie dollar-dollar Expertise: Fundamental and technical analysis Average time frame of trades: 1 day to 1 week The Aussie dollar-dollar failed to break out on Friday, with an inverse hammer pattern forming on the daily chart at the descending trend line. Given the Fed’s dollar debasement programme, we [...]