Analyst picks for 26 March 2012 March 26, 2012 CURRENCY STRATEGIST JOEL KRUGER My pick: Looking to buy euro-Swiss franc Expertise: Combining fundamental and technical analysis Average time frame of trades: 1 month to 3 months We don’t usually incorporate fundamentals into our trade ideas, but it’s hard to ignore the Swiss National Bank’s SFr1.2000 floor. Still, the market is technically in the process [...]
Economic news drives quiet week for trading March 25, 2012 TODAY Investors in highly volatile oil and exploration stocks could face surprises this week, as some small-cap firms report, but the UK market should start off quietly. Volume may pick up in the afternoon with pending home sales from the US. Given mildly disappointing existing home sales figures last week, pending home sales could also [...]
FedEx tops forecasts but warns on Europe impact March 22, 2012 A STRONG holiday season and mild winter helped FedEx top Wall Street’s profit forecast, but the world’s second-largest package delivery company warned that it had lowered its expectations for the rest of this year due to Europe’s weak economy. “The fourth quarter is still very good, but what we’re seeing at the moment is we [...]
Investors unnerved by poor factory data March 22, 2012 CYCLICAL sectors led US stocks lower yesterday, setting the S&P 500 up for its first negative week in six, after factory data showed a slowdown in both the Eurozone and China. The weak data is hardly a surprise for markets, as many analysts have already factored in a recession in the Eurozon and early this [...]
Fed says US will grow as crisis ends March 20, 2012 AMERICA faces “important challenges” in the short run but still has “very good” longer term prospects, the head of the Federal Reserve said yesterday. Ben Bernanke was speaking before a lecture at the George Washington business school, in which he criticised the gold standard and said that the Fed had failed to prevent deflation during [...]
TNT accepts Sweetened £4.3bn UPS bid March 19, 2012 United Parcel Service will pay 5.2 billion euros (£4.31bn) for Dutch peer TNT in a deal that will make the U.S. company the biggest package-shipper in Europe with 45bn euros in global sales. TNT said on Monday its executive and supervisory boards unanimously supported UPS’s offer of 9.50 euros per share, up from an initial [...]
UPS finally closes in on €5bn deal to buy rival TNT Express March 18, 2012 US DELIVERY company UPS has finally clinched a €5bn (£4.2bn) deal to buy TNT Express, a Dutch rival. The valuation of its European counterpart is an increase of at least 50 cents on UPS’s offer of €9 per share in February, which was rejected. That was already a hike from an offer of €8.25 a [...]
New US jobless claims dropping March 15, 2012 The number of Americans claiming new jobless benefits fell back to a four-year low last week and manufacturing in the north east held up in March, providing more signs the US economy was firmly on a self-sustaining growth path. Initial claims for state unemployment benefits dropped 14,000 to a seasonally adjusted 351,000, the Labor Department [...]
Fed boss plays down US GDP growth spurt March 14, 2012 THE US ECONOMIC recovery has been “frustratingly slow,” despite recent indications that growth was returning, Federal Reserve chairman Ben Bernanke (pictured) said yesterday, as the US’s trade position deteriorated. New data showed the current account deficit expanded unexpectedly in the final quarter of last year, hitting $124.1bn (£79.2bn) as exports dropped and imports rose. The deteriorating [...]
WALL STREET PASSES CRUCIAL STRESS TEST March 14, 2012 But Fed says Citigroup, Ally, MetLife and SunTrust are barred from joining in dividend bonanza THE FEDERAL Reserve paved the way for a multi-billion dollar dividend bonanza last night by passing 15 banks in its latest stress tests, allowing them to return cash to shareholders. The US central bank said most of the largest American [...]