THE TIPSTER January 31, 2012 IT SEEMS sterling-dollar may give itself enough cable to hang itself at the $1.5780/90 level again – an area where it has met resistance several times over the past 12 weeks. Sterling has also seen around 10 consecutive days of gains against the greenback. Should the resistance level break convincingly to the upside then the [...]
Federal Survey shows US banks are tightening credit to Europe January 30, 2012 MORE than two-thirds of banks in a Federal Reserve survey of senior loan officers said they had tightened credit to European financial firms in January, underscoring the continent’s banking crisis. The survey, published yesterday, also found US banks snapping up business from their beleaguered European competitors, scotching claims new regulations are hurting Wall Street competitiveness. [...]
February will need a new set of equity buyers January 29, 2012 NEW buyers, please. One month down, 11 to go. It has been a nice January so far for most of the long equity brigade, with markets putting in a respectable performance. The problems are the same that have blighted the upside momentum for the past two years. Already I hear some of the smart money [...]
US new home sales sink to a record low January 26, 2012 AMERICA’S dire housing market plumbed new lows in 2011, recording the worst year on record for sales of new homes. Sales fell 2.2 per cent in the final month of the year, data revealed yesterday, to a seasonally-adjusted annual rate of 307,000 homes. Yet separate figures appear to show that elsewhere in the US economy, [...]
FTSE closes up on US Fed’s growth plans January 26, 2012 BRITAIN’S blue-chip index rose 1.3 per cent yesterday after the US Federal Reserve pledged to support economic growth, boosting miners and other cyclicals stocks and setting the index on course for another week of gains. The FTSE 100 rose 72.20 points to 5,795.20, although the index failed to close above a key technical resistance at [...]
RAPID RESPONSES January 26, 2012 Data deluge Craig Drake rightly emphasises the importance of institutions making big data “work for their business” [Big industry responses are needed to big data explosion, yesterday]. Data must be seen as an asset for businesses and managed properly. If it’s not, then it just becomes a liability. The financial services industry is only now [...]
Miners fuel FTSE gains as Fed eyes growth January 26, 2012 The FTSE was boosted by the US Federal Reserve’s promise to keep interest rates – and therefore bond yields – ultra-low for the next couple of years while positive results from miners also contributed to gains. Fed chief Ben Bernanke said that it may consider further monetary easing and would keep rates near zero until [...]
Fed: We won’t increase ultra-low interest rates until late 2014 January 25, 2012 THE GLOBAL economy is so weak and US growth so anaemic that interest rates are unlikely to rise until late 2014, the Federal Reserve announced last night. Markets rose on the “highly accommodative” policy announcement, buoyed by the promise of cheap money for years to come. The Dow Jones rose 0.38 per cent, the Standard [...]
FTSE flat as UK recession looms January 25, 2012 The FTSE 100 was flat after optimism from strong results from Apple in the US fell away with GDP data showing that Britain is on the brink of recession. Later today the Fed will announce its interest rate decision after the European markets close, with no change expected to the US central bank’s 0.25 per [...]
Yet another fine mess in the search for a European solution January 24, 2012 EURO-DOLLAR had another up and down ride yesterday. The release of better than expected Eurozone PMI composite figures gave the pairing an initial jump, but this brief optimisim that pushed euro-dollar up to $1.3062 quickly subsided when markets were reminded that the Eurozone is fundamentally more than a little shaky. Finance ministers rejecting a 4 [...]