WALL STREET WEEK AHEAD February 12, 2012 DESPITE a mediocre earnings season and signs of an overbought market, Wall Street bulls are likely to remain in control this week. So far in this earnings season, 352 companies in the S&P 500 have reported results, of which only 63 percent have beaten Wall Street estimates. This compares to a beat rate of about [...]
No quick fix to US jobs crisis February 7, 2012 UNEMPLOYMENT in the US remains elevated and is some way from a significant improvement, the head of the Federal Reserve said yesterday. Despite positive recent jobs data, Ben Bernanke warned: “Given the anticipated modest pace of economic recovery, the committee expects that over coming quarters the unemployment rate will decline only gradually”. The official unemployment [...]
Carry on carry trading the Aussie dollar as rates held February 7, 2012 THE Reserve Bank of Australia caught the markets by surprise after holding interest rates yesterday – contrary to the expected cut. With December retail figures contracting, house prices dropping an average of 4.8 per cent year-on-year and housing construction in a 20 month slump, traders were poised for a 0.25 per cent cut in rate [...]
TOP FED OFFICIAL HITS OUT AT LOW RATES February 6, 2012 Years of ultra-low interest rates, which the Federal Reserve is advocating, distort and damage the economy by hitting savers and paring back savers’ spending at a time when consumers are increasingly reluctant to borrow, St Louis Fed president James Bullard argued yesterday. As a result, current policies will fail, he said.
A NEW THEME FOR THE EURO DESPITE AN AILING ATHENS February 6, 2012 ANOTHER week has passed by without a deal from Athens and the currency markets are clearly starting to suffer from headline fatigue. While the risks are quite serious, the markets continue to believe in an 11th hour deal – which is why the fallout in the euro has been relatively modest. Yet the longer the [...]
Fed: cut harder but slower February 2, 2012 AMERICA’S public finances are “clearly unsustainble”, Ben Bernanke said yesterday – although the Federal Reserve chief advised the government against immediate strong cuts. Referring to the need for fiscal consolidation, Bernanke told the House budget committee that “even more aggressive strategies than have been pursued recently are warranted over the longer term”. Yet he warned [...]
RAPID RESPONSES February 2, 2012 Get up, stand up Great article by Gina Miller (Join our campaign to fight fund managers’ high fees and lack of transparency, Wednesday). Financial services, as an industry, has always been overpriced for the value it adds. Transparent performance related charges for investment products is the way to go, especially if they are returnable when [...]
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 [...]