AGE STEALS A MARCH ON BEAUTY IN THE IMF LEADERSHIP CONTEST June 13, 2011 DO CITY insiders know something the rest of the world doesn’t about the IMF leadership race to replace the disgraced Dominique Strauss-Kahn? Ever since Stanley Fischer announced his bid on Saturday, the odds on the Bank of Israel governor have been steadily shortening to make him Paddy Power’s “biggest liability” – even though at 67, [...]
WAITING FOR BERNANKE TO SURPRISE US June 13, 2011 EQUITY markets continue to struggle. Last week, many major global stock indices dropped below a succession of significant technical support levels. The downside momentum appears to be picking up and so far any rallies have been unconvincing and on low volume. Investors have plenty to fret about. Europe’s political leaders can no longer delay facing [...]
Sterling’s slump is costing us all dear June 12, 2011 WELCOME to price hike Britain. Wherever one looks, consumer goods and food are becoming dearer. Energy prices are rocketing. One fundamental reason for these increases is the collapse in the value of sterling since the recession, a development which has been insufficiently well understood by the UK’s political establishment. Sterling’s slump is a dramatic reversal [...]
Mining shares rebound and oil stocks rise on supply fears June 9, 2011 MINERS rebounded from the previous day’s sharp sell-off to help push Britain’s top share index higher yesterday, while oil stocks tracked crude higher on supply fears. The FTSE 100 closed up 47.45 points, or 0.8 per cent, at 5,856.34, having bounced well clear of the session low of 5,795.00, although thin volumes exaggerated the index’s [...]
Wall Street ends its six-day losing streak June 9, 2011 WALL Street ended higher for the first time in over a week yesterday, with the Dow and the S&P 500 rising 1 per cent at one point, but many analysts saw the rebound as short-lived. A report showing record US exports in April eased some concerns about a stalled economic recovery, which had been weighing [...]
Fitch to downgrade US if debt repayments missed June 8, 2011 AMERICA could lose its AAA credit rating if the government fails to raise its debt ceiling and subsequently misses interest payments in August, leading ratings agency Fitch warned yesterday. Some Republicans have been flirting with the notion that a brief US default might be an acceptable price to pay if it forces the White House [...]
Growth worries hit Wall St for sixth day June 8, 2011 US STOCKS extended losses for the sixth straight day yesterday as investors worried that a slowing economy could deepen the market’s retreat. The latest evidence of a slowdown came in the Federal Reserve’s Beige Book, which gives an anecdotal report on the economy. It reinforced Fed chief Ben Bernanke’s bearish assessment on growth delivered late [...]
US stocks dip after Fed’s Bernanke talks down QE3 June 7, 2011 STOCKS in the US dropped last night after Federal Reserve chief Ben Bernanke acknowledged a slowdown in the economy, but offered no suggestion of a third round of quantitative easing (dubbed QE3). The Dow Jones industrial average fell 0.16 per cent to end at 12,070.81, while the Standard & Poor’s 500 Index slipped 0.09 per [...]
Profitable carry trading from a land down under June 7, 2011 THE currency market’s attention has been focused on the announcements made by the US Federal Reserve, the Bank of England and the European Central Bank. But at the same time, there are a large number of traders taking advantage of the policies of other central banks, such as the Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA), and [...]
FED’S PLOSSER: US STILL NEEDS TO TIGHTEN June 6, 2011 AMERICAN monetary policy could be tightened by the end of the year despite weak jobs figures from last week, the Federal Reserve’s Charles Plosser said yesterday. “I’m not seeing anything fundamental has changed in my view of the medium term outlook,” the hawkish Fed official said. Asked about a further programme of quantitative easing, dubbed “QE3”, [...]