EQUITIES DROP IN THE FACE OF OIL PRICE RISE February 28, 2011 LAST week provided a reminder that equities can go down as well as up. Although the sell-off was small in percentage terms, it has been a long time since the major global stock indices experienced a number of successive losing days. The pull-back was triggered by strength in the oil price. Brent crude finished up [...]
Fault Lines at the heart of UK politics February 28, 2011 THERE is a new, fascinating argument in British politics, one which will frame the debate for a long time to come. If Ed Miliband is to be believed, the demand for cheap credit prior to the crash was “because wages weren’t keeping up with the pressures on families: too many were forced to borrow to [...]
CONSIDER HALTING QE2, SAYS FED’S BULLARD February 28, 2011 THE US Federal Reserve should halt its second phase of quantitative easing (QE2) if the recovery proves strong enough, senior official James Bullard said yesterday. “My colleagues are enamoured with big numbers and I don’t like that,” he said, referring to the $600bn (£369.2bn) bond buying programme set to run to the middle of this [...]
Wall Street finishes February on a high February 28, 2011 BULLISH comments from Warren Buffett helped US stocks end another good month on a high note yesterday, but uncertainty about oil prices could keep investors from pushing the market much higher. A sign stocks may stall out was evident in the lacklustre volume, in contrast with last week’s selloff, which occurred on heavy volume. Just [...]
WHAT THE OTHER PAPERS SAY THIS MORNING February 23, 2011 FINANCIAL TIMES N IRELAND’S ECONOMIC WOES BOOST TERROR GROUPS, WARN OFFICIALS The parlous state of Northern Ireland’s economy is acting as a recruiting sergeant for dissident republican groups, senior police and security figures warned, raising questions about the pace of spending cuts in the region. The province’s power-sharing executive has been told to find savings [...]
Wareing’s next stop: St Pancras February 23, 2011 MARCUS Wareing appears, sleek in dark clothes, at the building site that is soon to be the Gilbert Scott, his first restaurant since his flagship at the Berkeley. With his silky-looking clothes, graceful step and searing blue eyes, he looks like what he is: the sort of man who understands and presides over Michelin stars [...]
Three year high for US morale February 22, 2011 AMERICAN consumers are the most upbeat they have been since February 2008 as the US economy continues to rebound, official data showed yesterday. “Rising equity prices, falling unemployment and the boost to disposable incomes from the payroll tax cut are more than offsetting the effects of higher gasoline prices and lower house prices,” commented Paul [...]
Worst Wall Street drop since August February 22, 2011 WALL Street suffered its worst day since August yesterday as investors dumped stocks on turmoil in oil exporter Libya, in what could be the start of a long-anticipated pullback after a lengthy rally. Rising volatility and heavy volume added heft to the possibility of a larger pullback. With 9.76bn shares traded on the New York [...]
Why I don’t believe rates should be going up February 20, 2011 The Bank of England releases its latest minutes this week and so the great rate debate continues. Will anybody have joined Andrew Sentance and Martin Weale in voting to hike? Many argue raising domestic rates can’t curb imported inflation but Sentance points out it might strengthen sterling, which would help. In practice, every currency analyst [...]
New regulator draws on old hands for external members February 17, 2011 THE government yesterday appointed four external members to the board of a new regulator that is meant to replace the FSA and prevent future financial crashes – the Financial Policy Committee (FPC). It also released a new consultation paper on the committee that some said showed it had scaled down its ambitions for the regulator and [...]