£10m loss for Matrix Group January 6, 2010 MATRIX Group, the financial services giant, has revealed the effects of a torrid financial year that saw it swing from the black to a £10m loss. Pre-tax profits at the group, which has operations spanning corporate capital, private equity and property, fell from £27.6m in 2007/8 to a deficit of £9.6m last year. Turnover almost [...]
BEWARE OF BOND MARKET VIGILANTES January 4, 2010 CFD MARKET STRATEGIST, GFT LAST year was an extraordinary one in the markets. Following a two-month stock market plunge as investors dumped risky assets, global indices have surged since March and proved surprisingly resilient. Every time they lost momentum or struggled to break up through resistance, they got another boost. The S&P is up 63 [...]
Slimmed down RBS?and Lloyds are attracting clever money January 4, 2010 BANKS have had a torrid time for the past year and a half. But there were signs of life yesterday, at least for some. Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS) and Lloyds Banking Group had a good start to the first trading day of 2010, rising more than 9 per cent and 3 per cent respectively. [...]
Bernanke defends Fed record but hints at rate rises to come January 4, 2010 BEN Bernanke staged a robust defence of the US Federal Reserve’s loose monetary policy in the years running up to the sub-prime crisis yesterday. The Fed chairman argued that lax regulation rather than the low cost of borrowing was to blame for the American housing bubble that began to burst in 2006. Nonetheless, he hinted [...]
Gold loses its shine as positive US data signals move away from safety December 21, 2009 NOW could be the time to go short on gold. After a stellar performance during 2010 when the precious metal reached a record high of more than $1,200, the positive trend could be about to come to an end. Investors sold off gold futures yesterday as markets await a spate of economic data releases from [...]
Improved GDP numbers will add to the growing confidence in sterling December 21, 2009 ALL the signs are pointing to an upward revision to UK GDP growth this morning. The consensus among City economists is for a smaller 0.1 percent fall in GDP in the third quarter. But there is a real possibility that growth was actually stronger and could even have been flat on the quarter. A 2 [...]
Bernanke’s nomination approved December 17, 2009 BEN Bernanke’s nomination to a second term as head of the US Federal Reserve was approved by a Senate panel yesterday despite fierce opposition from some lawmakers. Members of the Senate Banking Committee voted 16 to seven in favour of Bernanke continuing in his role following a two-hour debate that was full of both praise [...]
NEWS | IN BRIEF December 17, 2009 FedEx puts out negative forecast FedEx forecast third-quarter profit below analysts’ expectations yesterday, casting doubt on the sustainability of its holiday volume surge, and sending the package delivery giant’s shares down 4.5 per cent. The company, an economic bellwether, said it shipped 14.1m packages on Monday, its busiest day of the year, which was a [...]
US shares sink as dollar jumps higher December 17, 2009 AMERICAN stocks fell yesterday as the dollar’s rebound spurred a safe-haven trade, cutting demand for riskier assets, while a soft profit outlook from economic bellwether FedEx sank transportation shares. Financial services stocks took a beating after influential banking analyst Meredith Whitney cut her earnings estimates on Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley. The US dollar index, [...]
FED: US ECONOMY IS IMPROVING SLOWLY December 16, 2009 THE Federal Reserve last night heralded further signs of improvement to the US economy but voted to keep interest rates on hold at 0.25 per cent. The jobs market was given a special mention by the Fed which noted that “deterioration… is abating.” However, the Fed’s upbeat reference to the recession-battered US economy was not [...]