International Power leading the way for defensive stocks August 11, 2009 THE LARGE cap index shed 1.1 per cent yesterday, knocked by weakness in heavyweight banks, miners, and oils, but defensive stocks were back in favour once again. The FTSE 100 was 50.86 points lower at 4,671.34 by the close of the session, weakening for a second day after hitting a 10-month closing high of 4,731.56 [...]
US shares slide on bank sector fears August 11, 2009 US stocks fell yesterday after a prominent banking analyst warned the sector’s fundamentals have yet to improve, and an unexpectedly large drop in wholesale inventories raised worries about an economic recovery. Financial stocks, which had gained about 25 per cent in the last month, tumbled after Rochdale Securities analyst Richard Bove painted a gloomy outlook [...]
WHAT THE OTHER PAPERS SAY THIS MORNING August 2, 2009 THE SUNDAYSThe Sunday TelegraphDSG CHAIR ABANDONS CRYSTAL BALLThe outgoing chairman of DSG International, the Currys owner, has described the reduction in the retailer’s market size as “painful” and admitted he failed to see the downturn coming. Sir John Collins said he told John Browett, the electrical retailer’s chief executive, not to worry about the prospect [...]
US economy slows its slide July 29, 2009 THE Federal Reserve said yesterday the pace of the recession has stabilised in most areas of the US, in a report that pointed to protracted job market weakness even as the economy transitions to recovery. Labour markets across the country were “extremely soft,” with little upward pressure on wages, the Fed said in its Beige [...]
China’s banks weigh heavily on Wall St July 29, 2009 US STOCKS fell yesterday as investors worried that China’s banks could hit the brakes on lending to stem market excesses, a move that could curb the global economic recovery. Concerns about China hurt commodity prices and hit shares in the energy and raw materials sectors, while a steep drop in US durable goods orders in [...]
Nomura in Fed securities role July 27, 2009 THE New York Federal Reserve yesterday named Japan’s Nomura Securities International as a US primary dealer of Treasury securities, effective immediately. The addition of Nomura, a unit of Nomura Holdings, increases the number of firms that deal directly with the US Federal Reserve to 18. Primary dealers are required to bid at Treasury auctions, and [...]
Things are still bad but not disastrous July 23, 2009 WE will know this morning by how much the British economy shrank in the second quarter. The good news, if one can call it that, is that the official figures will confirm that after falling off a cliff in the first quarter, economic output fell by much less in the subsequent three months. And although [...]
Pick wisely and small cap firms could prove a real goldmine July 22, 2009 INVESTING in small companies has traditionally been seen as a risky business, reserved only for those with plenty of experience and deep pockets. But with global diversified blue-chip stocks running into trouble, it is no surprise that investors have started to see the lower echelons of the FTSE index as more attractive. Indeed, only last [...]
Bernanke cautious on recovery July 21, 2009 THE Federal Reserve is in no hurry to tighten monetary policy because the US economy is still too fragile, Ben Bernanke said yesterday. Delivering his twice-yearly testimonial to the US Congress, the Fed chairman said unemployment was set to remain high until 2011 so it was not the right time for “exit strategies” such as [...]
Brown must follow Bernanke’s advice July 21, 2009 MUCH of what Ben Bernanke, the Federal Reserve chairman, had to say last night could easily be transposed to the UK. He made several main points in his testimony to Congress, most of which are relevant to Britain. The rate of decline in the US economy has slowed significantly, demand and production are beginning to [...]