Housing market confidence takes a knock as job losses worry owners July 6, 2010 CONFIDENCE in the housing market dipped slightly last month, as worries about interest rate rises and job losses loomed over homeowners, according to a survey released yesterday. Just over three-quarters of homeowners believe property prices will rise in the next six months, down from 81 per cent who predicted gains in April. Around 27 per [...]
LABOUR DATA IS A WORRY FOR THE US July 5, 2010 CFD MARKET STRATEGIST, GFT FOR many investors the long weekend in the US couldn’t have come at a better time. On top of Europe’s sovereign debt problems, and signs that Chinese growth is slowing, recent data from the US suggests that the much-hyped economic recovery may be reversing. We have seen housing data sour following [...]
The real causes of the crisis of 2008 July 1, 2010 FOR all the latest furore surrounding bankers’ bonuses and the rest, we have yet again lost sight of how the crisis actually began, and politicians and regulators’ central role in promoting it. There were many factors, of course, with private institutions often behaving foolishly – but sub-prime lending, the crisis’ central catalyst, was promoted by [...]
BoE: Mortgage crunch ahead July 1, 2010 HOMEBUYERS were warned yesterday by the Bank of England that it would be more difficult for them to obtain a mortgage over the coming quarter as lenders anticipated a tightening in wholesale funding market conditions. Availability of secured credit had risen slightly in the three months to early June 2010, the Bank said. However, individuals’ [...]
Worst quarter for stocks since 2008 June 30, 2010 THE stock market closed out a painful second quarter yesterday and left investors with heavy losses and far more doubts about the economy than they had just months ago. Stocks had their worst quarterly performance since the financial crisis. The Standard & Poor’s 500 index, considered by many professional investors to be the best measure [...]
BEST OF THE BROKERS June 30, 2010 LLOYDS BANKING GROUP Credit Suisse has given Lloyds Banking Group an “outperform” rating. It upgraded forecasts for the bank last month after flagging that sustained low interest rates would allow for a £4bn increase in mortgage revenues over the next three years. Base rate expectations have since fallen to record lows, notes Credit Suisse. RESOLUTION [...]
M4 money supply feels QE effect June 29, 2010 THE supply of money in the UK grew at its fastest rate since the fourth quarter of 2007 in the three months to May as the impact of the Bank of England’s quantitative easing policy starts to be felt, data issued by the central bank showed yesterday. The Bank reported that the three-month annualised growth [...]
Risk aversion will undermine euro June 29, 2010 DEMAND for risky assets has been undermined this week by concerns about both the strength of the US recovery and that Chinese growth may not be as rapid as had previously been thought. The euro has also started to wobble again, destabilised by a resurgence in fears about Europe’s banking sector. These worries about the [...]
Stan Chart in line for $6bn June 28, 2010 STANDARD Chartered stayed on track to deliver around $6bn (£4bn) in full-year pre-tax profits yesterday as it said its consumer and wholesale divisions traded strongly in the first half. The London-listed bank, which focuses on Asia, said improving economic conditions and client confidence meant income and profits ran at record levels for the five months [...]
Aldermore to deliver profit June 28, 2010 ALDERMORE, Britain’s first private equity-backed bank, expects to turn a profit this year, less than 18 months after it began lending to small businesses and entrepreneurs. The institution, which is owned by buyout house AnaCap and investment bank Morgan Stanley, is eyeing a small gain after its commercial mortgages, asset finance and invoice finance arms [...]