Analyst picks for 19 February 2013 February 18, 2013 CURRENCY STRATEGIST CHRIS VECCHIO My pick: Short Aussie-dollar and sterling-dollar Expertise: Fundamental and technical analysis Average time frame of trades: A few hours to a few days As European currencies have come under intense pressure recently, and the yen resumed its slide after a tepid response from the G20 nations last weekend, the dollar continues [...]
Uncertainty threatens China growth February 18, 2013 CHINA is back at work after a week-long vacation for the Lunar New Year. Around the holiday, many Chinese, eager to learn more about the year ahead, visit a feng shui master to see if the new year will bring good fortune. Veteran Beijing-based soothsayer Chen Shuaifu, who regularly advises Chinese companies, predicted the Year [...]
THE TIPSTER: KINGFISHING FOR A FIX February 18, 2013 THE challenging consumer backdrop doesn’t augur well for Kingfisher, and this will show when the retailer issues its trading update on Thursday. Shares have traded within a range between 270p and 290p for the last year. But some in-house refurbishments, like improving cost structures and gross margins, may be just the fix it needs. ETX [...]
Traders can profit from the flurry of mega-deals February 18, 2013 WILL 2013 be the year the bulge bracket banks have been waiting for? Since 2008, headline-grabbing mergers and acquisitions (M&A) deals have been few and far between. But the flurry of activity at the start of February, the most since 2005, suggests things may be about to change. Last week, Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway teamed [...]
RHETORIC RARELY SHIFTS CURRENCIES February 18, 2013 DURING the first Obama administration, Treasury secretary Tim Geithner took as many opportunities as possible to bleat about China refusing to devalue its currency – the yuan or the renminbi – against the dollar. The US and other countries were nursing gargantuan trade deficits with China. Clearly, the Chinese economic star was then in the [...]
Why some businesses will fail to see the writing on the wall February 17, 2013 IMAGINE you invent the pen in a world of only pencils. You are so excited – you are going to change people’s lives! Pens are easier to write with, easier to read, and don’t need sharpening. You dream of success. Mixed in with your excitement is a dose of paranoia. Of course, anyone could steal [...]
Salesman who still has faith in the high street February 17, 2013 SOME entrepreneurs stumble upon their calling accidentally. Not this one. The founder of one Britain’s few contemporary retail success stories describes himself as the archetypal entrepreneur. Jason Bannister had always wanted to start his own company, but didn’t always know where. A brief stint working in a golf club pro shop when he was 15 [...]
Export assistance is close at hand February 17, 2013 IN A study released last year, UK Trade and Investment (UKTI) found that British companies that export see a 34 per cent increase in productivity within their first year of selling abroad. Unfortunately, according to Ernst & Young, only one in five small to medium-sized UK firms currently do so, compared to one in four [...]
FTSE falters as Vodafone and Amec see falls February 14, 2013 BENCHMARK share index fell from five-year highs, hit by weakness at telecoms group Vodafone and engineer AMEC, although many traders stayed positive on equities for the longer term. The blue-chip FTSE 100 index, which touched a five-year intraday high on Wednesday, closed down 0.5 per cent, or 31.75 points lower, at 6,327.36 yesterday. Some traders [...]
Wall St treads water despite surge in M&A February 14, 2013 THE S&P 500 eked out a small gain for a third straight session yesterday, helped by a flurry of merger activity, though investors see no catalysts to lift the market further with major averages near multi-year highs. The market’s slowed advance took the S&P 500 to its highest intraday level since November 2007 on Wednesday. [...]