S&P 500 is on the edge of a painful correction January 23, 2011 THE SCOTTISH journalist Bertie Charles Forbes once said: “Optimism is the stuff of which American business success is fashioned”. He would have seen much to be happy about in the USA now. Though unemployment remains stubbornly high, American investors at least are seeing the bright side. The S&P 500 index of stocks has rallied by [...]
THE WEEK AHEAD January 23, 2011 COMPANY NEWS ● Electronics company Philips publishes its 2010 full year results on Monday. ● Sodexo, the food services provider, releases its first quarter 2011 results on Monday. ● Tuesday sees Ericsson report its fourth quarter 2010 results and Siemens its first quarter 2011 results. ● WH Smiths will hold its annual general meeting and issue [...]
THE TIPSTER January 23, 2011 AN INTERIM management statement is due from Sage, the software service provider, on Wednesday. Renewed confidence in the economy should bode well for the company, which has seen shares creep back to the levels it achieved before the credit crunch. Admittedly, the stock remains a long way below the all time highs of the dot-com [...]
Saving up your coppers in the vault January 20, 2011 IN JOSEPH HELLER’S modern classic, Catch 22, the entrepreneurial mess officer Milo Minderbinder seizes the opportunity to buy up the entire Egyptian cotton crop. The result is a disaster – Milo finds himself unable to sell the cotton to anyone. After trying to turn it into food, eventually he unloads it onto the government. Today [...]
FTSE mining and auto stocks hit by China tightening fears January 20, 2011 BRITAIN’S top share index sank to its lowest closing level in more than five weeks yesterday, weighed down by mining stocks on concerns over potential further monetary tightening by China and its impact on demand. The FTSE 100 closed down 108.79 points, or 1.8 per cent, at 5,867.91, its lowest close since December 13. Miners [...]
Lacklustre earnings send Wall St lower January 20, 2011 US stocks fell yesteray as lacklustre tech and materials earnings failed to live up to heightened expectations, threatening to short-circuit a seven-week run. Declines were milder than on Wednesday, when a sharp drop pulled the market off two-year highs. Morgan Stanley posted stronger-than-expected revenue to help the banking sector rise modestly, and rose 4.6 per [...]
The disastrous date that made Mr & Mrs Smith January 20, 2011 PICTURE this: you’ve just started dating a gorgeous girl and she agrees to go away for the weekend with you. You’re excited, you want to spoil her, so you book a spa. Things are going well. You managed to clean out all the junk food boxes on the back seat of your car and you [...]
NEW PARENTAL LEAVE RULES HARM SMES January 20, 2011 ENTREPRENEUR I AM not anti-parental leave, but as the owner of a successful international business and the mother of three, I feel more entitled than most to say that Nick Clegg’s proposals for shared parental leave are unworkable for small and medium-sized businesses (SME). My view may seem drastic but my business started off small [...]
Diversity on MBA courses means that everyone’s a winner January 19, 2011 DIVERSITY is important for MBAs, not just because a class made up of people from varied backgrounds makes for a better learning experience but because it improves your prospects afterwards. For many MBAs the most valuable thing is a global network of contacts, and the more diverse, the better. Schools have been aware of this [...]
Rankings are not the best way to choose your MBA January 19, 2011 WHICH is the best MBA course in the world? According to the FT’s rankings it’s the one at London Business School, followed by those at Wharton, Harvard and Stanford. Argument over? Not quite. If you had instead chosen the Economist’s list, you would be under the impression that Booth School of Business at the University of [...]