Gains in banking shares lead the FTSE to a six-week high March 2, 2010 BRITAIN’S top share index hit a six-week closing high yesterday and rose for a third straight session, led by banks with HSBC firmer after the previous session’s post results sell-off. The FTSE 100 closed up 78.12 points, or 1.45 per cent, at 5,484.06, its highest closing level since January 19, after climbing 1 per cent [...]
Investors growing wary over job data March 2, 2010 US stocks ended slightly higher yesterday as mergers and acquisitions supported selected sectors, but investors pulled back from recent gains in some big-cap technology and bank shares. The S&P 500 has risen for eight of the past 11 trading days, but there were signs of fatigue as investors grew cautious in advance of key employment [...]
QE means the pound has further to fall this year March 2, 2010 EVER since Dubai plunged into crisis last November, the question of which indebted sovereign state would be next to topple has been uppermost in investors’ minds. Greece – the likeliest suspect at the time of the Dubai crisis – quickly descended into its own fiscal turmoil at the start of 2010, while the effect of [...]
Eastern promise for traders in Turkey March 2, 2010 ONE consequence of the Greek debt crisis has been a re-ordering of global risk sentiment. The problems plaguing the economies of southern Europe, including Greece and Spain, have brought into sharp relief the budget deficits burdening Western economies such as the UK, the US and Europe, where growth is expected to remain sluggish and interest [...]
POUND COULD HIT PARITY WITH DOLLAR March 2, 2010 BORIS SCHLOSSBERG DIRECTOR OF CURRENCY RESEARCH, GFT LAST week I was on CNBC Europe when a viewer asked – will the euro go to parity against the dollar? I was surprised by the question, replying that despite the current turmoil in the Eurozone, such talk was a bit premature and reminded the audience that less [...]
THE TIPSTER March 2, 2010 WITH all attention on the plunging pound this week, the euro has been relatively quiet. But euro-US dollar could come back to centre stage since the clock is ticking for the Greek government to demonstrate that it’s taking effective steps to reduce its huge debt. Prime Minister Papandreou meets Angela Merkel of Germany on Friday [...]
FSA’s fine means Lehman cases are on the cards March 2, 2010 LAURENCE LIEBERMAN FINANCIAL DISPUTES PARTNER AT TAYLOR WESSING LAST Thursday, the FSA fined RSM Tenon Financial Services £700,000 for failings in its advice and sales processes relating to Lehman-backed structured products between 1 November 2007 and 31 August 2008. Tenon was also directed to conduct a past-business review and compensate those customers that it determines [...]
English fraud law is powerful and popular March 2, 2010 STEVEN RICHARDS ASSOCIATE AT JONES DAY THE recent case of Binyam Mohammed, in which the former Guantanamo detainee was successful in obtaining the disclosure from the UK government of documents relating to his alleged mistreatment by foreign personnel at a US base in Afghanistan, might not seem to have a lot to do with fraud [...]
It’s the moment to buy oversold Greek stocks March 1, 2010 FOLLOWING weeks of turmoil, it looks like the worst of Greece’s debt problems are over, at least for the time being. Talk of a rescue plan and encouraging news on the budget deficit are restoring some confidence. Could now be the time to invest in Greece? The Greek stock market has dropped 36 per cent [...]
WAITING FOR OBAMA TO CALL THE TOP March 1, 2010 DAVID MORRISON CFD MARKET STRATEGIST, GFT ON 3 March 2009, US President Obama became a stock market guru when he delivered the following to investors: “What you’re now seeing is profit and earnings ratios starting to get to the point where buying stocks is a potentially good deal if you’ve got a long-term perspective on [...]