FTSE 100 soars to a 4 1/2-year high as investors take heart from the US January 21, 2013 BRITAIN’S FTSE 100 scaled fresh 4-1/2 year peaks yesterday, with signs of progress in US budget talks encouraging investors’ shift from low-yielding government bonds into higher risk, higher return equities. US Republican leaders signalled they would allow the government to raise the debt ceiling and borrow to prevent a default in the next three months [...]
Investors sell off European luxury shares January 21, 2013 EUROPEAN shares rose yesterday, climbing back towards near two-year highs, as investors bought back into relatively “undervalued” sectors such as utilities and steel as they bet Europe’s economy will improve. A sell-off in luxury stocks capped gains, however, sparked by comments from Swiss watch maker Richemont about weak sales growth in China. Its shares lost [...]
Japan hopes to stimulate itself back to prosperity January 21, 2013 SINCE taking office in December, the Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe has been determined to throw everything he can at his economy to try to get it moving again. As well as a massive ¥10.3 trillion (£72bn) government stimulus package, the newly-installed Japanese government has fixed the strong yen in its sights, and has made [...]
Bank recovery is unlikely but true January 21, 2013 Chief Market Strategist, Cantor Index WHO would have thought that the banking sector would make such a spectacular recovery in 2012? And who expected it would do so in the wake of a breathtakingly toxic European sovereign debt crisis, which came to a crescendo when the European Central Bank president Mario Draghi made that immortal [...]
The Tipster | The glass is half Fullers January 21, 2013 THE glass is half-full for Fuller Smith Turner. Backed by steady growing turnover and profit, the brewer’s shares have risen by nearly 9 per cent over the last year. Like-for-like sales over Christmas and the New Year are also expected to be up, giving traders something to toast when it issues an interim management statement [...]
Davos never fixes global economy January 21, 2013 ENOUGH is enough. No more snow please. As an Englishman, I know deep down we are atrocious at handling Alpine conditions in this country. Britain’s recent heavy snowfall is threatening to send the country flying into a triple dip (or whatever number we are up to now) recession, as the UK economy grinds to a [...]
Analyst picks for 22 January 2013 January 21, 2013 CURRENCY STRATEGIST CHRIS VECCHIO My pick: Short Aussie dollar-yen, euro-yen and dollar-yen Expertise: Fundamental and technical analysis Average time frame of trades: A few hours to a few days The Bank of Japan’s policy meeting on 22 January should formally usher in new ultra dovish monetary policies. The yen remains oversold – we recently saw [...]
Figures to show the state of the UK economy as Davos meeting begins January 20, 2013 FIGURES this week from the Office for National Statistics will reveal whether the UK economy shrank in the fourth quarter of 2012 and over the year as a whole. “We expect the economy to have contracted by 0.2 per cent quarter-on-quarter in the fourth quarter of last year which would limit year-on-year growth to 0.2 [...]
US earnings likely to push stocks higher January 20, 2013 WITH earnings momentum on the rise, the S&P 500 seems to have few hurdles ahead as it continues to power forward, its all-time high a not-so-distant goal. The US equity benchmark closed last week at a new five-year high on strong housing and labour market data and a string of earnings that beat lowered expectations. [...]
There are pitfalls to avoid when filing your tax return January 20, 2013 THE online tax return deadline – the paper return deadline has long since past – is at the end of this month (31 January). The process is a dreaded one, but it is important to get it right. Recently the number of people who are self-employed has been on the rise – but they’re not [...]
