EU’s Maginot line policy is a fudge May 25, 2010 DICK TURPIN MANAGING DIRECTOR, ARTEMIS SO THE $1 trillion European bailout just isn’t working. So ein Mist, what a dung-heap, mutters German Chancellor Merkel, lugubriously. But investors know that Europe has long excelled at self-delusion. For example, in 1929 somehow the French convinced themselves that the Nazis could be kept out by a wall. As [...]
FUND MANAGEMENT NEWS May 25, 2010 AGRIBUSINESS FUND COMES ONSHORE A new onshore Global Agribusiness Fund by First State Investments will aim to deliver low-risk, long-term returns to UK and European investors from a portfolio of between 25 and 75 stocks. It has announced its intention to take advantage of what it sees as “a combination of rising demand and constrained [...]
Rollercoaster forex markets are here to stay May 25, 2010 IN THE current environment it can be difficult to judge where the financial markets are going even one month ahead let alone 10 years, but that is just what UBS, the investment bank, has done. It published its FX mega trends 2010-2020 report earlier this week, and the overriding theme is volatility. The bank notes [...]
Thai currency flourishing despite political turmoil May 25, 2010 WHEN a country falls into political turmoil, it normally spells bad news for both its markets and its currency as worried investors pull out until the situation has calmed down. Not so Thailand. Admittedly, the South-East Asian country has suffered sharp falls in its stock market – the market itself was closed for two days [...]
BROKEN EURO TROUBLE FOR CHINA AND US May 25, 2010 BORIS SCHLOSSBERG DIRECTOR OF CURRENCY RESEARCH, GFT WITH the yuan up nearly 15 per cent against the euro this year, there was some speculation in the market last week that the People’s Bank of China (PBOC) was a major buyer of the currency as Chinese monetary officials tried to slow the chaotic sell-off. A drop [...]
THE TIPSTER May 25, 2010 THE yen has been appreciating steadily against the greenback since the start of May. There have been some suggestions that the yen is seen as a safe haven but the fundamentals coming out of Japan still all too often make for difficult reading. For example, public debt is extremely high at 180 per cent of [...]
FOREX FLASH May 25, 2010 US-CHINA TALKS CENTRE ON YUAN PEG At the close of talks between the US and China this week, US Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner voiced a growing hope that China might end its most recent yuan peg to the dollar, telling Bloomberg Television that he was “as confident as I’ve ever been” that Beijing would soon [...]
Bleak picture in UK markets as shares tumble on Eurozone and Korea fears May 25, 2010 BRITAIN’S leading shares tumbled yesterday, laid low by big falls from banks and commodity issues as ongoing euro zone debt contagion fears and rising tensions in Korea kept investors wary. By the close, the FTSE 100 index was down 128.93 points, or 2.5 per cent, at 4,940.68, having touched an eight-and-a-half month low of 4,898.49 [...]
US stocks stage late rally to counteract euro fears May 25, 2010 US stocks staged a furious late-day rally yesterday to push the S&P 500 into positive territory as the focus shifted from European debt woes to buying after shares hit six-month lows. Major US indexes had fallen more than three per cent early in the session. The morning’s action reflected the market’s nervousness as the S&P [...]
New FSA vetting regime changing life in the City May 25, 2010 LAST week, the FSA secured an undertaking from former senior RBS executive Johnny Cameron that he would not work full-time in the financial services industry again. This weekend it emerged that ex-Morgan Stanley executive John Hyman would not be going through with his planned move to Nomura because the regulator had asked that his FSA [...]
