The land of opportunity May 18, 2010 WHILE Europe desperately struggles to escape Greek contagion, the US is fighting its way out of recession. In the first three months of 2010, US GDP rose 0.8 per cent, putting the annualised rate at 3.2 per cent. Over the same period, Germany and the UK grew just 0.2 per cent, France and Spain grew [...]
LESS ACTION WOULD HELP THE MARKET May 18, 2010 MANAGING DIRECTOR, ARTEMIS PHEW. We all like a bit of excitement. But this is getting ridiculous. After the euro’s crisis and the forming of the UK’s coalition government, we could all do with a rest. If the FTSE 100 index could just get back to – and hold – 5,400 for a while, that would [...]
Treat yourself to a taste of luxury this year May 18, 2010 POSH frocks and designer handbags come in and out of fashion, but the companies that make them can be a prudent investment. Luxury stocks held up pretty well during the recession and there are now some signs that they will lead the pack as the global economic recovery gathers pace. Hermes, the French designer brand, [...]
FUND MANAGEMENT NEWS May 18, 2010 UK IS ABSOLUTE DIAMOND FOR GARTMORE Gartmore has been in the news recently for all of the wrong reasons. However, the fund manager has finally got something to celebrate. Its UK Absolute Return Fund, managed by Ben Wallace and Luke Newman, had its 10 year anniversary this week, and to top it off it posted [...]
Scandinavia is protected from Europe’s crisis May 18, 2010 IF YOU’VE read the popular Millennium Trilogy by Swedish crime author Stieg Larsson, any clichéd idea you may have had that Sweden is some kind of socially liberal paradise will have been put to the test. If there’s any truth beneath Larsson’s fiction, it’s that, like any European country, Sweden has its fair share of [...]
TIME TO SELL UP IN MAY AND GO AWAY May 18, 2010 DIRECTOR OF CURRENCY RESEARCH, GFT IS the UK the next Greece? Some analysts in the currency market are starting to think so. Last weekend’s revelations that the former Labour government boosted spending by £12bn in the final days of its administration pushed cable to fresh yearly lows of $1.4250. With a budget deficit of nearly [...]
The euro is still looking overvalued May 18, 2010 THE euro has taken a breather. After a steep decline last week the single currency has gained some ground against the US dollar, and has stabilised around the $1.24 level. This has commentators asking out loud if the euro is now due a correction higher. But is it a good time to take a long [...]
THE TIPSTER May 18, 2010 THE decline in the oil price has seen the Canadian dollar slide against the resurgent greenback from its recent flirtation with parity. Due to the link between the oil price and the Canadian currency, since Canada is a major producer of oil, any further weakness in the oil price could well undermine the loonie further. [...]
Proposed cap on migration just a smoke screen May 18, 2010 PARTNER, LEWIS SILKIN APART from the economy, the most hotly debated issue between the three major parties in the election was immigration. The policies of the Conservatives and Liberal Democrats were completely at odds; the Conservatives favouring a cap on migration and the Liberal Democrats an amnesty for illegal immigrants. Now the negotiations to form [...]
More clarity is needed to stop market mix-ups May 18, 2010 PARTNER, REED SMITH INVESTOR claims for mis-selling of derivatives inevitably follow market collapses. So do calls for regulatory reform. A primary objective of financial services regulation is to protect investors. This cannot mean ensuring that buyers and sellers of derivatives will never suffer a loss. The derivatives market is a zero sum game: market participants [...]
