Search

FTAlphavilleFT Alphaville is a 2008 Webby Award Winner

Log in

Register for a free account

Principal content

• Today
• M&A
• Private equity
• Hedge funds
• Capital markets
• People

Markets live transcript 9 May 2008

Markets live chat transcript for the chat ending at 12:03 on 9 May 2008. Participants in this chat were: Paul Murphy (PM) Neil Hume (NH)

PM:

Hello welcome to Markets Live

PM:

Daily stock chat here on FT Alphaville

PM:

Neil Hume is back

PM:

I think we should be able to see the difference straight away.

NH:

what do you mean

PM:

Hmm. Think we need a bit more evidence to work on.

NH:

????

PM:

Neil, can you describe the mood amongst equity traders and speculators in London this morning.

NH:

Pretty glum actually.

PM:

What kind of “glum” Neil?

NH:

Glum glum – that sort of glum

PM:

Hmm. I think you might need a few more lessons.

NH:

Don’t blab

PM:

Sorry, I already have.

PM:

I put a promo up for ML and mentioned in that that you were having writing lessons and might be late.

NH:

Oh, thanks a lot.

NH:

Any embarrassing personal bits and pieces of yours that you’d like me to share with the readers?

PM:

PM:

We jest of course. Everyone here goes on writing training courses – though I can see the readership shouting a collective “DOESN’T SHOW!”

NH:

Guy called Graham Watt – who used to be a senior editor here at the FT – he comes in to do them.

NH:

very interesting actually

PM:

I haven’t made it up to the writing course yet.

PM:

Got to do spealling first.

NH:

Anyway – that’s enough of that.

PM:

Let’s get on. What is going on.

PM:

NH:

I guess we should have a look at the wider market

PM:

Jeepers

PM:

hadnt realised the footsie was almost a ton down

NH:

yeah, let’s see what’s causing it

PM:

FTSE off 90 at 6181

PM:

Just looking thru the sensitivity analysis

NH:

yes, looks like banks, miners and some teleco stocks doing the damage

NH:

probably a bit of overdue profit taking

PM:

And as Monkey points out there has been plenty of chatter about probs with leveraged loans etc

NH:

might have an explanation for the move in some of the miners

NH:

this just landed in my in-box

NH:

LOOK OUT COPPER!!! we just saw 11kt of copper ‘dumped’ onto LME - an overnight increase of 10%! This is HUGE and likely to put cu px under pressure. In Europe, cu plays are ANTO, KAZ, KGHM, VED and FQM…

NH:

VP, that would weigh on Kazakhmys

NH:

and I agree that story about a £25 bid from ENRC is nuts

NH:

in fact one persom close to the deal told us yesterday that anybody who thinks ENRC would pay £25 must be smoking crack

NH:

and we also reckon, Kaz might look to slot its stake in ENRC at the earliest possibility

NH:

apparently that is June 6

Kazakhmys (KAZ:LSE): Last: 1,837, down 77 (-4.02%), High: 1,924, Low: 1,833, Volume: 785.71k

Antofagasta (ANTO:LSE): Last: 778.00, down 31.5 (-3.89%), High: 807.50, Low: 772.50, Volume: 1.17m

NH:

but I think this copper story could be really interesting. I will get the comod guys on to it

PM:

Here’s a reuters story on the matter

PM:

LONDON, May 9 (Reuters) - Copper prices fell almost 1.5 percent on Friday as a massive rise in London and Shanghai stocks raised concerns about demand from China, traders and analysts said.

Copper for delivery in three months on the London Metal Exchange fell as low as $8,181 per tonne and was last at $8,185/8,195 per tonne versus $8,300 on Thursday.

“Copper is falling because of a combination of stock increase in two key markets — London and Shanghai,” analyst Nick Moore at ABN Amro (nyse: ABN - news - people ) said. “That fits with the concerns about slowing Chinese demand.”

Copper inventories in warehouses monitored by the Shanghai Futures Exchange increased 10 percent in the week to Thursday, or by around 4,600 tonnes to 51,119 tonnes.

In LME registered warehouses, stocks jumped by a hefty 11,150 tonnes to 121,275 tonnes, with all the new material being delivered to South Asian warehouses.

“South Asia is a region with good demand, which means that this rise is more likely to be caused by excess material in the market, stored until it is going to be used,” an LME trader said.

Worries about the demand from China, where all the investors put their bets on for strong demand in the absence of buying from the United States amid a slowdown, have been weighing on copper.

The metal, used extensively in construction, touched a record high of $8,880 per tonne in mid-April on news that workers at Codelco, the world’s top copper producer, were going on strike.

NH:

while we are looking at the miners, we should take a quick peak at the performance of the UK’s latest mining company

PM:

Oh yeah — wots that?

NH:

Fresnillo

PM:

????

NH:

well, it’s not English obviously

NH:

Mexican silver producer

NH:

now, as you might have gussed we are no experts on commods

PM:

NH:

but I always thought silver was a really dull market

PM:

you may well be right, but…

NH:

anyway, following on from New World Resources, this thing has listed this morning

NH:

and it is not going that well

PM:

Ah — wot did it float at?

NH:

555p

PM:

Price now?

NH:

right, they are trading Whe Issued

NH:

and they are now at 525p

PM:

Oh. dear. me

NH:

been as low as 502p

PM:

What a mess — first day

PM:

With no adverse news flow

PM:

What can the problem be?

NH:

gues who has brought this company to market???

PM:

Ian Hannam

PM:

JPM Caz

PM:

Fresnillo joins the FTSE Hannam index

NH:

what

PM:

You know the Telegraph have done this Little Englander index

PM:

Well we can embrace something more cosmopolitan

NH:

how many companies in the FTSE 100 has he listed??

PM:

Oh i dont — but a lot

NH:

most of the mines, most of the South Africa companies and some of the dual listed stuff

PM:

We could do a JV with him and have the AVIH 100

NH:

I might get into with Thomson Reuters and see if they can construct an index

NH:

would be a real emerging markets play

PM:

Actually — this could go a long way — we could construct baskets for lots of individual corporate financiers

PM:

And see how they’ve faired

PM:

We could even do it with individual felts

NH:

what, a basket of PR stocks

PM:

Not PR stocks — companies allocated to individual PRs

PM:

Like the Simon Goodley basket

PM:

Anyway — lets try and get back on track

PM:

PM:

Whats going on?

NH:

A real buzz around in Intercontinental Hotels this morning

PM:

really why is that?

NH:

stake building rumours

PM:

what, again?

NH:

yep

PM:

not the Barclays Brothers again

NH:

no, this one is different

NH:

but for the record the Barclay Bros do have a holding

NH:

and it is 10 per cent

NH:

through a vehicle called Ellerman

NH:

and once there was a theory that the Barclays would bid

NH:

anyway, now I am being told from a very good source

PM:

how good?/

NH:

NH:

that another stakebuilder is at work

NH:

apparently it is one of India’s richest families

PM:

how interesting

PM:

PM:

what’s the volume like at the moment??

NH:

pretty average - just under 1m shares

NH:

and the stock is off 8p at 838p

NH:

but I still think there could be something in this story

PM:

Why so confident?

NH:

apart from a few flagship hotels, IHG is basically a franchise operation

NH:

and it has big expansion plans in China

NH:

in fact it has already made big progress there

NH:

so, if I was a rich Indian family and I wanted to bring Holiday Inns to that part of the world

NH:

why not join forces with IHG

NH:

and what better way to strike a deal than by building a stake??

PM:

sounds a fair enough idea

PM:

have to track the volumes

PM:

See whether there is any evidence

NH:

we will, although these days most big lumps of stock don’t print on the LSE

NH:

they usually turn up on Chi-X or Market Boat, or Plus Markets

NH:

and there is a very good reason for this

NH:

not everyone sees it on those platforms

PM:

Hmmm

PM:

PM:

right, let’s have a look at Carphone Warehouse

PM:

stock has been hit very hard this morning

PM:

Price down 19p at 270

NH:

that’s a fall of nearly 7%

PM:

more negative reaction to the Best Buy deal?

NH:

well, that’s certainly one factor

NH:

the consensus view out there seems to be that Carphone has given up control of its core business and not received a premium in return

NH:

this is despite the fact that the deal puts a EBITDA multiple of around 7on the Carphone biz

NH:

and Kesa, DSG are on around half of that

NH:

also seems to be a feeling that Carphone were bounced into doing this deal

NH:

to A: pay down debt

NH:

so that B: they can pay for the UK operations of Tiscali

NH:

and that brings us on to another story doing the rounds this morning

PM:

ok

NH:

yesterday there was talk that Carphone would follow up the Best Buy deal by doing a similar JV with Vodafone on the broadband internet side

PM:

i see

NH:

but if reports coming out of Italy this morning are to be believed, then that ain’t gonna happen

PM:

Why’s that

NH:

hang on

NH:

read this

NH:

Broadband operator Tiscali has received informal interest from a number of bidders after the deadline for a first round of bidding passed, the Financial Times reported. They include Vodafone Group Plc , Carphone Warehouse Group Plc , British Sky Broadcasting Group Plc , Fastweb SpA and Italy’s Wind, it said.

NH:

Il Sole 24 Ore said Britain’s Virgin Media Inc. and BT Group Plc were also among the bidders and the bidding should close next month.

Il Libero said Tiscali founder Renato Soru was prepared to sell his controlling 25 percent stake to Vodafone for 400 million euros. Soru is preparing to buy leftist newspaper l’Unita, it said.

NH:

now, it is the last story there that is the most interesting

PM:

how so?

NH:

because Carphone could soon find itself competing with Vodafone

NH:

and I guess there are also fears that it could get dragged into a bidding war

PM:

of course

NH:

all that is pulling the price down

NH:

as is an aggressive note from Citi, which questions Carphone’s cash position

NH:

and this feeds into theory that they had to do this deal to raise some cash

PM:

Would be interesting to see that citi note if at all possible

PM:

Neil is just looking for it

PM:

Come on!

NH:

by Michael J Williams

NH:

Best-Buy to acquire 50% of Retail Operations — Best Buy, the US-based consumer
electronics retailer, has announced it is to acquire 50% of Carphone Warehouse’s
Distribution business (handset sales) for £1.1bn. The cash injection will secure
Best-Buy 50% of CPW’s Distribution EBIT in YTM09 (Distribution is 60% of CPW
Group YTM09 EBIT). This represents a further step in CPW’s new broader based
consumer electronics strategy.

NH:

Minority Protection? — Shareholders have an opportunity to vote on the transaction
at an EGM early August. But with the CEO, other founder and Best Buy’s combined
holding of c.56%, approval is likely. CPW acknowledges 10-15% earnings dilution
YTM09 (CIR initial estimates c.20%)

NH:

Uses of Cash — Carphone Warehouse states it will use the cash injection to “pay
down debt, invest in broadband customer growth and infrastructure and invest in
new areas of growth presented by the transaction”

NH:

Potential Bid for Tiscali UK – An article in Italian newspaper Corriere della Serra
says Tiscali will receive eight non-binding offers today. The market price implied
valuation for Tiscali UK is c.£850m. But the article also speculates offers will value
Tiscali below market price. If CPW were to bid successfully, Tiscali’s 1.9m UK
broadband customers would take CPW customer base to 4.6m, making it the
largest broadband provider in the UK (BT 4.1m, VMED 3.5m)

NH:

Cash Concerns Remain — Rising SAC, the apparent disparity between D&A and
investment levels, capitalisation policy and rising net debt. Though the £1.1bn cash
injection will help pay down net debt (guided £840m FY08), it does not resolve
CPW’s cash conversion issues. FY results on 3 June should provide important detail
on the deteriorating cash position.

PM:

That last par is the one to read

PM:

bickie

Reminder to readers - if you arrived late and want to stop the dialogue ‘jumping’ as you catch up, hit the ‘pause auto-scrolling’ tab at the bottom right hand corner

NH:

it is

PM:

thanks for that

PM:

PM:

I know what I meant to mention

PM:

Are we going to start this new Markets Live promotion.

NH:

What, Read ML to get a FREE Lex

PM:

Yes

NH:

Think there is any demand? Think lots of readers will already be premium subscribers to FT.com.

PM:

Well I’m going to give ‘em a free Lex.

PM:

Asian bond markets
Published: May 9 2008 09:06 | Last updated: May 9 2008 09:06
That didn’t take long. Barely three months after emerging markets began doling out food subsidies and slashing import tariffs, the damage is writ large in local bond markets. Unsurprisingly, some of the biggest casualties are in countries with the most precarious fiscal positions. In the case of Asia, that means the Philippines and Indonesia.
Indonesia’s 10-year bond prices have fallen by 14 per cent in the past two months, among Asia’s worst performers. The archipelago is to spend $20bn, or nearly one-fifth of this year’s budget, on shielding its citizens from higher energy costs alone – and that effort assumes an unlikely $100-a-barrel oil price. Rising food and energy prices are also driving inflation higher. Consumer prices rose 9 per cent year-on-year in April, prompting the central bank to hike interest rates this week.
Investors are also punishing the Philippines for backtracking on budget pledges. The country, which has spent years consolidating its fiscal position and was on course for a balanced budget this year, is the biggest rice importer in the world and is home to some of the region’s poorest people. Mindful of political fallout from past food crises, the government was quick to intervene. The calculations vary depending on how much it ends up paying for rice, but the fiscal deficit this financial year is now likely to come in at about 1 per cent of gross domestic product. Consumer price inflation, meantime, is running blithely ahead of target at 8.3 per cent year-on-year in April.
Deteriorating fiscal positions make capital raising more likely. Doing so from a position of weakness, and eroded credibility, means governments would have to pay up handsomely – as witnessed by yields on existing bonds. Yet there are few alternatives. Indonesia is mulling a rise in subsidised oil prices, but dramatic changes are unlikely. Ironically, the countries with the worst fiscal positions are also those with upcoming elections. Appealing to voters and putative foreign investors simultaneously is, alas, a tall order.

NH:

Asian bond markets. That’ll pack ‘em in Murph.

PM:

PM:

i should think it will be of interest to plenty of people

NH:

NH:

OK, we had a few questions below about the recent rally in the pub sector

NH:

I think it was totally overdone and was triggered by a short covering panic

NH:

the whole REIT is well overblown

NH:

facts are that only two pubs cos - Punch and Enterprise - can easily convert

NH:

the rest will have to do an op/co prop/co strucuture

NH:

now against the backdrop of a deteriorating economy

NH:

would you want to saddle an op/co with a massive rent bill

NH:

I wouldn’t

NH:

this REIT stuff is so first half of 2007

NH:

anyway, good note out from JP Morgan this morning

NH:

which I will just get

PM:

Good to see that

NH:

The news from Enterprise Inns that it can qualify as a REIT has caused
a sharp jump in share prices across the sector. Whilst the move for ETI
and PUB looks to be justified we think that investors are now likely to
re-focus on fundamentals. We are today cutting our FY09 forecasts by
5-8% to reflect a slower rebound from the smoking ban and ongoing
cost pressures for the pubs. We don’t expect comps to become easier
until Q4 and recommend that investors continue to be selective.

NH:

REIT potential now more fully reflected: Given the 30% share
price increase we think that the REIT potential is now priced in for
ETI. We think that PUB should also be able to qualify and still see
45% upside but elsewhere think that there are limited implications.
We think that investors should refocus on weak fundamentals.

NH:

Headwinds still in existence: We are now approaching the
anniversary of last year’s flooding and the smoking ban but we don’t
expect comps to become materially easier until Q4. Food and energy
costs are likely to further dampen margins going forward. These
issues are already captured in our cautious view for FY08 and we now
cut FY09 forecasts by 5-8%. Further consolidation looks unlikely
with likely falling property prices and expensive debt.

NH:

Be selective: Although PEs (10x average for 2008E) in the sector are
now near historic lows we would wait for confirmation of improved
trading before recommending the sector overall. PUB (OW) remains
our top pick following REIT news and we are upgrading GRNK and
MARS following recent underperformance. We downgrade JDW and
RTN on valuation grounds. We remain cautious on MAB given the
valuation premium and expect little to come out from the strategic
review.

PM:

Thanks for all that

PM:

PM:

Just to avoid any confusion on Lex

PM:

i will try and post one Lex up here each day

PM:

random subjects — depends what has been written

PM:

These are Lex Live notes

PM:

NH:

seen this Blinkx thing??? Flying again

PM:

Oh, yes — readers were going on about this earlier in the week

PM:

What is going on?

NH:

up 8.5p at 33.5p

NH:

a gain of 34%

PM:

What exactly does it do??

NH:

search over 18m hours of video on the internet

NH:

so I have just put in Arsenal

NH:

and it has brought up all of the best goals from our doomed season

PM:

best of the best of le gooners

NH:

and shock, horrow an interview with rubbish centre back Phillipe Senderos

PM:

Put in Alphaville and got big in japan

NH:

anyway, stock up this morning on a cocktail of rumours

PM:

Such as?

NH:

possible nasdaq listing

NH:

google bid

PM:

The Blinx thing has crashed Neil’s browser

PM:

PM:

re-loading…..

PM:

Actually Neil’s box has blown up

PM:

By some rubbish Arsenal clip

PM:

Thanks VP

PM:

Libor still coming down

PM:

He was going to share some Bllinx stuff

PM:

And then we had lined up a couple of bits of RAW

PM:

So bear with us

PM:

PM:

NH:

right back up

NH:

where was I

PM:

Blinx

PM:

what rumours behind the price hike today

NH:

Nasdaq listing

NH:

google bid

PM:

PM:

NH:

news corp bid

PM:

PM:

Any more rubbish?

NH:

bbc bid

PM:

NH:

take your pick

NH:

looks to me like a huge bear squeeze

PM:

Well, interesting technology — or at least looks like

NH:

yahoo bid talk too

PM:

PM:

PM:

Give us some proper RAW

NH:

I should add on Blinkx, we called the company yesterday

NH:

or rather we called the

NH:

there were very frosty

NH:

but we sort of got the impression they have not received a bid

PM:

PM:

So what about this RAW?!?!?

NH:

OK, two bits of RAW

NH:

Scandi stock

PM:

NH:

IT company

NH:

called TietoEnator

NH:

already had a EUR15 bid from an outfit called Nordic Capital

PM:

right….

NH:

hearing this morning that Blackstone are going to raid the market for a stake next week

NH:

could pay up EUR18

NH:

pretty RAW

NH:

and a little thing called Firestone Diamonds

NH:

drilling results due in a couple of weeks and traders are very confident they could be good

PM:

Er, right — im a little nervous of that one

PM:

I remember it floating

PM:

But we will watch and see

PM:

Oh — and before we wind up

PM:

Just remember that i was going to mention Flomerics

PM:

Bid come in from Mentor graphics

PM:

nasdaq listed firm

NH:

been rejected hasn’t it

NH:

despite Metnor owning a stake of around 29%

PM:

Bid at 104p

NH:

and its trading at??

PM:

cant find the quote

PM:

whats the code?

PM:

We cant work the new Reuters box

PM:

102.5

NH:

so why have they rejected it

PM:

Dunno

PM:

That market price suggests the market does not expect any more

PM:

Are we done?

PM:

Libor — 3m £ 5.766 v 5.78

PM:

So the gap is shrinking

PM:

We are done

NH:

for the week

PM:

Thank you for joining us and thanks for the comments

PM:

back on Monday at 11am

NH:

see ya

This entry was posted by Paul Murphy on Friday, May 9th, 2008 at 11:01 and is filed under Uncategorised. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

1. May 09   13:09 Posted by Paul Murphy [report]

   Thank you Len!

2. May 09   12:03 Posted by Len [report]

   Now you are famous award winners, you need a snappy tagline:
   Alphaville - Market insight straight from the horse’s mouth - in a world where so much of it comes from the other end.

3. May 09   12:03 Posted by Justin [report]

   Hibernating for the weekend. Have a good one

4. May 09   12:01 Posted by tuna [report]

   WIN possible offer for TDG

5. May 09   12:01 Posted by Justin [report]

   FLO.L 102p. up 14

6. May 09   12:00 Posted by VP [report]

   FLO 100/105

7. May 09   11:57 Posted by Justin [report]

   Firestone are up 25% in the last 2 months. 202p

8. May 09   11:56 Posted by tuna [report]

   tdg wincanton….any comment please gentlemen

9. May 09   11:54 Posted by tears for tier 1 [report]

   Hans Blinks?
   Have you any idea how f****ing busy I am?

10. May 09   11:53 Posted by taxloss [report]

    Maybe they’ve just bought www.blinx.com and tripled their traffic?

11. May 09   11:53 Posted by Monkey [report]

    my spelling was on the blinx - sorry blinkx!

12. May 09   11:52 Posted by taxloss [report]

    kkkkk
    That’s for all you misspelling Blinkx.

13. May 09   11:52 Posted by Justin [report]

    FTAL bid?!

14. May 09   11:49 Posted by Monkey [report]

    his browers on the blinx then? groan

15. May 09   11:49 Posted by maximus [report]

    gone on the Blinx

16. May 09   11:49 Posted by Knocker [report]

    NH - you need to upgrade to the premium subscription for interviews - Senderos is for the free users lol

17. May 09   11:48 Posted by VP [report]

    Just noticed LIBOR 5.76688 vs 5.78438, so so much for that.

18. May 09   11:46 Posted by Monkey [report]

    NH - so that was 30sec of footage then?

19. May 09   11:44 Posted by Sentance [report]

    Sorry, should read ‘locals and foreign investors happy’

20. May 09   11:43 Posted by Sentance [report]

    Upcoming elections, massive fiscal deficits, rising inflation, how do you keep the locals and foreign investors - isn’t that refering to America?

21. May 09   11:42 Posted by thirsty [report]

    surely REITs are the last throw of investors in the likis of M & B ?

22. May 09   11:41 Posted by SuperSWF [report]

    Interesting on Asian bond markets. Must be -ve for STAN.

23. May 09   11:41 Posted by taxloss [report]

    Just post up your credit card number for verification

24. May 09   11:40 Posted by Anonymous [report]

    Wait, but how do I get a free Lex?

25. May 09   11:37 Posted by tears for tier 1 [report]

    Oil Price
    Your the King of Saudi
    your oil minister comes in: “bad news your majesty - the water cut at Ghawar has increased substantially - the games up”
    what does games theory say you do?
    make it public? -and see a substantial spike together with the west going nuclear?
    keep stum? - and see a gradual rise in prices without ever triggering a policy response?

26. May 09   11:36 Posted by Monkey [report]

    Virgin media were very retiscent re: Tiscali on the call yesterday. Refused to say anything and crucially didn’t deny a bid but I can’t see them financing it without the sale of their channel business first. They have quite a lot of debt and the senior lenders would demand dramatically better terms to waive their covenants

27. May 09   11:34 Posted by Len [report]

    Soru selling the medium of tomorrow to buy print - the medium of yesterday. How can this be?

28. May 09   11:34 Posted by taxloss [report]

    no one (bar BT wholesale) will ever make money from selling broadband.

29. May 09   11:32 Posted by bsb [report]

    has the market finally figured out that $100 crude is not necessarily a good thing for the economy?

30. May 09   11:25 Posted by wheniwereyoung [report]

    ‘Level 3′ assets (cant price em, cant sell em!) as a percentage of shareholder equity make for startling reading -

    Bear Stearns 313.97%, Morgan Stanley 234.88%, Merrill Lynch 225.4% ,Goldman Sachs 191.56%, Lehman 171.18%, Fannie Mae 161.48%
    Citigroup 125.06%, Prudential 119.36%

31. May 09   11:23 Posted by andy pandy [report]

    *CRUDE OIL RISES TO RECORD $125 A BARREL IN NEW YORK TRADING

32. May 09   11:23 Posted by clutchingatstraws [report]

    Chrispy - Thanks

33. May 09   11:22 Posted by Chrispy [report]

    Clutching if you want the raw data in excel just go to yahoo Finance.

34. May 09   11:21 Posted by Fitz [report]

    @VP. Cheers.

35. May 09   11:21 Posted by clutchingatstraws [report]

    Can anyone point me in the right direction….I am looking for a website regarding correlation between FTSE100 and its US counterparts?

36. May 09   11:19 Posted by VP [report]

    Fitz, not too interesting:

    “Eurasian Natural Resources Corp. PLC (ENRC.LN) said Thursday it has acquired a 50% stake in Xinjiang Tuoli Taihang Ferro-Alloy Co. Ltd., a Chinese ferroalloys producer, for $14.5 million in cash. ”

    Small beer.

37. May 09   11:18 Posted by Monkey [report]

    FT ran a story yesterday that silver was overpriced on the back of the gold rush and that the demand-supply side dynamics of silver didn’t justify it. Don’t follow prescious metals but I understand that there shouldn’t be much correlation between them

38. May 09   11:17 Posted by Fitz [report]

    Morning! RE ENRC There was a story yesterday about them buying a ferrochrome producer in Asia. Would you have any more info or was it just rumour? Cheers.

    BTW thought “person close to the deal” comment on ENRC’s alleged offer was really funny.

39. May 09   11:16 Posted by clutchingatstraws [report]

    …just surprised the FTSE didn’t fall yesterday, given the way the Dow fell earlier in the week..

40. May 09   11:15 Posted by maximus [report]

    From Mejico

41. May 09   11:15 Posted by Chrispy [report]

    BSB- the entent of the bullish sentiment was demonstrated earlier in the week with the ‘ambulance chasing’ in Fannie Mae - all I could see in the data were the growing problems in the ALT A universe.

42. May 09   11:14 Posted by wheniwereyoung [report]

    Unemployment insurance claimants up ~50% over the year in Georgia, US.

    All is not well in the US….

43. May 09   11:13 Posted by maximus [report]

    NYMEX and LME Copper stocks were back to lows even yesterday

44. May 09   11:13 Posted by thirsty [report]

    @ chrispy……moves in $/£ = part explanation

45. May 09   11:12 Posted by VP [report]

    Ta. ENRC seems to be the one miner doing OK today.

46. May 09   11:12 Posted by bsb [report]

    why should the market be down? plenty of explanations as far as i’m concerned.

    note the other day from fitch on the deterioration in Alt-A was very bearish - this stuff is widespread and IMO is likely to turn out to be sub-prime’s bigger brother, but the mortgages tend to have a longer discounted period hence its taken the problem a bit longer to emerge

    second thing would be the severity of the sell off in the US bank/brokerdealer stocks in the past week, see ^BIX/^BKX/^XBD

47. May 09   11:11 Posted by thirsty [report]

    pub co rally for real or just aggressive bear squeeze ??

48. May 09   11:11 Posted by wheniwereyoung [report]

    Depressing story from the states that shows the ‘grassroots’ problems.

    http://www.bizjournals.com/atlanta/stories/2008/05/05/daily63.html

    Jist is that people applying for unemployment benefit in Georgia is up 51 percent over the year. 51%!!!!!

49. May 09   11:11 Posted by Chrispy [report]

    At the open today FTSE was up 20 from the spike after the US employment data last Friday and the Dow was down 320….even allowing for sector weightings, there’s a little stress there.

50. May 09   11:11 Posted by VP [report]

    Several miners made all-time highs yest fwiw - KAZ massively so.

51. May 09   11:10 Posted by Justin [report]

    What about the terrible plight that AIG finds itself in? clearly the insurers are not out of the woods by any stretch…

52. May 09   11:08 Posted by Harry Hindsight [report]

    Barclays still at £4.50 ….RBS at £3.40…despite massive index rally

53. May 09   11:08 Posted by Monkey [report]

    Is the fall on the back of City AM front page story about £71bn loans being begged for by the banks?

54. May 09   11:06 Posted by Monkey [report]

    VP - I was thinking the same

55. May 09   11:06 Posted by VP [report]

    LIBOR could be interesting today; yest’s fall might have been on rate cut possibility.

56. May 09   11:06 Posted by Harry Hindsight [report]

    Graham What ?

57. May 09   11:05 Posted by Monkey [report]

    NH - I think Paul needs to go on one urgently too. Or maybe a spelling bee competition

58. May 09   11:05 Posted by VP [report]

    Spelling lessons should be first!

59. May 09   11:03 Posted by Justin [report]

    Morning morning.
    Thank God it’s Friday!

60. May 09   11:02 Posted by VP [report]

    What was with KAZ late yest? Surely “ENRC to bid 2500p” a total nonsense, or ENRC would have taken a dive on the notion of grossly over-paying?