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’Fed up
And the early US market take on the Federal Reserve’s latest policy shift was…
Oh dear. European bourses, by comparison, had already given up the fight:
All this after USDJPY ploughing a 15-year low plus some deflated Treasuries.
Investing in Austerity Britain (or not)
As the UK comes to grips with the new-found austerity ushered in by new chancellor George Osborne and the first coalition government since 1945, you can expect to see a lot more of this type of research.
Nothing fundamental about this rally
What has really caused this?
. . . and this?
(Note the S&P 500 is now 7.1 per cent above the 10-month low reached on Payrolls Friday 12 days ago and just around 1.5 per cent away from its 200-day moving average).
Introducing Polyus Gold…
. . . the latest overseas mining company to seek a home on the London stock market.
This week Russia’s largest gold producer announced a $9bn deal to reverse into its 50.1 per cent-owned subsidiary KazakhGold and create a company big enough to qualify for inclusion in the FTSE 100.
M-m-m-meltdown
Gloom and doom on Thursday for stock markets after poor US jobs and PMI data:
Cheer up — the double dip might never happen. Well, on second thought…
Stampeding to the lifeboats
Early morning chaos on European bourses on Tuesday:
Which has followed an interesting flight to safety across the Atlantic overnight.
Yields on 10-year Treasuries fell below 3 per cent in Asian trading on Tuesday,
Risk on, but why?
Send for the rally monkey? The FTSE 100 is on course for a sixth straight session of gains, while the S&P 500 closed above its 200-day for the first time in a nearly a month.
(Other markets are up too:
Morgan Stanley turns bullish on UK equities
As the London market looks to record its third consecutive session of gains, Morgan Stanley has made a very bold call on Friday morning: the broker has increased its year-end target for the FTSE 100 to 5,800 from 5,000.
It’s time…
… for this.
At pixel time the FTSE 100 was up 150 points, and the S&P 500 up 20 points.
Eurocrash, part deux
European markets staggered on their open on Tuesday, following a grim session in Asia.
Flashes via Reuters:
RTRS-SPAIN’S IBEX 35 FALLS 3.6 PCT, PORTUGAL’S PSI 20 DOWN 3.1 PCT AND ITALY’S BENCHMARK DROPS 2.6 PCT
RTRS-EUROPE’S FTSEUROFIRST 300 FALLS 2.3 PCT TO 951.13 POINTS IN EARLY TRADE
RTRS-GERMANY’S DAX DOWN 2.6 PCT
RTRS-STOXX EUROPE 600 BANKS INDEX DOWN 2.9 PCT,
Take cover
A grim start in prospect for the London market on Tuesday, according to the futures market.
Oh, the humanity! (updated)
Britain’s FTSE 100 very briefly fell below the, er, ‘psychologically important’ 5,000 barrier on Friday, for the first time since November 2009:
…before veering back to 5012 by pixel time. Oh well.
Protective headgear not required
At least for the moment.
In spite of Wall Street’s late sell-off, the FTSE 100 is only indicated 30 points lower at the open on Friday:
Market sources tell us that this is because of an impressive pull back in the FX majors,
The FTSE 100′s close shave
The UK’s FTSE 100 barely avoided falling below 5,000 during a sudden plunge on Thursday afternoon, one hour before closing down 1.65 per cent at 5073.13:
While this chart shows the FTSE 100′s part in a general Eurocrash:
European volatility — a history lesson
Well, here’s a contrarian long-term perspective on Thursday, notwithstanding the collapse on European bourses, and the NYSE’s invocation of Rule 48 amid the signs of contagion.
Volatility in European equities has indeed just passed a historic marker,
Eurocrash
Late-afternoon chaos for bourses across Europe on Thursday. See charts:
Ouch.
Markets react to German naked shorts ban
It’s the morning after Germany banned naked short sales of key financial stocks — and markets seem not to have liked it one bit.
First, reaction in Germany, as the protected stocks took a hit. Flashes,
Equities and CDS, also eurotrashed
European stocks crash-landed toward their close on Friday, countering the gains reached at the week’s start in the wake of the eurozone rescue.
Spain’s Ibex 35 led the way with a 7.2 per cent drop — its biggest daily fall since November 2008,
Austerity Britain and equities
Should stock market investors fear the onset of austerity Britain?
Not necessarily, according Goldman Sachs which has examined three periods of significant financial retrenchment over the past 40 years,
The dead wolf bounce
So, this is what shock and awe looks like.
Stock markets rocketed on Monday after European Union leaders announced a €720bn rescue package for the continent’s bond markets. Flashes, via Reuters:
RTRS-BRITAIN’S FTSE 100 UP 1.5 PCT AND FRANCE’S CAC 40 CLIMBS 2.4 PCT
RTRS-GERMANY’S DAX RISES 2 PCT
RTRS-EUROPE’S FTSEUROFIRST 300 EXTENDS GAINS,
Citigroup: Don’t buy this dip
As the market tries to figure out what the hell happened after 14.00 EST on Thursday — was it the trading robots or a fat finger — Tobias Levkovich of Citigroup has issued a warning to clients:
In the S&P 500 over time,
A British bond market all-nighter
Pity those UK bond traders.
Instead of playing general election drinking games on Thursday night, when Britain goes to the polls, they’ll be busy trading gilt futures.
The London International Financial
A poor UK-market reaction to S&P!
We’re in the midst of a UK-focused sell-off partly based on the following wire story. (The market was also unsettled by weaker than expected US durable good numbers.)
NEW YORK, Jan 28 (Reuters) – The United Kingdom is no longer classified as being among the most stable and low-risk banking systems in the world,
Time for the tin hat?
Remember this?
That was the ‘Santa rally’ and it has err…. gone.
In fact this is now the biggest setback for the UK market since the rally took hold last March:
China tightening fears,
The dogs of the FTSE 100 in 2009
Here they are, courtesy of Cazenove:
Now, go back a year and imagine you had bought the dogs of 2008.
This would have been a very profitable investment strategy: an equally weighted basket consisting of the top 10 biggest fallers would have gained 130 per cent this year,
Petropavlovsk misses out
It seems a few of London’s brokers need to brush up on their knowledge of the FTSE UK ground rules.
Had these City types glanced at rules 9.1, 9.2 and 9.3, they would have known that new shares are only eligible for inclusion in an index review if the allotment total mores 10 per cent of the existing share capital.
Bargain Britain
The UK stock market is cheap.
That’s the surprising conclusion of the latest ‘Popular Delusions’ note from Soc Gen strategist Dylan Grice.
He has been using an updated version of Ben Graham’s Appraisal Method,
[Outlook 2010] The deluge begins
And so it begins – strategists at the big investment banks are starting to publish their 2010 forecasts.
Morgan Stanley duo Graham Secker and Teun Draaisma were quick on the draw with a pretty bearish set of predictions for the year ahead.
What to buy and sell on the MSCI re-shuffle
The results of the latest MSCI reshuffle are out and they are already having an impact on stock prices.
As was widely rumoured, Ladbrokes has been removed from the MSCI World index, along with upmarket housebuilder Berkeley.