The FTSE 100 closed the week up 32 points at 5,576, but down 1.4% on the week. The Dow Jones Industrial Average finished at 12,821 with Dow component J.P. Morgan falling 9.3% after revealing losses of at least $2 billion as a result of trades gone wrong by the so called “London Whale”, Bruno Michel…
Jerome Kerviel, Societe Generale, $7 billion loss Bruno Michel Iksil, JP Morgan, $2.3 billion loss Kweku Adoboli UBS, $2.2 billion loss Nick Leeson, Barings, $1.4 billion loss Contrarian Investor UK
JP Morgan Chase shares were last night down some 7% at $38 in after hours trading after a rather uncomfortable conference call between Jamie Dimon and analysts declaring a completely unexpected $2 billion trading losses in synthetic investment vehicles. The culprit was part of the Banks so called proprietary trading desk. The losses were caused…
After months of activity at the Borders and Southern Darwin East well, the Leiv Eiriksson deep water rig has arrived at the Stebbing prospect. The Darwin well was actually spudded on 31st January 2012, but technical issues with the rig meant that the gas condensate discovery was not announced until 23rd April 2012. Stebbing is in…
UPDATE (1) – 8AM – The 4th print in a week of the Put:Call ration in the US equity only data yesterday has only occurred once before in the last 3 years – rigth before the sharp rallies last August off the lows of last August. This ratio has one of the highest success measures I…
There was some respite in the stock market falls on Wall Street last night with the US indices coming back from their lows late in the session. The Dow Industrials fell 76 points to 12,932 after dropping close to 200 points at one stage on fears about the exit of Greece from the Eurozone. The…
I’ve been adding some choice AIM oil and gas stocks to my account today….Chariot, Bowleven, Gulf Keystone. For a medium term view plenty of value to be had for those with patience. When everyone else is selling, particularly on forced margin selling, this is the time to be buying. Its a blood bath out there…
With the UK markets closed, the focus of attention was the European and US exchanges yesterday after the election results in Greece and France over the weekend. After a weak start, US markets recovered, with the S&P 500 flat on the day at 1,370 and the Dow down 30 points to 13,009. French stocks initially…
According to newspaper reports in the Kuwait al-Seyassah newspaper, the Kuwaiti national oil company has pulled out of talks with North Sea focused and Canadian TSX/UK AIM listed oil company Ithaca Energy. The company’s RNS in March stated they were in discussion with several bona fide bidders presumably including the Kuwaiti’s. So what now for…
The political landscape dramatically changed in Europe yesterday with a sea change in France following the departure of incumbent centre right President Nicolas Sarcozy to be replaced with socialist François Hollande. Sarcozy is the first French President since Valéry Giscard d’Estaing lost power in 1981 not to serve two consecutive terms illustrating that the sentiment of…
