Master Investor

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…

Good read from David Einhorn in the Huffington Post (http://www.huffingtonpost.com/mobileweb/david-einhorn/fed-interest-rates_b_1472509.html) Einhorn is one of the great Hedge Fund investors. Wikipedia: David Einhorn (born November 20, 1968), an American hedge fund manager, is the Founder and President of Greenlight Capital, a “long-short value-oriented hedge fund”. He started Greenlight Capital in 1996 with $900,000. Greenlight has generated…

It was a rough end to the week for the markets following the crucial US non-farm payroll employment data for April. The FTSE 100 ended Friday at 5,655, down 111 on the day and down 2.1% for the week. The index is now only up 1.5% year to date (5,572 start to 2012) The Dow…

After a seven year fight, former MG Rover workers are getting just £3 each following the collapse of the company in 2005, UK’s last major car maker. The management team who bought out the Birmingham based company for £10 in 2000 from BMW, the so called “Phoenix Four’”- John Towers, Nick Stephenson, John Edwards and…

One of the key economic indicators of US activity arrives after lunch UK time with the April non-farmpayroll employment data. After a disapointing gain of 120,000 jobs in  March, expectations are for 150-165,000 in April. Wednesday’s private sector ADP data came in below expectations adding to the pressure on tomorrow’s numbers. Contrarian Investor UK

It looks like Facebook has an IPO price range in the high $20s to mid $30s, giving it a valuation of $85 billion to $95 billion according to reports from the US today. The valuation is below the $100 billion hoped for in recent months, but weak quarterly revenue and earnings data has knocked back…

An interesting insight into one of the world’s largest and expensive drilling rigs in the Gulf of Mexico, Mars, which shows the opportunity, dangers and cost of deep water drilling in areas such as the Gulf, Brazil, the Falklands and Greenland. The Mars field was discovered  in 1989 using the drillship, Discoverer Seven Seas. Data…

BG Group is currently down 2.2 percent at 1419p despite a strong growth in underlying earnings on news that production from the North Sea Jasmine field (which is 30% owned by BG) is delayed until 2013 from the end of 2012.   Jasmine is operated and and 36.5% owned by Conoco Phillips. This delay is…

The depressing state of many parts of Britain’s high street was illustrated by a 13 percent slump in Home Retail Group shares, owner of Argos and Homebase, to 87.5p after disappointing results and a dividend cut.  Investors in Home Retail who has 748 stores have seen their shares tumble from a 52 week high of…

The markets are down heavily today as the ADP (Automatic Data Processing) shows  the weakest growth in US private sector employment in seven months. The Dow Jones Industrials are down 50 points to 13,229 and the FTSE 100 is down 57 at 5,755. The data showed an increase of  119,000 in April, the lowest result…