The list of companies disappearing from the UK high street had one more victim this week with the demise of JJB sports and the loss of 4000 jobs. The number of high profile casualties over the last couple of years has been staggering as pressures have grown as a result of rising rents and…
After last nights dramatic and unexpected Ryder Cup victory by Europe at Medina against all the odds by José María Olazábal’s team, Tesco’s CEO Philip Clarke must be hoping he has engineered a similar turn around at Tesco. The UK’s biggest retailer announces its interim results on October 3rd after the shock profits warning back…
BlackBerry maker, Research in Motion (RIM), surprised on the upside after the Wall Street close Thursday, driving the shares up 20% to $8.60 in after hours trading as poor results turned out to be less bad than expected. Earlier in the week the shares hit an all time low of $6.22 on renewed network issues,…
The land of the rising sun, Japan, seems to be waiting for eternally elusive signs of economic sunshine right now with plenty of worrying data emerging in the last few days. After a 0.7% growth print in Japan’s second quarter GDP, driven by Tsunami reconstruction spending, concerns are mounting about the health of the economy. Japanese…
After hitting a 52 week low of 1,999 yesterday, the Chinese Shanghai composite index is up 2.5% today to 2,056 on news that the the Chinese central bank has injected a record amount of money into the financial system. The Rmb365 billion ($58 billion) injection over the last few days by the People’s Bank of…
Markets were looking decidedly shaky yesterday after fears about the European debt situation resurfaced, yet again! The political situation in both Greece and Spain seems to be increasingly concerning. Spanish Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy is continuing to avoid asking for a European Central Bank (ECB) bail out because of fears of another slump in voter…
I was watching the documentary about free market economist Friedrich Hayek on “Masters of money” last night on the BBC and was thinking how in theory de-regulation and open markets make so much sense but human greed is so often the factor which destroys this dream! Looking back into recent history there’s plenty of examples…
Economic data from China, the U.S. and Europe as well as any hint of progress on the Spanish debt situation will be the focus for investors in the next couple of weeks. Then it’s over to the US third quarter earnings season starting with aluminium producer, Alcoa, on October 9th. With central bank stimulus underpinning…
The price of oil (WTI) dropped 6.5% last week, despite a minor rally on Thursday and Friday, as vague rumours of a release of oil from the U.S. strategic petroleum reserve and the possibility of an increase in production from Saudi Arabia was compounded by a sell off due to futures expiration. On top of that, the…
Argos Resources, the AIM listed, North Falkland basin oil and gas exploration company owns a 100 per cent interest in production licence PL001 covering an area of approximately 1,126 square km. It rose 6% yesterday to 23.5p and announced today that JP Morgan now have a stake of over 7% and Canadian Hedge fund Salida…
