As seen in this month’s issue of Master Investor Magazine. Back in June, the USD/JPY reached 125 flat for the first time since December 2002, and posted its highest rate since February of the same year. The systemic weakening of the yen has come about as a result of Japanese efforts to combine monetary and…
Just to re-cap… The TESCO (TSCO) share price is doing its usual dance between £2.00 and £2.20, and unless there is some news on the very negative or the very positive side it might stay within this range for a while. It is a good day trader/short-term trader stock. I must say I have noticed…
For as long as anyone can remember Ireland’s biggest export has been its people. I don’t mean has-beens as in Terry Wogan, but real people. They’ve reached every corner of the globe. The Irish Bar is ubiquitous in all civilised cities. The question was once asked as to why the English pub hasn’t been so…
One of the most disappointing nights of my life was going clubbing in London with a bunch of Canadians. It was only when they started climbing the fence of London Zoo and heading for the seals’ enclosure that I realised my mistake. Not really, just joking. Speaking of clubbing though, I’ve just read an article…
The standard of training in the UK retail investment community is abysmal. Thousands upon thousands of people who think they are traders simply go long or short based on gut feeling with absolutely no analysis whatsoever. They deserve to be part of the 90:90:90, the mantra of the spread betting industry: 90% of punters lose…
As is typical, the first week of the month has been dominated by the release of the latest US Non-Farm Payrolls report. July data came in roughly in line with expectations with a gain of 215k compared to expectations of 222k. The accompanying unemployment data came in mostly in line with expectations. Yet, judging by…
I wrote about the US market on 7th July and the subject perhaps deserves revisiting now. The Dow Jones has developed an interesting pattern. It’s basically ‘rolling over’. I’ve marked the rolling on the chart in black. Remember it’s been six years of rising prices now, and although the US economy still appears one of…
The airline industry should be having a bit of a golden age just now with oil prices so low. This represents a massive windfall, seemingly, on one of their biggest running costs. I used to work for BA and the view inside certainly, and outside usually, is that it’s a superior airline that is a…
As of Friday mid-afternoon, the euro looked set to end a difficult weak on a high. Eurozone inflation came in slightly above expectations, raising hopes that regional deflation could be on the wane. At the same time, US unemployment cost index data came in above estimates, a development that only added fuel to the euro’s…
Two profit announcements today that are quite interesting… First off: Barclays (BARC). I wrote about banks in my blog of July 16th. Barclays did reasonably well out of the collapse of Lehman Brothers. They picked up Lehman assets for a song and sold them in the last reporting period, making almost £500 million profit. The…
