Archive for February, 2008
Dollar In Freefall
The USD fell to a record low for the third day in a row.
The slow down in the economy as well as poor figures for US labor led the dollar lower today. The past few days of negative data increases speculation that Bernanke and the Federal Reserve will cut interest rates further.
“We are on the [...]
Euro Breaks $1.50 Mark
The Euro strengthened to more than $1.50 dollars for the first time in the short history of the Euro currency.
Speculation that Bernanke will cut US interest rates further brought further weakness to the USD. German business confidence unexpectedly strengthened in February which lessened predictions of an ECB rate cut.
The USD also fell to an all-time [...]
Merrill Losses Top $8bn
Back in January we reported on the the huge Merrill Lynch losses. However, things seem to have gone from bad to worse, with collateralised-debt obligations of $8.4 billion, eclipsing the October 5th forecast losses of $5 billion.
Merrill Lynch reported its first quarter net loss of $2.3 billion in operation costs for six years. The credit [...]
RIM Shares Rise
Research In Motion (RIM:TOR) the Canadian company behind the successful BlackBerry device saw a sharp rise in share value yesterday after forecasts for subscription growth and strong sales over the holiday period.
Much of the success has been felt with the addition of devices aimed at non-Business users, such as the Blackberry Curve and BlackBerry Pearl [...]
Dollar Could Fall Further
The USD made a recovery today against the Euro with U.S. consumer prices increasing last month. These figures suggest that the Federal Reserve will make a less aggressive interest rate cut later today (19:00 GMT).
Robert Sinche, head of global currency strategy at Bank of America Corp. said, “The Fed is likely to go ahead and [...]
Further Fed Rate Cut Expected
The US dollar fell against Euro on speculation of a further Federal Reserve benchmark rate cut tomorrow.
The USD fell to $1.4736 at 10:35 am (EST), a fall of 78 points from yesterdays figure of $1.4658 yesterday.
Some experts are predicting a largely doveish outlook for the USD. Kenichiro Fujita of Aozora Bank LTD in Tokyo said [...]
Gold May Rebound With US Economy Slowing
The slowing US economy may lead to higher Gold prices as the Federal Reserve lowers interest rates.
Gold is typically a commodity that becomes more appealing during times of economic slow-down or as a means of risk aversion.
“Eighteen of 31 traders, investors and analysts surveyed by Bloomberg advised buying gold, which fell 1.8 percent last week [...]
Watchdog Names Co-operative Overall Winner
The Co-operative Bank is well known in the UK for offering ethical banking services. However, a recent survey shows the bank to be leading the way when it comes to customer service.
A recent BBC programme, “Watchdog” carried out a survey covering 45 different UK banks and building societies, including the internet bank Smile (part of [...]
GM Performing Outside The USA
GM (GM:NYQ) announced losses of $1.5bn last year in the US; the CEO Rick Wagoner revealed profits of $744 million in far east countries including China and India.
GM was organised as a company one hundred years ago in 1908, yet GM didn’t reach the Chinese market until 1992. This shows a sharp growth in a [...]
UK Economy Under Threat
The Bank of England gave a hawkish outlook, against market expectations. It’s unlikely that interest rates will be cut as much as expected.
The BoE predicts tighter credit conditions, slowing investment and reduced consumer demand for the UK. This could lead to a slow-down that is far worse than originally thought back in November.
It looks likely [...]
