No6's Financial Markets Thread

[No6]

Well, Osborne targeted the UK North Sea oil companies rather than the good old voter.

 

Enquest is currently down 10% or so.

 

Oil industry hits out at chancellor's North Sea tax

 

The oil industry today hit out at plans to hike corporation tax on North Sea profits, which the Chancellor claimed would raise £2 billion a year.

 

The supplementary tax paid on North Sea profits will increase from 20% to 32% tomorrow. On top of normal corporation tax the total levy on oil profits in the area will be 60%. Explorers BP, EnQuest, Maersk and Taqa are expected to be hit hardest.

 

Derek Henderson, tax partner who works on North Sea projects at Deloitte in Aberdeen, said: "This will change the economics of North Sea projects, which are already marginal. For some, it may become economically impossible to produce oil from the region."

 

http://www.thisislondon.co.uk/standard-business/article-23934857-oil-industry-hits-out-at-chancellors-north-sea-tax.do

[No6]

Mamut getting ready to bid for HMV? Euroset may be the better bet for investors though.

 

Recent rumour has been that Mamut wants to buy Waterstones, and with HMV top man Simon Fox – busy trying to placate his bankers as his company gets ready to breach covenants on its loans – reportedly proposing a sale of the book chain to raise quick cash, many think the Russian may get that wish.

 

However, some still think Mamut may bid for the whole of HMV, and the FT has pointed out that the businessman may soon have access to the funds he’d need to stage such a bid because Euroset, the Russian mobile phone seller in which he has a 50% stake, is about to float on the London Stock Exchange.

 

Although Mamut is expected to keep hold of some of his Euroset stock, the profits from that flotation would more than cover the costs of buying HMV outright.

 

http://www.thecmuwebsite.com/article/more-speculation-about-mamut-hmv-bid/

[jerpy]

SUK2 looks interesting on the weekly chart. Suggests that either the move up will be short lived, or the bounce off support in the FTSE chart above will be short lived. If the Bollinger band begins to open on SUK2 weekly that would suggest the FTSE is in trouble.

 

 

SUK2 is a ride the down trend bet, but soon as there is any downside to the play (if that makes sense), you have to get the hell out or lose your gains.

 

Personally find it an effective short term hedge to balance sliding longs at most volatile times. But you really do have to get out when it turns.

 

Before using this I dummy traded for months to see the pattern against weekly performance, you quickly realised it only works in a prolonged down move or as a short term trade.

[jerpy]

Riggerbeautz started a thread on this a few days ago.

 

Make that months, but thanks for the mention. My only real pure play as such is Lightbridge (the old Thorium power).

 

This thread links to the musings of Kirk Sorensen et al who are the real experts in the field and I follow them with interest off these boards.

 

Incidentally, for those who do not realise, Thorium is a by product of Rare Earths and that is where the money will be made in mining companies, a point made by others, I highlight on this thread. The real money in Thorium will come from a technology solution, not mining it.

 

http://www.greenenergyinvestors.com/index.php?showtopic=9084&hl=

[No6]

SUK2 is a ride the down trend bet, but soon as there is any downside to the play (if that makes sense), you have to get the hell out or lose your gains.

 

Personally find it an effective short term hedge to balance sliding longs at most volatile times. But you really do have to get out when it turns.

 

Before using this I dummy traded for months to see the pattern against weekly performance, you quickly realised it only works in a prolonged down move or as a short term trade.

 

The Bollinger Band on that weekly chart didn't open, for the moment the trend still looks down for SUK2 which tends to suggest that after the dust has settled on the latest pullback FTSE may well go higher (not accounting for earthquakes, tsunami's, nuclear fall out, etc and all the other bigger picture doom and gloom possibilties, etc). If it is purely down to economic/financial news/expectations markets can still go a lot higher.

[No6]

Britain, a tale of two pay packets.

 

Bonus hikes to offset bosses' modest raises

 

There will be few eyebrow-raising increases in executive salaries this year, as companies bow to shareholder pressure, but controversial bonuses for bosses will continue, according to PricewaterhouseCoopers.

 

Salary increases for senior staff will remain modest at 3 per cent, half the 6 per cent levels achieved in 2007 and 2008, the accountants predict in a survey published today.

 

But bonuses could soar at almost a third of firms, forced to sweeten packages for executives unhappy about effective pay freezes.

 

The company surveyed senior reward professionals ahead of the AGM season, when executive pay will once again come under the spotlight.

 

"Shareholder activism on pay has stepped up substantially over the last few years and seems to be having an effect," said Sean O'Hare, reward partner at PwC.

 

"It looks like 2011 will be the third consecutive year of pay rise restraint, with increases lower or in line with national average earnings after years of rising much faster," he said.

 

"The difficulty for remuneration committees will be managing executives' expectations, which are rising again post recession."

 

Around 30 per cent of companies are planning to increase the maximum potential bonus for chief executives.

 

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/business/news/bonus-hikes-to-offset-bosses-modest-raises-2254956.html

 

Take-home pay down 5% in real terms since 2009, says study

 

The average employee takes home £1,088 a year less than two years ago when the sum is adjusted for inflation, research commissioned by BBC Panorama suggests.

 

The sharp drop, in real terms, highlights the effect of stagnant wages and above-target inflation on incomes.

 

The average British worker earned £20,149 at the start of 2011 - a real terms fall of 5% from what they were earning in the middle of the recession.

 

http://news.bbc.co.uk/panorama/hi/front_page/newsid_9436000/9436026.stm

 

[No6]

Iceland, a recovery play? It would appear that Iceland is recovering having let the banks and creditors go to the wall, but I can't help feeling the story below is a little too simplistic. Iceland did get bail out money from the EU and it was one country that decided to not prop up its failing banks and face the consequencies, but had all countries done this we most certainly would have had a financial meltdown of the worst order. No need to care about the banks, but the political and social consequencies? Every country facing financial collapse might have been an Egypt or Libya.

 

Unlike other nations, including the U.S. and Ireland, which injected billions of dollars of capital into their financial institutions to keep them afloat, Iceland placed its biggest lenders in receivership. It chose not to protect creditors of the country’s banks, whose assets had ballooned to $209 billion, 11 times gross domestic product.

 

The crisis almost sank the country. The krona lost 58 percent of its value by the end of November 2008, inflation spiked to 19 percent in January 2009 and GDP contracted by 7 percent that year. Prime Minister Geir H. Haarde resigned after nationwide protests. With the economy projected to grow 3 percent this year, Iceland’s decision to let the banks fail is looking smart -- and may prove to be a model for others.

‘The Right Thing’

 

“Iceland did the right thing by making sure its payment systems continued to function while creditors, not the taxpayers, shouldered the losses of banks,” says Nobel laureate Joseph Stiglitz, an economics professor at Columbia University in New York. “Ireland’s done all the wrong things, on the other hand. That’s probably the worst model.”

 

Ireland guaranteed all the liabilities of its banks when they ran into trouble and has been injecting capital -- 46 billion euros ($64 billion) so far -- to prop them up. That brought the country to the brink of ruin, forcing it to accept a rescue package from the European Union in December.

 

============================

 

Irish Debt Burden

 

By guaranteeing bank liabilities, Ireland faces a potential public debt burden that could swell to twice its GDP, up from 94 percent now. Iceland’s debt ratio is about 85 percent.

 

“Our future isn’t as bleak because our public debt isn’t as high,” says Hoskuldur Olafsson, chief executive officer of Arion Banki hf, the new bank formed to take over Kaupthing’s domestic assets.

 

Today, Iceland is recovering. The three new banks had combined profit of $309 million in the first nine months of 2010. GDP grew for the first time in two years in the third quarter, by 1.2 percent, inflation is down to 1.8 percent and the cost of insuring government debt has tumbled 80 percent. Stores in Reykjavik were filled with Christmas shoppers in early December, and bank branches were crowded with customers.

 

===========================

 

Rebuilding Confidence

 

Rebuilding the confidence of international investors may take longer. Iceland’s banks won’t be able to access international markets until political and financial uncertainties are removed, say creditors and their representatives, who asked not to be identified.

 

Those include the agreement reached with the U.K. and the Netherlands, which has to be approved by President Olafur R. Grimsson. The politically independent head of state has said he’ll decide by February whether to put the issue to a referendum again. Voters rejected a previous arrangement last year that forced a higher interest rate on Iceland.

 

Einarsdottir agrees that settlement of these issues and completion of debt restructuring is required before the government and the banks can access international capital markets again.

 

“In the beginning, banks and other financial institutions in Europe were telling us, ‘Never again will we lend to you,’” Einarsdottir says. “Then it was 10 years, then 5. Now they say they might soon be ready to lend again.”

Fishing, Banking

 

This time her bank won’t use foreign funds to go on a lending binge, she says.

 

“We will only focus on areas where we can bring on the nation’s expertise, such as fishing and geothermal energy,” says Einarsdottir. “We will grow cautiously.”

 

Economy Minister Arnason wants more for Iceland than fishing and geothermal energy. He acknowledges that the nation got into banking without the right infrastructure or the know- how to do it well. Still, he doesn’t think Icelanders have to go back to fishing now that they’ve proven themselves inept at finance.

 

His government needs to find work for the 2,000 highly educated finance-sector employees who lost their jobs, he says. Otherwise, they’ll migrate, and a shrinking population is the biggest scourge for this small, isolated island nation.

 

“The choice isn’t between fishing and banking,” Arnason says. “The choice is building a healthy, diversified economy.”

 

Arnason will have a better chance of keeping his countrymen home if Iceland can resume growth as predicted. It would also help prove his predecessors were right to let the country’s banks fail: Ireland, which rescued its financial institutions, is on the way to shrinking for a fourth consecutive year.

 

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2011-02-01/iceland-proves-ireland-did-wrong-things-saving-banks-instead-of-taxpayer.html

[No6]

Buying spree in Japan.

 

Foreign investors pile £7bn into Japan

 

Japan remains in chaos, but fund managers say the opportunities to pick up shares cheaply in that country are "immense".

 

Figures from the Ministry of Finance in Tokyo, reported by Bloomberg, indicate the experts are putting money where their mouth is.

 

Foreign investors bought about £7 billion worth of Japanese stocks last week - a record.

 

http://www.thisislondon.co.uk/standard-business/article-23935592-foreign-investors-pile-pound-7bn-into-japan.do

[No6]

Had to laugh when I read the two stories below. Apparently, the big UK supermarkets are not doing as well, or at least not as well as the market seems to expect, because we the people are cutting back on grocery shopping to pay for our petrol. However, the second paragraph seems to suggest there are still enough silly beggers out there. Go buy your porridge at Tescos, cheaper than £1.99 and you get a lot more than 1 pot in a packet.

 

ADVFN Market Report.

 

The high price of petrol has dramatically reduced the amount shoppers have to spend on their weekly food trip, causing sales growth to tumble at the big four supermarkets. The latest figures from Kantar Worldpanel show grocery sales have slowed to 2.6% in the 12 weeks to March 20, down from 3.9% growth as Britons cut back on their groceries in a desperate attempt to conserve cash. Morrisons marginally increased its share to 12.2% compared with 12.1% a year earlier. Tesco and Asda saw slight declines, to 30.2% and 17pc respectively, while Sainsbury's held firm with a 16.3% share, reports the Daily Mail.

 

The coldest winter in the UK for 31 years helped Pret A Manger sell up to 50,000 bowls of porridge a week as Britons sought to keep warm. The sandwich chain said that Pret Porridge – which sells for £1.99 a pot and uses a recipe that took three years to formulate – was its highest selling new product last year. Strong sales helped the company to report a 17pc increase in total sales over the year December 30, the Telegraph reports.

[littledavesab]

I found this interesting (i) re talk of cycles on other threads Buffett is not one that springs to mind as being one that would follow such things and (ii) Buffett thinking things will turn around circa 2016 times in pretty nicely with what some of the proper bears think !

 

- found courtesy of TMF

 

http://www.fool.co.uk/news/investing/2011/03/25/warren-buffetts-17-year-cycles.aspx

 

It is, to be blunt, a curious article. And even more so from the perspective of twelve years on, knowing everything that we now know about what has happened since.

 

And in it, in a very real sense, Buffett predicted what we've seen over the ensuing period. The dotcom crash and the consequent stock market slump; the credit crunch and the global recession that followed -- and the short-lived euphoria of 2006-2007 that lay in between.

 

And if he's correct, there's another five years or so before a serious bull market returns.

---------------------------

 

buffett article here

 

http://www.fool.co.uk/news/investing/2011/03/25/warren-buffetts-17-year-cycles.aspx

dated November 22, 1999 - and a pretty accurate cycle it seems

 

 

 

Now, to get some historical perspective, let's look back at the 34 years before this one--and here we are going to see an almost Biblical kind of symmetry, in the sense of lean years and fat years--to observe what happened in the stock market. Take, to begin with, the first 17 years of the period, from the end of 1964 through 1981. Here's what took place in that interval:

 

DOW JONES INDUSTRIAL AVERAGE Dec. 31, 1964: 874.12 Dec. 31, 1981: 875.00

 

Now I'm known as a long-term investor and a patient guy, but that is not my idea of a big move.

 

And here's a major and very opposite fact: During that same 17 years, the GDP of the U.S.--that is, the business being done in this country--almost quintupled, rising by 370%. Or, if we look at another measure, the sales of the FORTUNE 500 (a changing mix of companies, of course) more than sextupled. And yet the Dow went exactly nowhere

 

 

Still maybe there is a cycle for anything. 6.5 years / 17 years / 25 years have all been mentioned.

 

 

[No6]

I found this interesting (i) re talk of cycles on other threads Buffett is not one that springs to mind as being one that would follow such things and (ii) Buffett thinking things will turn around circa 2016 times in pretty nicely with what some of the proper bears think !

 

- found courtesy of TMF

 

http://www.fool.co.uk/news/investing/2011/03/25/warren-buffetts-17-year-cycles.aspx

 

It is, to be blunt, a curious article. And even more so from the perspective of twelve years on, knowing everything that we now know about what has happened since.

 

And in it, in a very real sense, Buffett predicted what we've seen over the ensuing period. The dotcom crash and the consequent stock market slump; the credit crunch and the global recession that followed -- and the short-lived euphoria of 2006-2007 that lay in between.

 

And if he's correct, there's another five years or so before a serious bull market returns.

---------------------------

 

buffett article here

 

http://www.fool.co.uk/news/investing/2011/03/25/warren-buffetts-17-year-cycles.aspx

dated November 22, 1999 - and a pretty accurate cycle it seems

 

 

 

Now, to get some historical perspective, let's look back at the 34 years before this one--and here we are going to see an almost Biblical kind of symmetry, in the sense of lean years and fat years--to observe what happened in the stock market. Take, to begin with, the first 17 years of the period, from the end of 1964 through 1981. Here's what took place in that interval:

 

DOW JONES INDUSTRIAL AVERAGE Dec. 31, 1964: 874.12 Dec. 31, 1981: 875.00

 

Now I'm known as a long-term investor and a patient guy, but that is not my idea of a big move.

 

And here's a major and very opposite fact: During that same 17 years, the GDP of the U.S.--that is, the business being done in this country--almost quintupled, rising by 370%. Or, if we look at another measure, the sales of the FORTUNE 500 (a changing mix of companies, of course) more than sextupled. And yet the Dow went exactly nowhere

 

 

Still maybe there is a cycle for anything. 6.5 years / 17 years / 25 years have all been mentioned.

 

I think what this shows is there is a tendency within these cycles to have a long march upwards which may go on for many years as the market climbs the wall of worry. Then at some stage you will get the big bust/crash/collapse, as expectations and the "its different this time" mentality takes over. The bust tends to happen over a much shorter period of time often wiping out very quickly many of the long term buy and hold investor holdings (especially for the average investor). Then you get many years of ups and downs, the market may be in a decline period as in Japan, or more stagnant and basically going nowhere over a long period like the UK and US. Politically and economically the next move up tends to come after there has been some cleaning of the slate of what went before. Buffett may be right in that we will have another 5 years of turmoil to go as there is still enough uncertainty out there and hidden dangers to be dealt with as can be seen by the news out of Ireland today. Whether this can be managed in a way that doesn't lead to a domino effect within the financial system is what the last 3 years or so and the next 5 years is all about. Those on the bear side tend to believe in the domino, everything will happen quickly, or at least at some stage that is what will happen. Time can be a healer if things can be managed well. That's where the doubts still remain.

 

(Note the post below on M&A activity that Buffett is looking to spend right now.)

 

From the 1999 article.

 

These dramatic changes in the two fundamentals that matter most to investors explain much, though not all, of the more than tenfold rise in equity prices--the Dow went from 875 to 9,181-- during this 17-year period. What was at work also, of course, was market psychology. Once a bull market gets under way, and once you reach the point where everybody has made money no matter what system he or she followed, a crowd is attracted into the game that is responding not to interest rates and profits but simply to the fact that it seems a mistake to be out of stocks. In effect, these people superimpose an I-can't-miss-the-party factor on top of the fundamental factors that drive the market. Like Pavlov's dog, these "investors" learn that when the bell rings--in this case, the one that opens the New York Stock Exchange at 9:30 a.m.--they get fed. Through this daily reinforcement, they become convinced that there is a God and that He wants them to get rich.

 

Today, staring fixedly back at the road they just traveled, most investors have rosy expectations. A Paine Webber and Gallup Organization survey released in July shows that the least experienced investors--those who have invested for less than five years--expect annual returns over the next ten years of 22.6%. Even those who have invested for more than 20 years are expecting 12.9%.

 

http://money.cnn.com/magazines/fortune/fortune_archive/1999/11/22/269071/index.htm

[No6]

US rediscovers appetite for M&A.

 

Buffett looking to spend.

 

http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/93a56cd4-5b02-11e0-a290-00144feab49a.html

 

The M&A market is continuing to roar. And with Q3 2010 M&A preliminary figures now out, the evidence is more than anecdotal: according to Thomson Reuters data, global dealmaking is up 21%, which constitutes the strongest quarter for M&A since Q3 2008. Indeed, Q3 2010 activity totalled US$599bn, the third consecutive quarter of growth, up 25.6% from Q3 2009 and by 6.8% from Q2 2010. Furthermore, global M&A totals US$1,678bn so far this year, surpassing volumes seen in the first nine months of 2009 (US$1,461bn).

 

=====================

 

In terms of regions, the US market continues to lead the way this year. US M&A activity has reached US$576bn in the year to date, up 13.7% from the first nine months of 2009 (US$506bn). As a result of this growth, US targets account for 34% of global activity. However – and significantly – emerging markets (EM) have overtaken Europe as the second most popular dealmaking destination for the first time on record. In line with my view of a continued rise in cross-region acquisitions within 2010’s broader M&A rebound, companies seeking to tap into the growth story of some of the world’s fast-growing nations, such as China and Brazil, have been increasingly pulled towards dealmaking in EM. Indeed, collectively, with the BRIC nations accounting for over half of all EM targeted deals, and with cross-border deals up for the sixth consecutive quarter, I continue to reiterate the salience of this view. Furthermore, Europe’s poor M&A performance is in fitting with BMI’s -house view that the eurozone is set to remain the weak link in the global economy going forward. In Europe, dealmaking came off the boil in Q3 2010 falling to US$144bn, down by 15% from the previous quarter (US$169bn).

 

http://www.riskwatchdog.com/2010/09/27/ma-activity-in-q3-2010-dealmakers-continue-to-work-overtime/

 

[No6]

A Tweet Way To Predict Market Movements?

 

Is the fluctuating mood state of the Twitterati correlated to the Dow Jones Industrial Average? David Kuo is joined by Paul Hawtin of Derwent Capital and Johan Bollen of Indiana University who analyse key words on the social media site to predict stock market movements. They reckon they can predict the direction of the Dow three or four days in advance with an accuracy of 86%.

 

http://www.fool.co.uk/money-talk/a-tweet-way-to-predict-market-movements-7834.aspx

[No6]

 

As for the longer term from here, much will probably depend on how long the Fukushima Daiichi disaster goes on for. One of the things that it is impossible not to notice is the impact of the internet on information, good or bad, getting around the globe. This is one of the major differences with other nuclear disasters like Three Mile Island and Chernobyle. It took years to clean up those plants, can you imagine what is going to happen with Fukushima? This is something that the gloomers will be able to make stories of for years, or until something else as bad takes its place. Horrible to say it, but probably sooner rather than later markets will price this in. Companies that are currently falling that have no connection with Japan or the nuclear industry, or (again horrible to say it) might actually benefit from the tragedy because they will either sell to Japan or pick up market share that otherwise would have gone to Japanese companies, will rebound. One UK company, Aggreko which supplies temporary power solutions may find it gets more business because of the earthquake.

 

 

News today.

 

Aggreko 1,678.0 +84.0

 

Temporary power supplier Aggreko is set to win a contract with Tokyo Electric Power Co to provide emergency power in the wake of the recent earthquake and tsunami.

 

The Tokyo Electric Power Company Incorporated has signed a letter of intent for the rental of 200 MW of emergency power - 100 MW of gas-fired and 100 MW of diesel-fired generation - for a minimum one year term.

 

It is intended that the power plants will be installed at sites in the Tokyo Bay area, and will help to sustain the supply of electricity to consumers and industry.

 

The Aggreko plant is expected to start delivering power to the grid in June.

 

http://www.moneyam.com/action/news/showArticle?id=4118175

[ecoface]

Minimum £100k investment.

[No6]

Minimum £100k investment.

 

?

[ecoface]

?

 

Sorry, its the min investment in Derwent Capital's twitter monitoring fund.

[jerpy]

Mamut getting ready to bid for HMV? Euroset may be the better bet for investors though.

 

Now what was that old adage about profit warnings coming in 3's.

 

See they even have given mamut a put up or shut up, like they have choices

[No6]

Now what was that old adage about profit warnings coming in 3's.

 

See they even have given mamut a put up or shut up, like they have choices

 

If the banks support them, and I think they probably will if only because they gave them the money to expand last year, then I see HMV surviving. Whether they remain a stock market quoted company is questionable. I think they would be better off away from the shorters that still think it only sells dvd's and cd's.

 

They may well have choices, but I doubt whether they do the deal below. Why would HMV sell its digital and live entertainment side of the buisness, when this is the area they need to and have been expanding into to get away from being seen as just a dvd/cd seller? I suppose what this shows is that the company stil has value which the wider market has overlooked.

 

One of Britain's most successful media and technology investors is eyeing a bid for the live entertainment business of HMV Group as the struggling retailer looks to break itself up, I have learned.

 

Peter Dubens, the founder of Oakley Capital, which has bought stakes in companies such as Time Out, the listings publisher, is keen to acquire the arm of HMV which houses its music venue operations and festivals, as well as its digital assets.

 

http://blogs.news.sky.com/kleinman/Post:5c316efc-96fb-4a99-97fb-acc4416361d9

[No6]

Sorry, its the min investment in Derwent Capital's twitter monitoring fund.

 

Seems to be catching on.

 

Tweettrader.net

 

http://tweettrader.net/

 

Twitter predicts future of stocks

 

Twitter may not yet have found a way to make money for itself but it is doing a good job of generating cash for its users, research suggests.

 

A study conducted by a PhD student at the Technical University of Munich found that investors following stock market tweets could have achieved an average return rate of 15%.

 

Timm Sprenger analysed 250,000 tweets sent over a six-month period.

 

He predicts Twitter will increasingly offer specialised information to users.

 

Thousands of stock-related messages are sent every day via tweets. Tweeting investors mark tweets according to company stock symbols.

 

There was "a striking co-ordination" between what Twitter was saying about shares and other information from investors and analysts, he found.

 

"I don't think it is the Holy Grail to make millions but it is a very credible and legitimate source," he said.

 

He also found that more valuable information was retweeted, meaning that it reached a wider audience.

 

The study formed the basis of the website TweetTrader.net where the real-time sentiment for individual stocks can be accessed. The site is currently in beta (trial).

 

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-12976254

[No6]

Australia faces wage inflation as mining fuels growth

 

To visit Perth airport early on a Monday morning is to witness the gold-rush style boom times of the Australian economy.

 

Long before dawn, the departure lounges of private plane charter companies are packed with mine workers.

 

Dressed in fluorescent safety jackets, they have the names of the big resources giants such as BHP Billiton and Rio Tinto emblazoned on their sleeves.

 

Sat shoulder to shoulder - or burly, tattooed forearm to burly, tattooed forearm - these are the fly-in fly-outs who commute each week from the state capital to the mining fields of the Pilbara and elsewhere where they can earn enviably large blue collar wages.

 

Booming salaries

 

Full-time earnings in Australia average 66,594 Australian dollars ($69,000; £42,500).

 

In mining, the average wage is $A108,009, making it by far the highest paid sector.

 

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-12983689

[No6]

I thought the markets reacted pretty well to another quake today. There again, worldwide there have been 1274 quakes in the last 30 days, no wonder the astrologers are such geniuses with their shock horror predictions.

 

Last 30 days, 1274 earthquakes displayed of 4 or above on RS.

 

http://www.iris.edu/seismon/last30.html'>http://www.iris.edu/seismon/last30.html

 

http://www.iris.edu/seismon/

[jerpy]

Workers at the Sukari site staged a sit-in last week to demand higher pay and a change of ownership, state news service MENA reported Feb. 18. The company’s shares fell the most in more than two years that day......

 

Centamin rose 1.2 pence, or 1 percent, to 125.3 pence by the 4:30 p.m. close of London trading

 

Centamin maintains its 2011 production guidance of 250,000 to 290,000 ounces at an average cash cost of $450 an ounce, the Mount Pleasant, Australia-based company said in the statement.<!--QuoteEnd--></div><!--QuoteEEnd-->

 

 

Roll forward 6 or so weeks and seems the analyst trip RNS'd on Friday has well and truly steadied the ship.

 

Shares closed at 153p today after earlier breaking 158p. Seemingly heading for higher ground?

[No6]

Would this guy make a good trader or just a reckless one? Raises a good question about personality and risk. Apply the things he is saying to trading/investing.

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G-dPjDYVKUY

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VUWBbepsdmY&NR=1

[No6]

Move down in the FTSE was to be expected after recent run up. Negative is the triple top around 6100, the next move up really needs to break it. I would say that 5800 looks a lower end for support, especially as 50 and 20 day MA's still favour upside.

 

 

FTSE100 & 250

Dow & S&P