The FTSE closed up 42.5 points today at 5,879.8 and the FTSE 250 closed down 26.7 points at 9,881.8.
By the time London closed the DJI had recovered from opening falls to be much firmer by its late morning.
Back here in London, Friends Provident had a bad day, closing down 16.4p to 138.8p on news of disappointing new business news along with a fall in equity valuations. A £300m forecast down from £509m last year looks to be the pre-tax profit for the year.
Banks took some hits too, with Barclays down 8.5p at 470p, HSBC down 3.5p at 751.5p and HBOS also down 8.5p at 694.5p. Broker downgrades on RBS, Barclays HSBC, Standard Chartered and Northern Rock were also out.
Sainsburys closed up 2p at 396p even though JP Morgan downgraded the supermarket group to underweight from neutral.
Oiler RD Shell advanced earlier in the day but ended even at 1,744p as its 4th quarter monster results still didn't meet expectations. US$5.737 bln was lower than US$5.862 that was expected, despite being up from US$5.5 bln last time out. Peer BP closed up 7.5p at 532p as it announced another significant discovery off Egypt. BG Group had a good day, closing up 55p at 1,100 on rumours of some third party interest in the group.
Miners did ok, with Rio closing up 137p at 4,956p as everyone held their breath on the imminenet BHP final offer that's due. BHP closed up 31p at 1,477. Cairn Energy closed up 57p at 2,565p on a bullish update and broker upgrade to buy.
Smith & Nephew closed up 28p at 682p on higher broker target forecasts.
Thursday, 31 January 2008
Morning Market, Thursday 31st January 2008
The FTSE was down over 90 points this morning at 5,745, despite running up to 5,854 early doors (tube traders note!). The FTSE 250 was down nearly 150 points at 9,763.
Last night the DJI closed down 37.47 points at 12,442.83, this despite the Feds cutting interest rates another 0.5% to 3%. That's a 1.25% reduction in interest rates in a fortnight over there. The DJI had run up 200 points startight after the news, but rewalsism on the economy soon came back. The S&P500 closed down 6.49 points at 1,355.81, and the Nasdaq composite fell 9.06 points to close at 2,349.00.
In the Far East the Nikkei 225 closed up 247.44 points at 13,592.4 but in Hong Kong the Hang Seng closed down 197.95 points at 23,455.74.
Back here this morning it was the worries over what level the UBS write downs were going to be that was playing on investors' minds, we feel. This on top of the US economy problems.
Banks obviously sufferd, with RBS down 18p at 367p and Barclays down 20p at 458, both carrying on from the broker downgrades yesterday. Peer Standard Chartered was down 80p at 1,572 due to its Far East exposure in Hong Kong. Lloyds TSB lost was dodnw 15p at 422p and HBOS was down 29p at 674.
Insurers were down on the news yesterday, with the Prud down another 24p at 616p and Aviva off 18p at 6-quid.
Housebuilders were also down with Taylor Wimpey down 3p at 81.5p Persimmons down 20p at 783p, Barratts down 15p at 417 and Bellway down 30p at 799.
Oil giant RD Shell was down 12p at 1,732 despite its fantastic, record breaking figures that helped an early rise in price that soon reversed. It's 4th quarter earnings totaled totaled US$5.737 bln, up from US$5.5 bln last time out.
Positives came from BG Group, up nearly 20p at 1,065, and from the miners.
Rio was up another 15p at 4,834, with hopes of the BHP bid rising.
Smith & Nephew was up 3.5p at 657.5p on broker upgrade.
Last night the DJI closed down 37.47 points at 12,442.83, this despite the Feds cutting interest rates another 0.5% to 3%. That's a 1.25% reduction in interest rates in a fortnight over there. The DJI had run up 200 points startight after the news, but rewalsism on the economy soon came back. The S&P500 closed down 6.49 points at 1,355.81, and the Nasdaq composite fell 9.06 points to close at 2,349.00.
In the Far East the Nikkei 225 closed up 247.44 points at 13,592.4 but in Hong Kong the Hang Seng closed down 197.95 points at 23,455.74.
Back here this morning it was the worries over what level the UBS write downs were going to be that was playing on investors' minds, we feel. This on top of the US economy problems.
Banks obviously sufferd, with RBS down 18p at 367p and Barclays down 20p at 458, both carrying on from the broker downgrades yesterday. Peer Standard Chartered was down 80p at 1,572 due to its Far East exposure in Hong Kong. Lloyds TSB lost was dodnw 15p at 422p and HBOS was down 29p at 674.
Insurers were down on the news yesterday, with the Prud down another 24p at 616p and Aviva off 18p at 6-quid.
Housebuilders were also down with Taylor Wimpey down 3p at 81.5p Persimmons down 20p at 783p, Barratts down 15p at 417 and Bellway down 30p at 799.
Oil giant RD Shell was down 12p at 1,732 despite its fantastic, record breaking figures that helped an early rise in price that soon reversed. It's 4th quarter earnings totaled totaled US$5.737 bln, up from US$5.5 bln last time out.
Positives came from BG Group, up nearly 20p at 1,065, and from the miners.
Rio was up another 15p at 4,834, with hopes of the BHP bid rising.
Smith & Nephew was up 3.5p at 657.5p on broker upgrade.
Wednesday, 30 January 2008
Market Wrap, Wednesday 30th January 2008
The FTSE closed down 47.9 points today at 5,837.3. The FTSE 250 ended up 3.1 points at 9.908.5 on a late rally.
By the time London closed the DJI was about 45 points down at 12,435.0, while the S&P 500 was around 5 points down at 1,356.95 and the Nasdaq about 6 points lower at 2,351.56.
Shire was down a rather poor 36p at 899 on dongrade to neatral and a 990p target, down from 1,250p. Peers fell too, with Glaxo down 26p at 1,174 and AstraZeneca off 60p at 2,120.
RBS was down 14.5p at 385.25 and Barclays down 12.5p at 478.5 on downgrades to sell.
Friends Provident closed down 7.1p t 155.2 as the takeover possibilities got weaker, with peer Standard Life down 4p at 224 on news that CEO Trevor Matthews had resigned.
British Land closed down 36p at 984 on broker downgrade to hold, but gave a 11-quid target from 10-quid.
Experian was up 23.5p at 432.5 after investors felt happy with their seminar held by the firm yesterday.
TUI Travel was up 8p at 248 with strength still there after the trading update yesterday. Peer Thomas Cook was up 3p to 263p as well with news their earnings were up 26% on the year.
The miners were strong, with Rio up 149p at 4,819 on hopes that BHP may go ahead with a bid by the 6th Feb deadline. BHP Billiton shares were also up. Kazakhmys closed up 9p at 1,202 on news that copper production in 4th quarter was inline with expectations, but down 6.3% from last year.
Enterprise Inns closed up nearly 19p at at 449.5 as more M&A rumours were around the sector. Peer Mitchells & Butlers closed up 72p at 473 on news that it had received some sniffing interest in a deal as well. All this activity and rumour helped Punch taverns who were also up 33.5p at 709.5.
By the time London closed the DJI was about 45 points down at 12,435.0, while the S&P 500 was around 5 points down at 1,356.95 and the Nasdaq about 6 points lower at 2,351.56.
Shire was down a rather poor 36p at 899 on dongrade to neatral and a 990p target, down from 1,250p. Peers fell too, with Glaxo down 26p at 1,174 and AstraZeneca off 60p at 2,120.
RBS was down 14.5p at 385.25 and Barclays down 12.5p at 478.5 on downgrades to sell.
Friends Provident closed down 7.1p t 155.2 as the takeover possibilities got weaker, with peer Standard Life down 4p at 224 on news that CEO Trevor Matthews had resigned.
British Land closed down 36p at 984 on broker downgrade to hold, but gave a 11-quid target from 10-quid.
Experian was up 23.5p at 432.5 after investors felt happy with their seminar held by the firm yesterday.
TUI Travel was up 8p at 248 with strength still there after the trading update yesterday. Peer Thomas Cook was up 3p to 263p as well with news their earnings were up 26% on the year.
The miners were strong, with Rio up 149p at 4,819 on hopes that BHP may go ahead with a bid by the 6th Feb deadline. BHP Billiton shares were also up. Kazakhmys closed up 9p at 1,202 on news that copper production in 4th quarter was inline with expectations, but down 6.3% from last year.
Enterprise Inns closed up nearly 19p at at 449.5 as more M&A rumours were around the sector. Peer Mitchells & Butlers closed up 72p at 473 on news that it had received some sniffing interest in a deal as well. All this activity and rumour helped Punch taverns who were also up 33.5p at 709.5.
Morning Market, Wednesday 30th Janauary 2008
The FTSE was down about 35 points at 5,849 in its first hour, with the FTSE 250 down nearly 40 points at 9,866.
Last night over the pond the DJI closed up 96.41 at 12,480.3, whilst the S&P500 closed up 8.34 points at 1,362.30 and the Nasdaq up 8.15 points at 2,358.06. One suprise there was Yahoo, who made a cautious statment and the shares fell a massive 10%.
In the Far east today the Nikkei 225 closed down 133.83 at 13,345.03, and in Hong Kong the Hang Seng was down 370-odd points at 23,918 by its lunchtime.
Oil was up in Fart trading, with light sweet crude (March delivery) up nearly 80 cents at US$92.4 bbl. Brent (mar del) was up nearly 60 cents at US$92.6 bbl.
back here this morning and it was the banks who were falling back again. Barclays was dwon 5p at 486p early doors, whilst HBOS was down 7p at 392. News that UBS was going to post a heavy 4th quarter loss wasn't taken well in the sector in general.
Standard Life also had a bad morning, down 8p at 219p after it said its UK head, Trevor Matthews, had resigned. Sales up 11% didn't help.
British Land was down 11p at 1,009 on broker downgrade to hold, but a 1,100 target, up from a tenner.
United Utilities was dwon 6p at 7-quid after it said its 9 months figures wwere in line with expectations.
Travel firm Thomas Cook fell 3p to 256.5p after its rise yesterday and fairly decent results, but nothing special.
Vedanta was down 4p at 1,848.5 on disappointing figures. The company said that earnings was down from $724m to $672m.
Last night over the pond the DJI closed up 96.41 at 12,480.3, whilst the S&P500 closed up 8.34 points at 1,362.30 and the Nasdaq up 8.15 points at 2,358.06. One suprise there was Yahoo, who made a cautious statment and the shares fell a massive 10%.
In the Far east today the Nikkei 225 closed down 133.83 at 13,345.03, and in Hong Kong the Hang Seng was down 370-odd points at 23,918 by its lunchtime.
Oil was up in Fart trading, with light sweet crude (March delivery) up nearly 80 cents at US$92.4 bbl. Brent (mar del) was up nearly 60 cents at US$92.6 bbl.
back here this morning and it was the banks who were falling back again. Barclays was dwon 5p at 486p early doors, whilst HBOS was down 7p at 392. News that UBS was going to post a heavy 4th quarter loss wasn't taken well in the sector in general.
Standard Life also had a bad morning, down 8p at 219p after it said its UK head, Trevor Matthews, had resigned. Sales up 11% didn't help.
British Land was down 11p at 1,009 on broker downgrade to hold, but a 1,100 target, up from a tenner.
United Utilities was dwon 6p at 7-quid after it said its 9 months figures wwere in line with expectations.
Travel firm Thomas Cook fell 3p to 256.5p after its rise yesterday and fairly decent results, but nothing special.
Vedanta was down 4p at 1,848.5 on disappointing figures. The company said that earnings was down from $724m to $672m.
Crude Oil - Wednesday 30th January
Good morning all...
Reasonably quiet day yesterday in the currency market. We made money on the Aud, Eur, Crude and Gold. The FOMC announce their rate decision at 19.15 this evening so the market might wait until then to make a move.
CRUDE - Th echart below shows the bounce off the $89.25 support and the Green conductors kept us in for the target price at $93.00. Be careful of a small retracement today.
Not a huge amount to report on in the currencies. GBP is looking stronger and has now broken the 1.9900 level so this looks like a buy on dips strategy. Wait for the green conductors to get you into the trade. There won't be a midday report as the market is reasonably quiet...
Reasonably quiet day yesterday in the currency market. We made money on the Aud, Eur, Crude and Gold. The FOMC announce their rate decision at 19.15 this evening so the market might wait until then to make a move.
CRUDE - Th echart below shows the bounce off the $89.25 support and the Green conductors kept us in for the target price at $93.00. Be careful of a small retracement today.
Not a huge amount to report on in the currencies. GBP is looking stronger and has now broken the 1.9900 level so this looks like a buy on dips strategy. Wait for the green conductors to get you into the trade. There won't be a midday report as the market is reasonably quiet...
Tuesday, 29 January 2008
Market Wrap, Tuesday 29th January 2008
The FTSE closed up 96.3 points today at 5,885.2, and the FTSE 250 up 264.9 at 9,905.4.
Over the pond the US was doing ok too, with the DJI at about 12,465 (up 81) by the time London closed, whilst the S&P500 was up about 7 points at 1,361 and the Nasdaq up about 5 points at 2,355.
Back here in London it was the miners who were helping the FTSE up, with Anto up 42p at 669.5, Anglo up 143p at 2,608, Xstrata up 207p at 3,719 and Kazakhmys up 54p at 1,193 on broker upgarde and 1,475p target.
The travel agents were at their usual strong time of year, and good news from Tui helped them have a good day. Whilst Tui was up only a penny at 240p, Merrills said not only was it a 'buy' but they put a 4-quid target on it. Peer Thomas Cook was up 13.5p at 260 also on the back of an upgarde yesterday.
Aero engine maker Rolls-Royce was up 17.5p to 482 on nes of a middle eastern order for its engines for 7 aircraft.
Debenhams closed up nearly 5p at just shy of 72p on news that Milestone now had 9.13% of the high street retailer chain.
The Pru was still doing ok, and following on from thsi morning closed up 19p at 654 after some decent figures,w hcih were better than expected.
Alliance & Leicester didn't do so well, and closed down 25p at 7-quid after it gave a downbeat forecast on the world credit problems.
RD Shell was off 10p at 1,766 on press news that its estimated reserves won't be published at the same time as its results on thursday, like they usually are.
Imperial Tobacco was down 5p at 2,365 after trading figures were posted as expected.
Over the pond the US was doing ok too, with the DJI at about 12,465 (up 81) by the time London closed, whilst the S&P500 was up about 7 points at 1,361 and the Nasdaq up about 5 points at 2,355.
Back here in London it was the miners who were helping the FTSE up, with Anto up 42p at 669.5, Anglo up 143p at 2,608, Xstrata up 207p at 3,719 and Kazakhmys up 54p at 1,193 on broker upgarde and 1,475p target.
The travel agents were at their usual strong time of year, and good news from Tui helped them have a good day. Whilst Tui was up only a penny at 240p, Merrills said not only was it a 'buy' but they put a 4-quid target on it. Peer Thomas Cook was up 13.5p at 260 also on the back of an upgarde yesterday.
Aero engine maker Rolls-Royce was up 17.5p to 482 on nes of a middle eastern order for its engines for 7 aircraft.
Debenhams closed up nearly 5p at just shy of 72p on news that Milestone now had 9.13% of the high street retailer chain.
The Pru was still doing ok, and following on from thsi morning closed up 19p at 654 after some decent figures,w hcih were better than expected.
Alliance & Leicester didn't do so well, and closed down 25p at 7-quid after it gave a downbeat forecast on the world credit problems.
RD Shell was off 10p at 1,766 on press news that its estimated reserves won't be published at the same time as its results on thursday, like they usually are.
Imperial Tobacco was down 5p at 2,365 after trading figures were posted as expected.
Morning Market, Tuesday 29th January 2008
The FTSE was up this morning, with the FTSE 100 up 60 points in its first hour of trading at 5,848, whilst the FTSE 250 was up 135 points at 9,775.
Over the pond last night the DJI closed up 176.72 points at 12,383.89, while the S&P 500 was up 23.24 points at 1,353.85 and the Nasdaq closed up 23.71 points to 2,349.91.
In the Far East today the Nikkei 225 ended up 390.95 points at 13,478.86, while in Hong Kong the Hang Seng was up 545 points higher at 24,598 by its lunchtime lull.
Oil was around US$90 bbl, with Nymex light sweet crude (Mar del) was up 6 cents to US$91.05 bbl. Brent North Sea crude (Mar del) was up 16 cents to US$91.54 bbl.
Back here in London, TUI Travel was up 11p at 250p on saying its current trading has been "encouraging" with strong demand across all its markets, especially after Xmas. Peer Thomas Cook Group was also doing well, with 16.5p rise at 263p.
The Pru was up 13p at 649 with its rise of 21% on annual sales, which was helped by its Asian division.
The miners were up as copper prices also rose. Vedanta was up 30p at 1,839, Kazakhmys was 18p higher at 1,157, Xstrata up 120p at 3,632, Anglo up 62p at 2,527 and Lonmin up 58p at 2,926.
ITV was up a penny at 73p on news that the UK government has ordered BSkyB to reduce its stake in the group to below 7.5%, in line with recommendations from the Competition Commission.
Negatives today included the oilers, with RD Shell down 20p at 1,799 on news that the group will delay its reported oil reserves figures that would normally accompany the accounts fiugures this Thursday.
Over the pond last night the DJI closed up 176.72 points at 12,383.89, while the S&P 500 was up 23.24 points at 1,353.85 and the Nasdaq closed up 23.71 points to 2,349.91.
In the Far East today the Nikkei 225 ended up 390.95 points at 13,478.86, while in Hong Kong the Hang Seng was up 545 points higher at 24,598 by its lunchtime lull.
Oil was around US$90 bbl, with Nymex light sweet crude (Mar del) was up 6 cents to US$91.05 bbl. Brent North Sea crude (Mar del) was up 16 cents to US$91.54 bbl.
Back here in London, TUI Travel was up 11p at 250p on saying its current trading has been "encouraging" with strong demand across all its markets, especially after Xmas. Peer Thomas Cook Group was also doing well, with 16.5p rise at 263p.
The Pru was up 13p at 649 with its rise of 21% on annual sales, which was helped by its Asian division.
The miners were up as copper prices also rose. Vedanta was up 30p at 1,839, Kazakhmys was 18p higher at 1,157, Xstrata up 120p at 3,632, Anglo up 62p at 2,527 and Lonmin up 58p at 2,926.
ITV was up a penny at 73p on news that the UK government has ordered BSkyB to reduce its stake in the group to below 7.5%, in line with recommendations from the Competition Commission.
Negatives today included the oilers, with RD Shell down 20p at 1,799 on news that the group will delay its reported oil reserves figures that would normally accompany the accounts fiugures this Thursday.
Currency Report - Tuesday 29th January - Midday
Good morning all and i trust you are having a good day... USDCAD is still falling and the 5 and 20MA have now crossed on the Daily Chart leading me to believe this will fall further.
It was a reasonably quiet day yesterday with limited figures out. New home sales were down -4.7% compared to expectation at -0.3%. This led to further USD weakness and we have now seen GBPUSD rise steadily on the back of that news. There are a few USD figures out this afternoon to be aware of...
Crude had a great bounce yesterday off the 50MA. Remember the Golden Rule to only buy after red market conductors. The Byte subscribers should be long as predicted yesterday...
Check out an example of market Bytes below. Tipping with Sound and Vision. Whats hot in Forex and Indices
It was a reasonably quiet day yesterday with limited figures out. New home sales were down -4.7% compared to expectation at -0.3%. This led to further USD weakness and we have now seen GBPUSD rise steadily on the back of that news. There are a few USD figures out this afternoon to be aware of...
Crude had a great bounce yesterday off the 50MA. Remember the Golden Rule to only buy after red market conductors. The Byte subscribers should be long as predicted yesterday...
Check out an example of market Bytes below. Tipping with Sound and Vision. Whats hot in Forex and Indices
Monday, 28 January 2008
Market Wrap, Monday 28th January 2008
The FTSE closed down 80.1 points to day at 5,788.9, which was about 83 points up from its low, and 79 points off its high, whilst the FTSE 250 closed down 98 points at 9,640.5.
Over the pond, by the time London closed the DJI was about 85 points up at 12,292, the S&P500 up 12 points at 1,343 and the Nasdaq up 15 points at 2,341. Tech heavyweight Verizon posted some decent results, which counteracted ongoing concerns about the US economy in general.
Back here in London it was still the miners that were dragging the FTSE down, and on from this morning we had Rio closing down 147p at 4,459, Anglo down 125p at 2,465, Anto down 24.5p at 627.5, Lonmin down 32p at 867, and Vedanta down 20p at 1,811 despite a broker upgrade to neautral. In contrast to all its peers, Xstrata closed up 12p at 3,512 on news that Brazilian giant Vale was at advanced stages of securing a US$50 bln funding pot to buyout the Anglo-Swiss miner. Xstrata also announced its resource estimate for the Collahuasi copper mine in Chile has been raised up 28%.
Back to the downside, the builders were also under pressure, with Taylor Wimpey down over 10p at 183.3, Wolseley closing down 29.5p at 7-quid and Persimmons down 35.5p at 790.5. News that house prices were down in January for the 4th month running not helping there.
The price of the black stuff was down to about US$90 bbl, so the oil majors followed, with BP down 7p at just shy of 531p, Tullows down 21p at 539p, BP Group down 8p at 1,021.5 and despite getting a broker upgarde to buy RD Shell was down 21p at 1,818.5p.
Shire was down 43.5p to 947 on downgrade to average, basically, with a 910p target down from 1,120.
Some good news for Whitbread, though, who closed up 21p at 1,257 on news that property magnate Asif Aziz now own 8%.
BAE Systems closed up over 5p at 473.25p on some decent news that it had been chosen by the UK govenrnment to lead the way on the purchasing of high-tech, safety-critical defence software.
Pub operator JD Wetherspoon closed nearly 24p down at 314.25 on broker downgrade to hold, this depsite the MD picking up lots of stock over Xmas. Peer Mitchells & Butlers also closed down nearly 9p at 382.25p.
Over the pond, by the time London closed the DJI was about 85 points up at 12,292, the S&P500 up 12 points at 1,343 and the Nasdaq up 15 points at 2,341. Tech heavyweight Verizon posted some decent results, which counteracted ongoing concerns about the US economy in general.
Back here in London it was still the miners that were dragging the FTSE down, and on from this morning we had Rio closing down 147p at 4,459, Anglo down 125p at 2,465, Anto down 24.5p at 627.5, Lonmin down 32p at 867, and Vedanta down 20p at 1,811 despite a broker upgrade to neautral. In contrast to all its peers, Xstrata closed up 12p at 3,512 on news that Brazilian giant Vale was at advanced stages of securing a US$50 bln funding pot to buyout the Anglo-Swiss miner. Xstrata also announced its resource estimate for the Collahuasi copper mine in Chile has been raised up 28%.
Back to the downside, the builders were also under pressure, with Taylor Wimpey down over 10p at 183.3, Wolseley closing down 29.5p at 7-quid and Persimmons down 35.5p at 790.5. News that house prices were down in January for the 4th month running not helping there.
The price of the black stuff was down to about US$90 bbl, so the oil majors followed, with BP down 7p at just shy of 531p, Tullows down 21p at 539p, BP Group down 8p at 1,021.5 and despite getting a broker upgarde to buy RD Shell was down 21p at 1,818.5p.
Shire was down 43.5p to 947 on downgrade to average, basically, with a 910p target down from 1,120.
Some good news for Whitbread, though, who closed up 21p at 1,257 on news that property magnate Asif Aziz now own 8%.
BAE Systems closed up over 5p at 473.25p on some decent news that it had been chosen by the UK govenrnment to lead the way on the purchasing of high-tech, safety-critical defence software.
Pub operator JD Wetherspoon closed nearly 24p down at 314.25 on broker downgrade to hold, this depsite the MD picking up lots of stock over Xmas. Peer Mitchells & Butlers also closed down nearly 9p at 382.25p.
Currency Report - Monday 28th January - Midday
Good morning all...
Firstly i have to say massive congratulations to all of you who made over 1,000 points last week. That is great trading and you all deserve a pat on the back!!! Well done...
I was teaching for the last 2 working days so the Currency report will continue as usual this week at midday.
GBPJPY was the big mover last week with a break above the 200MA at 11.00am. Many of the Bytes subscribers entered at 9.00am at 209.00 and exited at 214.00. What a breakout play...
USDCAD showed the pullback we were all expecting and fell 350 points off its high at 1.0378. It is now a waiting game for either a break of parity or a pullback. The 60 minute chart shows the Box and we are ready for the trade.
GBPCHF was another big mover at the end of last week and we saw a positive pullback from 2.1400 on the break to 2.1700. The support line kept us in the trade until the retracement stopped us out.
The Indexes have been knocked again today and after the technical Doji on friday, the FTSE has looked week from the start. Need to see is this weeks low falls below last weeks low.
There are so many opportunities available to us, it's just about being patient and waiting for the right set up. If you are interested in my predictions for the day please register at Market bytes for that advantage.
Firstly i have to say massive congratulations to all of you who made over 1,000 points last week. That is great trading and you all deserve a pat on the back!!! Well done...
I was teaching for the last 2 working days so the Currency report will continue as usual this week at midday.
GBPJPY was the big mover last week with a break above the 200MA at 11.00am. Many of the Bytes subscribers entered at 9.00am at 209.00 and exited at 214.00. What a breakout play...
USDCAD showed the pullback we were all expecting and fell 350 points off its high at 1.0378. It is now a waiting game for either a break of parity or a pullback. The 60 minute chart shows the Box and we are ready for the trade.
GBPCHF was another big mover at the end of last week and we saw a positive pullback from 2.1400 on the break to 2.1700. The support line kept us in the trade until the retracement stopped us out.
The Indexes have been knocked again today and after the technical Doji on friday, the FTSE has looked week from the start. Need to see is this weeks low falls below last weeks low.
There are so many opportunities available to us, it's just about being patient and waiting for the right set up. If you are interested in my predictions for the day please register at Market bytes for that advantage.
Vodafone - chart example
Anyone who power trades the big stocks, waiting for a nice group of indicators and a break before going long, can take some heart from my old friend Voddy this last week. Against the struggling, under pressure market, it has shown how the Market Analyser comes into its own.
Morning Market, Monday 28th January 2008
The FTSE was down about 70 points in its first hour at 5,797. The FTSE 250 was off about 136 points at 9,600. This seems to have carrie on from Friday in the US and the Far East this morning.
On Friday over the pond the DJI had closed down 171.44 points at 12,207.17, despite being as high as 12,486.89 during the session despite being up nearly 100 ponts at one stage. The S&P 500 closed down 21.46 at 1,330.61 and the Nasdaq down 34.72 at 2,326.20. The feeling seems to be that the interest rate cuts are just a short-term fix, and not really helping the fundamentals of the economy. That would take time.
In the Far East today the Nikkei 225 closed down 541.25 points at 13,087.91, and in Hong Kong the Hang Seng 1,068 points at 24,053.61 - not a good start to the week.
Back here in London this morning Xstrata was top of the leader board, up 110p at 3,615 on hopes of a deal being close with Brazil's Vale plus some upbeat forecast news of some decent resource estimates for the Collahuasi copper mine in Chile, with figures raised 28% to 5.19 bln tonnes with an average grade of 0.83%copper. The rest of the miners were dragging the index down, though. Vedanta was down 43p at 1,786, Rio off 117p at 4,579, BHP down 40p at 1,376, Anto down 19p at 633p, and Anglo down 82p at 2,508.
Oilers were also dragging the index down, despite Light Sweet (Mar del) at US$90.75 bbl, with Tullows down 16.5p at 542.5p, BP off 11p at 527 and RD Shell down 44p at 1,796.
Pharma giant Glaxo was a positive this nmorning and also doing well, following the chart which showed support. The breakout will be a good swing trade there.
On Friday over the pond the DJI had closed down 171.44 points at 12,207.17, despite being as high as 12,486.89 during the session despite being up nearly 100 ponts at one stage. The S&P 500 closed down 21.46 at 1,330.61 and the Nasdaq down 34.72 at 2,326.20. The feeling seems to be that the interest rate cuts are just a short-term fix, and not really helping the fundamentals of the economy. That would take time.
In the Far East today the Nikkei 225 closed down 541.25 points at 13,087.91, and in Hong Kong the Hang Seng 1,068 points at 24,053.61 - not a good start to the week.
Back here in London this morning Xstrata was top of the leader board, up 110p at 3,615 on hopes of a deal being close with Brazil's Vale plus some upbeat forecast news of some decent resource estimates for the Collahuasi copper mine in Chile, with figures raised 28% to 5.19 bln tonnes with an average grade of 0.83%copper. The rest of the miners were dragging the index down, though. Vedanta was down 43p at 1,786, Rio off 117p at 4,579, BHP down 40p at 1,376, Anto down 19p at 633p, and Anglo down 82p at 2,508.
Oilers were also dragging the index down, despite Light Sweet (Mar del) at US$90.75 bbl, with Tullows down 16.5p at 542.5p, BP off 11p at 527 and RD Shell down 44p at 1,796.
Pharma giant Glaxo was a positive this nmorning and also doing well, following the chart which showed support. The breakout will be a good swing trade there.
Saturday, 26 January 2008
Chromogenex - AIM play on a low at 3.25p
Chromogenex (AIM:CGX) came to our attention this week. We've had our eye on this after it came up on a scan recently and we looked further and deeper than we would normally.
This Wales-based laser manufacturer and distributor has been moving further afield into the US and Canada of late, selling its products, which are aimed at the beauty market - a fast-growing sector.
We expect that profits could be £500k this year (2008), maybe £700k, which would give a valuation of about £8m to £10m, easily. A recent new CEO appointment is very good news as the guy that's come in is quite heavyweight for AIM. Good stuff, we thought. Anyway, there was an announcement yesterday that there was a problem in Canada with some paperwork and that it could affect profits. The price moved down to 3.25p. We think this paperwork won't take long, and despite Canada being a fair slice of the current action we reckon this one could do well this year, especially looking at its market cap, which is at £2m with the current share price at 3.25p.
One to watch, we say.
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This Wales-based laser manufacturer and distributor has been moving further afield into the US and Canada of late, selling its products, which are aimed at the beauty market - a fast-growing sector.
We expect that profits could be £500k this year (2008), maybe £700k, which would give a valuation of about £8m to £10m, easily. A recent new CEO appointment is very good news as the guy that's come in is quite heavyweight for AIM. Good stuff, we thought. Anyway, there was an announcement yesterday that there was a problem in Canada with some paperwork and that it could affect profits. The price moved down to 3.25p. We think this paperwork won't take long, and despite Canada being a fair slice of the current action we reckon this one could do well this year, especially looking at its market cap, which is at £2m with the current share price at 3.25p.
One to watch, we say.
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Dow Jones closes down on Friday 25th January 2008
The DJI closed on Friday down 171.44 points at 12,207.17, despite being as high as 12,486.89 during the session, which was nearly 280 points higher, or up nearly 100 ponts at one stage. Tube Traders take note. The S&P 500 closed down 21.46 at 1,330.61 and the Nasdaq down 34.72 at 2,326.20.
The feeling seems to be that the interest rate cuts are just a short-term fix, and not really helping the fundamentals of the economy. That would take time.
From a technical point of view we all waited for the RSI to cut back thru' which it did, giving a decent trade, but stops were triggered yesterday and we are out of it for now excpet for some scalp trades and the usual opening trade. It really is a difficult call at the momnt, despite what seemed like a trend turn earlier in the week with some bulls coming back in on the Microsoft news and the interest rate news sinking in.
Unfortunately we'll have to sit and watch what next week brings without the usual feeling of which way we'll go.
The feeling seems to be that the interest rate cuts are just a short-term fix, and not really helping the fundamentals of the economy. That would take time.
From a technical point of view we all waited for the RSI to cut back thru' which it did, giving a decent trade, but stops were triggered yesterday and we are out of it for now excpet for some scalp trades and the usual opening trade. It really is a difficult call at the momnt, despite what seemed like a trend turn earlier in the week with some bulls coming back in on the Microsoft news and the interest rate news sinking in.
Unfortunately we'll have to sit and watch what next week brings without the usual feeling of which way we'll go.
Friday, 25 January 2008
Market Wrap, Friday 25th January 2008
The FTSE closed off nearly 7 points today at 5,869.0, despite being up at 5,973 earlier on. The last hour was the most uncertain - with Wall Street messing around after it opened at 2:30 London time.
Over the pond the DJI wasn't sure what to do, and after a postive upwards start, the tube tarde played well with all the 3 main indicies nearly even by the time London closed. The DJI was up about 6 points at 12,385, the S&P500 was even at 1,325 and the Nasdaq was up just 7 points at 2,368.
Here in London there was a Friday afternoon sell off, basically, but whether it was genuine trading or whether it was uncertaincy what the weekend press will bring, we don't know. Rumours of hedge funds moving back to cash were being banted around, especially with some Central European stuff, we heard.
Looking at stocks, Alliance & Leicester ended the day down 46.5p at 736 after a week of bid rumours seeing nothing in stone, which may have caused peers to follow. Lloyds TSB closed down 14.5p at 429.25, which was the mnain bank mover, whilst the insurers reversed some recent gains with Aviva down 24.5p at 623 and Standard Life down 7.5p at just shy of 227. Fund manager Old Mutual was off 8.5p to close at 133.2.
After a week of interest, the housebuilders joined the Friday sell off with Persimmons off 61p at 826p and Taylor Wimpey down 11.25p at 193.25, Berkeley Group down 86p at a tenner even, and Redrow drdown 23p at 297p. Bellway also suffered, down 66p to 851.
Retailers fell back as uncertaincy was everywhere, especially with interest rates and the High Street prognosis, with Next down 56p at 1,375, Home Retail Group down 11.25p at just shy of 279p, and Marks & Sparks down 11p at 434p.
Kingfisher closed down nearly a penny at 141.7 as investors took profits. News of the new CEO, Ian Cheshire, didn't help. Cheshire is currently MD of of B&Q, which is Kingfisher's biggest and best business.
The miners heped even the FTSE levels today, with Vedanta up a healthy 123p at 1,829, Kazakhmys up 58p at 1,164, Rio up 177p at 4,969, and Xstrata up 107p at 3,500. Oil was also looking good, with US$90 bbl seen as positive. BP closed up 7p at 538, BG Group was up 27p at 1,030, and RD Shell was up 4p at 1,803.
Smokers were still at the top. Imperial Tobacco was up 202p at 2,430 on news that Spanish firm Altadis will be part of the group, with confirmation of a €52.5 per share buy-out of Logista, the Altadis-controlled distributor being confirmed as unconditional.
Scottish & Newcastle closed up 17p at 783 on news they had recommended the Carlsberg/heineken bid of 8-quid a share, valuing S&N at about 7.6 bln stg.
This time of year brings good news and interest for the travel firms, and today was no different. Tui Travel closed up 4.25p at 242.25 and Thomas Cook closed up nealry 8p at just shy of 249p on broker upgrade.
Troubled bank Northern Rock closed up 7p at 111p as press reported that US private equity firm Cerberus still fancies bidding.
St James's Place closed down 33p at 277 on a Goldman Sachs downgrade to 'neutral' and a cut in target to 361p from 371p.
Over the pond the DJI wasn't sure what to do, and after a postive upwards start, the tube tarde played well with all the 3 main indicies nearly even by the time London closed. The DJI was up about 6 points at 12,385, the S&P500 was even at 1,325 and the Nasdaq was up just 7 points at 2,368.
Here in London there was a Friday afternoon sell off, basically, but whether it was genuine trading or whether it was uncertaincy what the weekend press will bring, we don't know. Rumours of hedge funds moving back to cash were being banted around, especially with some Central European stuff, we heard.
Looking at stocks, Alliance & Leicester ended the day down 46.5p at 736 after a week of bid rumours seeing nothing in stone, which may have caused peers to follow. Lloyds TSB closed down 14.5p at 429.25, which was the mnain bank mover, whilst the insurers reversed some recent gains with Aviva down 24.5p at 623 and Standard Life down 7.5p at just shy of 227. Fund manager Old Mutual was off 8.5p to close at 133.2.
After a week of interest, the housebuilders joined the Friday sell off with Persimmons off 61p at 826p and Taylor Wimpey down 11.25p at 193.25, Berkeley Group down 86p at a tenner even, and Redrow drdown 23p at 297p. Bellway also suffered, down 66p to 851.
Retailers fell back as uncertaincy was everywhere, especially with interest rates and the High Street prognosis, with Next down 56p at 1,375, Home Retail Group down 11.25p at just shy of 279p, and Marks & Sparks down 11p at 434p.
Kingfisher closed down nearly a penny at 141.7 as investors took profits. News of the new CEO, Ian Cheshire, didn't help. Cheshire is currently MD of of B&Q, which is Kingfisher's biggest and best business.
The miners heped even the FTSE levels today, with Vedanta up a healthy 123p at 1,829, Kazakhmys up 58p at 1,164, Rio up 177p at 4,969, and Xstrata up 107p at 3,500. Oil was also looking good, with US$90 bbl seen as positive. BP closed up 7p at 538, BG Group was up 27p at 1,030, and RD Shell was up 4p at 1,803.
Smokers were still at the top. Imperial Tobacco was up 202p at 2,430 on news that Spanish firm Altadis will be part of the group, with confirmation of a €52.5 per share buy-out of Logista, the Altadis-controlled distributor being confirmed as unconditional.
Scottish & Newcastle closed up 17p at 783 on news they had recommended the Carlsberg/heineken bid of 8-quid a share, valuing S&N at about 7.6 bln stg.
This time of year brings good news and interest for the travel firms, and today was no different. Tui Travel closed up 4.25p at 242.25 and Thomas Cook closed up nealry 8p at just shy of 249p on broker upgrade.
Troubled bank Northern Rock closed up 7p at 111p as press reported that US private equity firm Cerberus still fancies bidding.
St James's Place closed down 33p at 277 on a Goldman Sachs downgrade to 'neutral' and a cut in target to 361p from 371p.
Morning Market, Friday 25th January 2008
The FTSE was up about 55 points at 5,931 in its first hour of trading, with the FTSE 250 up nearly 25 points at 9,831. This is the follow on from that decent bounce yesterday. We still remain cautious.
Last night overt he pond the DJI closed up over 108 points at 12,378.61, whilst the S&P500 closed up about 13.5 points at 1,352.07 and the Nasdaq up 44.5 points at 2,360.92. The employment fiugures over there were better than expected, as well, and with Microsoft's figures also announcing better than expected figures, these gave more confidence being allowed to return.
In the Far East this morning the Nikkei 225 closed up 536.38 points at 13,629.16 and in Hong Kong the Hang Seng was up a very healthy 1,250 points at 24,790-odd by its lunchtime lull.
Oil was on the up again too, with Light Sweet (March delivery) up about 44cents at US$89.95 bbl and Brent (March) up 34 cents at US$89.41 bbl.
Back toi Lonbdon's stocks this morning, and the biggest news was the Scottish & Newcastle announcement of the nod for acceptance of the Heineken and Carlsberg offer 8-quid a share, which the Dutch brewers had announced themselves. This value's S&N at UK£7.6 bln. Shares were up 15p early on to 781p.
Other early winners were the smokers. Imperial Tobacco were up 75p at 2,305 as the company said it will bid €52.50 a pop for the remaining Logista shares. Peer British American Tobacco were up 17p to 1,756 on broker downgrade to equal weight but raiing its target to 20-quid from 1,770p.
The higher commodity prices gave strength to the miners, with Kazakhmys leading the way, up 50p at 1,156, with peers also doing well. Vedanta was up 60p at 1,766, Xstrata 84p up at 3,477, and Anto up 15p at 647.5p.
Intercontinental Hotels were up 26p at 779 on news in the papers that there is bid talk with a Middle Eastern outfit.
Tui Travel had a decent start, up 9p at 247, whilst peer Thomas Cook was 5p up at 246p on broker upgrade. There always seem to be some interst in the trvle firms at this time of year.
Troubled bank Northern Rock had another decent start today, with even better hopes of a deal. The price was up 8p to 112p on press news that US firm Cerberus is now looking to bid for the mortgage bank soon.
St James's Place shares fell early on Goldman Sachs downgrade to 289p, down 21p, even thoiugh they gave a 361p traget, down from 371p.
Last night overt he pond the DJI closed up over 108 points at 12,378.61, whilst the S&P500 closed up about 13.5 points at 1,352.07 and the Nasdaq up 44.5 points at 2,360.92. The employment fiugures over there were better than expected, as well, and with Microsoft's figures also announcing better than expected figures, these gave more confidence being allowed to return.
In the Far East this morning the Nikkei 225 closed up 536.38 points at 13,629.16 and in Hong Kong the Hang Seng was up a very healthy 1,250 points at 24,790-odd by its lunchtime lull.
Oil was on the up again too, with Light Sweet (March delivery) up about 44cents at US$89.95 bbl and Brent (March) up 34 cents at US$89.41 bbl.
Back toi Lonbdon's stocks this morning, and the biggest news was the Scottish & Newcastle announcement of the nod for acceptance of the Heineken and Carlsberg offer 8-quid a share, which the Dutch brewers had announced themselves. This value's S&N at UK£7.6 bln. Shares were up 15p early on to 781p.
Other early winners were the smokers. Imperial Tobacco were up 75p at 2,305 as the company said it will bid €52.50 a pop for the remaining Logista shares. Peer British American Tobacco were up 17p to 1,756 on broker downgrade to equal weight but raiing its target to 20-quid from 1,770p.
The higher commodity prices gave strength to the miners, with Kazakhmys leading the way, up 50p at 1,156, with peers also doing well. Vedanta was up 60p at 1,766, Xstrata 84p up at 3,477, and Anto up 15p at 647.5p.
Intercontinental Hotels were up 26p at 779 on news in the papers that there is bid talk with a Middle Eastern outfit.
Tui Travel had a decent start, up 9p at 247, whilst peer Thomas Cook was 5p up at 246p on broker upgrade. There always seem to be some interst in the trvle firms at this time of year.
Troubled bank Northern Rock had another decent start today, with even better hopes of a deal. The price was up 8p to 112p on press news that US firm Cerberus is now looking to bid for the mortgage bank soon.
St James's Place shares fell early on Goldman Sachs downgrade to 289p, down 21p, even thoiugh they gave a 361p traget, down from 371p.
Thursday, 24 January 2008
Market Wrap, Thursday, 24th January 2008
The FTSE had a good day today, closing up 266.5 points at 5,875.8, which wasn't far off the day's high of 5,882.3. The FTSE 250 closed up 362.6 points at 9,856.3.
Over the pond, the DJI was up early doors, and by the time London closed was up about 55 points at 12,325, with the S&P500 up about 7 points at 1,346 and the Nasdaq up 27 points at 2,343.
Back here in London the insurers had a good day, with the Pru up 29p at just shy of 655p on that Chinese bid rumour that we mentioned this morning. Peers were also up, with Aviva up 50p at 647.5p and Royal & Sun Alliance up 9.6p at 141.8p on upgrade by JP Morgan.
Alliance & Leicester also had a good day on rumours that the Santander bank of Spain was hovering to bid, resulting in A&L clsoing up 41p at 782.25p. Banking peers felt confident too, with Lloyds TSB up nearly 34p at just shy of 444p, Barclays up 36.25p at 491 and HBOS up 60.5p at 693.5.
Top of the tree was ICAP, who were up 82p at 666p on an upbeat trading statement, expecting to be at the top of analysts forecasts for profits.
The miners climbed on the back of the commodity prices riosing, with Anto clsoing up 50p at 632.5, Rio up 360p at 4,519, BHP up 116p at 1,386, Anglo up 180p to 2,728.5p, which also included a broker upgrade, and Xstrata up 33p at 3,393.5, despite their being siome sceptism around on speculation of the Brazilian government opposing the possible Vale bid deal. Lonmin was a rare faller, though, with a 17p drop to 3,029 after it cut its annual sales targets, which caused a Citigroup downgrade.
Scottish & Newcastle shares recovered from the fall this orning, closing up 31p at 766.25p despite being down about 8% early this morning after the £8 a pop Carlsberg deal looked like falling thru'. It came to light that the Takeover Panel had actually extended the deadline for a formal offer until tomorrow, so the deal could be 'on' after all. We'll see tomorrow.
The London Stock Exchange closed up 173p at 1,751 after annou ncing revenues were up nearly 15%, as we mentioned this morning.
3i did well today after a decent upbeat statment, closing 39p higher at 949.25p, giding Merrills cause to reaffirm is buy rating.
Over the pond, the DJI was up early doors, and by the time London closed was up about 55 points at 12,325, with the S&P500 up about 7 points at 1,346 and the Nasdaq up 27 points at 2,343.
Back here in London the insurers had a good day, with the Pru up 29p at just shy of 655p on that Chinese bid rumour that we mentioned this morning. Peers were also up, with Aviva up 50p at 647.5p and Royal & Sun Alliance up 9.6p at 141.8p on upgrade by JP Morgan.
Alliance & Leicester also had a good day on rumours that the Santander bank of Spain was hovering to bid, resulting in A&L clsoing up 41p at 782.25p. Banking peers felt confident too, with Lloyds TSB up nearly 34p at just shy of 444p, Barclays up 36.25p at 491 and HBOS up 60.5p at 693.5.
Top of the tree was ICAP, who were up 82p at 666p on an upbeat trading statement, expecting to be at the top of analysts forecasts for profits.
The miners climbed on the back of the commodity prices riosing, with Anto clsoing up 50p at 632.5, Rio up 360p at 4,519, BHP up 116p at 1,386, Anglo up 180p to 2,728.5p, which also included a broker upgrade, and Xstrata up 33p at 3,393.5, despite their being siome sceptism around on speculation of the Brazilian government opposing the possible Vale bid deal. Lonmin was a rare faller, though, with a 17p drop to 3,029 after it cut its annual sales targets, which caused a Citigroup downgrade.
Scottish & Newcastle shares recovered from the fall this orning, closing up 31p at 766.25p despite being down about 8% early this morning after the £8 a pop Carlsberg deal looked like falling thru'. It came to light that the Takeover Panel had actually extended the deadline for a formal offer until tomorrow, so the deal could be 'on' after all. We'll see tomorrow.
The London Stock Exchange closed up 173p at 1,751 after annou ncing revenues were up nearly 15%, as we mentioned this morning.
3i did well today after a decent upbeat statment, closing 39p higher at 949.25p, giding Merrills cause to reaffirm is buy rating.
Morning Wrap, Thursday 24th January 2008
The FTSE was up this morning, quite healthily. In its first hour it was up about 191 points at 5,800. This after the 130 point close yesterday. Also up this morning was the 2nd division, with the FTSE 250 was up 407 points at 9,900 too.
Yesterday's session in New York was a real rollercoaster, starting off it wasn't so nice, with the DJI down over 300 points by late morning, only to turn up and close up nearly 300 points! Hold on to your hat! There are even rumours of another 0.5% interest rate cut over there next week. It gets better. Worries and woes about house prices and sub-prime all pushed aside on thier Wednesday afternoon, with a 600 turn in the market. Unbelievable. By the end of the day the DJI had swumg over 630 points in total, closing up 298.98 at 12,270.17. It had actually been off 323.29 at its lowest point of the day. The S&P 500 closed up 28.10 at 1,338.60 and the Nasdaq closed up 24.14 at 2,316.41.
In the Far East this morning the Nikkei 225 closed up 263.72 points at 13,092.78 and in Hong Kong the Hang Seng was up about 3% by the lunchtime lull - up about 745 points at 24,835.
Back here in London the insurers and miners were doing well, with the Pru up 74p at 7-quid a pop as the Chinese rumour gathered some momentum, with Ping An Insurance (Group) Co of China Ltd possibly sticking in 100 bln Yuan. Peers rallied on this interest, with Aviva was up 27p at 625, Royal & Sun Alliance up 5p at 137.5 on broker upgrade.
London Stock Exchange was up 77p to 1,655 after it said revenues were up nearly 15% in the 3rd quarter.
Alliance & Leiester was on the rise again, up 28p to 769.5 on further rumours of Abbey owner Spainsh bank Santander.
Scottish & Newcastle was down again, depite the market hype this morning, off 55p at 680p as the 8-quid a pop bid by Carlsberg may not materialise.
Yesterday's session in New York was a real rollercoaster, starting off it wasn't so nice, with the DJI down over 300 points by late morning, only to turn up and close up nearly 300 points! Hold on to your hat! There are even rumours of another 0.5% interest rate cut over there next week. It gets better. Worries and woes about house prices and sub-prime all pushed aside on thier Wednesday afternoon, with a 600 turn in the market. Unbelievable. By the end of the day the DJI had swumg over 630 points in total, closing up 298.98 at 12,270.17. It had actually been off 323.29 at its lowest point of the day. The S&P 500 closed up 28.10 at 1,338.60 and the Nasdaq closed up 24.14 at 2,316.41.
In the Far East this morning the Nikkei 225 closed up 263.72 points at 13,092.78 and in Hong Kong the Hang Seng was up about 3% by the lunchtime lull - up about 745 points at 24,835.
Back here in London the insurers and miners were doing well, with the Pru up 74p at 7-quid a pop as the Chinese rumour gathered some momentum, with Ping An Insurance (Group) Co of China Ltd possibly sticking in 100 bln Yuan. Peers rallied on this interest, with Aviva was up 27p at 625, Royal & Sun Alliance up 5p at 137.5 on broker upgrade.
London Stock Exchange was up 77p to 1,655 after it said revenues were up nearly 15% in the 3rd quarter.
Alliance & Leiester was on the rise again, up 28p to 769.5 on further rumours of Abbey owner Spainsh bank Santander.
Scottish & Newcastle was down again, depite the market hype this morning, off 55p at 680p as the 8-quid a pop bid by Carlsberg may not materialise.
Wednesday, 23 January 2008
The Midday Currency Report
I will be teaching a 2 Day trading course on Thursday and Friday so there will be no Currency report on these days. I will resume as normal on Monday.
The Daily market report will continue as normal...
The Daily market report will continue as normal...
Market Wrap, Wednesday 23rd January 2008
The FTSE closed down 130.8 points at 5,609.3 - not a good day again. The session high was 5,844.9, so quite a fall back from there. The FTSE 250 fell 119.1 points today to close at 9,493.7.
Over the pond there was still bears on the floor, despite the 0.75% interest rate cut yesterday, and by the time London markets were closing, the DJI was down about 150 points at 11,821, while the S&P 500 was down 25 points at 1,286, and the Nasdaq down about 60 points at 2,231.
Bad news from the big techs in the US - Motorola said net profits fell 84% in the 4th and added that that the recovery of its mobile phone handset sales will take longer than expected. The company reported a net profit of US$100m, down from a year-earlier profit of US$623m, or 25 cents per share. These figures were lower than expected. Another below expected figures were from Apple.
Back here in London it was the oil shares dragging the index down. As oil was now around US$87 bbl, the majors pulled back. BP was down 23p today at 503.5, whilst RD Shell closed down 105p (almost 6%) at 1,690. BG Group closed off 45p at 950. Broker downgrade to neutral followed there. British Energy was the biggest faller, closing down almost 6% lower, or 30p at 476p.
Mining stocks were also down, with Anto down 19p at 582.5, Vedanta down 62p at 1,605, Rio down 136p to 4,159 and BHP down 30p to 1,270.
Scottish & Newcastle was down 11p to 735p as the Carlsberg deal hit a hurdle before a propsed 8-quid a share deal could go aghead. Due Diligence cited as a possible snag breaker. We'll wait and see there.
British American Tobacco was down 94p at 1,708 and Imperial Tobacco was off 88p at 2,212. These had held well lately, considering.
ITV fell 3p to 70.7 on broker downgrade.
ABN Amro gave a downgrade to the whole banking sector, moving neatrals to sells but addiding that HSBC would fair ok and moved them to hold from sell. HBOS closed down 27p at 633. But Aliance & Leicester rose 28p to 741.5, HSBC rose 15p to 755, and Lloyds rose 2p to 410, with A & L looking like a target for takeover, rumours said.
British Airways was top of the board today, with investoprs liking the lower oil prices. BA closed up 12.5p at 308.5 on a broker upgrade to buy. See our previous mentions on BA last week. Cruise operator Carnival rose 74p to 2,044 - we're getting near holiday season..
Over the pond there was still bears on the floor, despite the 0.75% interest rate cut yesterday, and by the time London markets were closing, the DJI was down about 150 points at 11,821, while the S&P 500 was down 25 points at 1,286, and the Nasdaq down about 60 points at 2,231.
Bad news from the big techs in the US - Motorola said net profits fell 84% in the 4th and added that that the recovery of its mobile phone handset sales will take longer than expected. The company reported a net profit of US$100m, down from a year-earlier profit of US$623m, or 25 cents per share. These figures were lower than expected. Another below expected figures were from Apple.
Back here in London it was the oil shares dragging the index down. As oil was now around US$87 bbl, the majors pulled back. BP was down 23p today at 503.5, whilst RD Shell closed down 105p (almost 6%) at 1,690. BG Group closed off 45p at 950. Broker downgrade to neutral followed there. British Energy was the biggest faller, closing down almost 6% lower, or 30p at 476p.
Mining stocks were also down, with Anto down 19p at 582.5, Vedanta down 62p at 1,605, Rio down 136p to 4,159 and BHP down 30p to 1,270.
Scottish & Newcastle was down 11p to 735p as the Carlsberg deal hit a hurdle before a propsed 8-quid a share deal could go aghead. Due Diligence cited as a possible snag breaker. We'll wait and see there.
British American Tobacco was down 94p at 1,708 and Imperial Tobacco was off 88p at 2,212. These had held well lately, considering.
ITV fell 3p to 70.7 on broker downgrade.
ABN Amro gave a downgrade to the whole banking sector, moving neatrals to sells but addiding that HSBC would fair ok and moved them to hold from sell. HBOS closed down 27p at 633. But Aliance & Leicester rose 28p to 741.5, HSBC rose 15p to 755, and Lloyds rose 2p to 410, with A & L looking like a target for takeover, rumours said.
British Airways was top of the board today, with investoprs liking the lower oil prices. BA closed up 12.5p at 308.5 on a broker upgrade to buy. See our previous mentions on BA last week. Cruise operator Carnival rose 74p to 2,044 - we're getting near holiday season..
Morning Market, Wednesday 23rd January 2008
The market opened up this morning, with hopes that government and Bank of England intervention will help the current trend. Whether this could be seen as false is anyone's guess. We think so, but with technical trading, does it matter? Everyone likes a bull market, though, I suppose. By 9am it was back to about 9 points higher at 5,749, whilst the FTSE 250 was up about the same at 9,622.
Over teh pond last night the DJI closed down 128.11 at 11,971.19, the S&P500 down 22.19 at 1,303 and the Nasdaq down 54.5 points at 2,285.52 - all despite the 0.75% cut in interest rates by the Feds.
In the Far east this morning the Nikkei 225 was up 256.01 points at 12,829.06, while the Hang Seng closed up 150.21 points at 22,907.84 f.
Oil was up a little, just 8cents down at US$89.29 bbl (Mar delivery), whilst Brent was about even at US$88.44 bbl.
Prudential was having a good morning here, up 35p at 653.5p with Chinese interest in buying part of the group. peers were also up, with Old Mutual up nearly 4p at 139.5, Aviva up 25p at 609.5p and Friends Provident up a penny at 165p.
Over teh pond last night the DJI closed down 128.11 at 11,971.19, the S&P500 down 22.19 at 1,303 and the Nasdaq down 54.5 points at 2,285.52 - all despite the 0.75% cut in interest rates by the Feds.
In the Far east this morning the Nikkei 225 was up 256.01 points at 12,829.06, while the Hang Seng closed up 150.21 points at 22,907.84 f.
Oil was up a little, just 8cents down at US$89.29 bbl (Mar delivery), whilst Brent was about even at US$88.44 bbl.
Prudential was having a good morning here, up 35p at 653.5p with Chinese interest in buying part of the group. peers were also up, with Old Mutual up nearly 4p at 139.5, Aviva up 25p at 609.5p and Friends Provident up a penny at 165p.
Tuesday, 22 January 2008
Market Wrap, Tuesday 22nd January 2008
The FTSE closed up 161.9 points at 5,740.1, despite opening down 239.5 points at 5,338.7. A 400 point trading range. And as we mentioned this monring, Tube Trade experienced guys were having a field day. The FTSE 250 closed up 352.2 points at 9,612.8
Over the pond there was the emergency interest rate cut of 75 points to try and help the melt down. However, whilst that may have helped ease the pain, the DJI still fell and by the time London closd was down about 185 points at 11,915, the S&P500 down about 20 points at 1,304 and the Nasdaq down about 55 points at 2,285.
Here is London it was the builders and bankers who had a better day. Recent pressure on banks turned a bit due to the hopes of interest rate cuts here in the UK. Broker upgrades helped many, with Lloyds up 34.5p at 408, RBS up 30.5p at 373.25, and Barclays up nearly 33 points at 453.5.
House builders also enjoyed the news from the US on interest rates with Wolseley up 67.5p at 757, Taylor Wimpey up 11.3p at 195.2, Persimmons up 59p at 817.25, Berkeley Group up 53p at 1,062, Redrow up 17.5p at 314.25 and Barratts up 37p at just shy of 437p.
Land Securities was 119p at 1,619 after they said some decent performance and goings on have resulted in continued strong performance across all three of its divisions. Peers followed up, with British Land up 60p at 982.75, Liberty International up 86p at 1,047.5 and Hammerson up 67p at 1,021.5.
to retail, where Home Retail Group was nearly 25p higher at 298, on broker upgrade.
IG Group jumped today, up over 29p at just shy of 344p with broker upgrade, despite recent average figures. Pearsons had a decent rise, up 50.5p at 671 on news they will be at the top end of expectations this year with figures.
Scottish & Newcastle was down 10p at 746 as the group awaits bid developments from Carlsberg/Heineken.
Northern Rock fell back 4.25p to 90p after the big jump yesterday. Reports say the bank will have to pay the government £400m arrangement fee for the deal its arranging. Nice.
Expect further positive moves by the FTSE - possibly a jump up in the market again tomorrow, we think, certainly for opening.
Over the pond there was the emergency interest rate cut of 75 points to try and help the melt down. However, whilst that may have helped ease the pain, the DJI still fell and by the time London closd was down about 185 points at 11,915, the S&P500 down about 20 points at 1,304 and the Nasdaq down about 55 points at 2,285.
Here is London it was the builders and bankers who had a better day. Recent pressure on banks turned a bit due to the hopes of interest rate cuts here in the UK. Broker upgrades helped many, with Lloyds up 34.5p at 408, RBS up 30.5p at 373.25, and Barclays up nearly 33 points at 453.5.
House builders also enjoyed the news from the US on interest rates with Wolseley up 67.5p at 757, Taylor Wimpey up 11.3p at 195.2, Persimmons up 59p at 817.25, Berkeley Group up 53p at 1,062, Redrow up 17.5p at 314.25 and Barratts up 37p at just shy of 437p.
Land Securities was 119p at 1,619 after they said some decent performance and goings on have resulted in continued strong performance across all three of its divisions. Peers followed up, with British Land up 60p at 982.75, Liberty International up 86p at 1,047.5 and Hammerson up 67p at 1,021.5.
to retail, where Home Retail Group was nearly 25p higher at 298, on broker upgrade.
IG Group jumped today, up over 29p at just shy of 344p with broker upgrade, despite recent average figures. Pearsons had a decent rise, up 50.5p at 671 on news they will be at the top end of expectations this year with figures.
Scottish & Newcastle was down 10p at 746 as the group awaits bid developments from Carlsberg/Heineken.
Northern Rock fell back 4.25p to 90p after the big jump yesterday. Reports say the bank will have to pay the government £400m arrangement fee for the deal its arranging. Nice.
Expect further positive moves by the FTSE - possibly a jump up in the market again tomorrow, we think, certainly for opening.
Gold Rallies on fear of Recession
The Gold Market has found that support we were looking for and with the cut in US Interest rates and fear of global recession, the price of Gold could only go one way...
Take a look at the breakout play at $860.00.
Take a look at the breakout play at $860.00.
Breaking News - US Cut rates by 0.75%
US rates have just been cut trying to assist the Equity Markets.
GBPUSD has risen over 200 Points and the market obviously got wind of this earlier today...
Good luck and be careful...
GBPUSD has risen over 200 Points and the market obviously got wind of this earlier today...
Good luck and be careful...
Morning Market Report & Opinion, Tuesday 22nd January 2008, 9:30
After the drastic kick off with the nigh on 240 point fall on opening, as reported earlier by Dan, the FTSE ran back up by 9am to be about 50 points up at 5,630. Some light relief after yesterday's turmoil and 5.5% fall of the UK index on the day, which was the biggest drop since the 9/11 day in 2001. Yesterday's drop took a massive £76 bln off the value of UK market alone. Extraordinary. Oh, by the way, watching the market this morning - for those who have done the MDS tube trade course; 'Fade the Gap'. The FTSE 250 was just in the blue as well by 9am.
The reason for the jump was a rumour started around the floors that in the US the Feds would be lowering interst rates over the pond by 0.75%. UK would follow, with at least a 25 point cut and maybe even 0.5% cut - what with the state of the housing market and financial markets now.
The DJI was closed yesterday due to Martin Luther King day, so we'll see what happens at 2:30 UK time when they kick back in to life.
In the Far East today the Nikkei 225 joined the 'drop gang', closing down 752.89 points (5.7%) at 12,573.05 - this on top of the 500 point drop the day before. In Hong Kong the Hang Seng closed a massive 2,061.23 points down - that's 8.7% - at 21,757. The 22,000 level smashed, which wasn't taken lightly. This is the first time the Hang Seng has dropped below 22k since Aug 07, before that fairly decent late summer rally.
Everyone is looking at the US, for 2:30pm UK time, to see what happens. A massive gap down was expected, but now the rumours of the hefty emergency interest rate cut by the Feds, plus George Dubya's $70 bln promises the other day, they are doing their best to prop it up. We'll have to see what happens on opening. There are some serious company figures due over there as well - from Apple, Texas Instruments, Johnson & Johnson, Bell - and don't forget yesterday's rumour that Citibank are struggling to raise its temporary financing from 7 major world banks. Serious stuff. To repeat, we have to see how they take it all over in New York. The emergency rate cut, if it comes, would send a mini-revival, but whether that is a dead cat bounce remains to be seen. Short term fixes aren't always a solution.
Here at MDS it is still our belief, as we have said since the beginning of last summer, that they should never have continued to push the markets up. 14,000 for the DJI was ridiculous - and the easiest short call ever. Everyone I knew went short at 14k. It was all false, being up at 14,000, completely false. Like a margin call, with more and more money feeding the market - falsely.
Roll on 2:30pm...
The reason for the jump was a rumour started around the floors that in the US the Feds would be lowering interst rates over the pond by 0.75%. UK would follow, with at least a 25 point cut and maybe even 0.5% cut - what with the state of the housing market and financial markets now.
The DJI was closed yesterday due to Martin Luther King day, so we'll see what happens at 2:30 UK time when they kick back in to life.
In the Far East today the Nikkei 225 joined the 'drop gang', closing down 752.89 points (5.7%) at 12,573.05 - this on top of the 500 point drop the day before. In Hong Kong the Hang Seng closed a massive 2,061.23 points down - that's 8.7% - at 21,757. The 22,000 level smashed, which wasn't taken lightly. This is the first time the Hang Seng has dropped below 22k since Aug 07, before that fairly decent late summer rally.
Everyone is looking at the US, for 2:30pm UK time, to see what happens. A massive gap down was expected, but now the rumours of the hefty emergency interest rate cut by the Feds, plus George Dubya's $70 bln promises the other day, they are doing their best to prop it up. We'll have to see what happens on opening. There are some serious company figures due over there as well - from Apple, Texas Instruments, Johnson & Johnson, Bell - and don't forget yesterday's rumour that Citibank are struggling to raise its temporary financing from 7 major world banks. Serious stuff. To repeat, we have to see how they take it all over in New York. The emergency rate cut, if it comes, would send a mini-revival, but whether that is a dead cat bounce remains to be seen. Short term fixes aren't always a solution.
Here at MDS it is still our belief, as we have said since the beginning of last summer, that they should never have continued to push the markets up. 14,000 for the DJI was ridiculous - and the easiest short call ever. Everyone I knew went short at 14k. It was all false, being up at 14,000, completely false. Like a margin call, with more and more money feeding the market - falsely.
Roll on 2:30pm...
Currency Report - Tuesday 22nd January - Midday
Good morning and welcome to the currency report.
Well what a morning and what a change in the markets. As mentioned earlier this morning on the Market Report the FTSE found huge support after falling 200+ points on the open. This triggered GBP to find huge support and we cut our positions on our shorts as the currencies crossed the 50MA.
GBPJPY is in a strong down channel and anywhere close to 200.00 will bring volatile jumps. At 8.00am the currency broke the resistance level and the trade was cut. in markets like these you must stay very alert and watch your stops. Is the currency now over sold???
GBPUSD again is in s strong downtrend but our stop kicked in at 1.9415 making only 80 points on our trade on the break of 1.9500 yesterday. I advised all the 'Bytes' subscribers to sell GBPUSD on the break of 1.9500 yesterday and with the responses back it seems many of them made well over 100 points. Interesting to see where the US pushes us around this afternoon...
EURUSD has followed GBP and broke the resistance with a stop at 35. The market had been sold aggressively through 1.4600 and is now having a pullback. What this proves again and again is that you have to remain vigilant if you are going to trade Intraday. The daily chart hasn't changed its position but trading Intraday saves you losing pips and importantly allows you to bank those important profits.
If you would like to hear my views before the london market opens, please subscribe at 'Market bytes' or email jamesb@mdsmarkets.com
Well what a morning and what a change in the markets. As mentioned earlier this morning on the Market Report the FTSE found huge support after falling 200+ points on the open. This triggered GBP to find huge support and we cut our positions on our shorts as the currencies crossed the 50MA.
GBPJPY is in a strong down channel and anywhere close to 200.00 will bring volatile jumps. At 8.00am the currency broke the resistance level and the trade was cut. in markets like these you must stay very alert and watch your stops. Is the currency now over sold???
GBPUSD again is in s strong downtrend but our stop kicked in at 1.9415 making only 80 points on our trade on the break of 1.9500 yesterday. I advised all the 'Bytes' subscribers to sell GBPUSD on the break of 1.9500 yesterday and with the responses back it seems many of them made well over 100 points. Interesting to see where the US pushes us around this afternoon...
EURUSD has followed GBP and broke the resistance with a stop at 35. The market had been sold aggressively through 1.4600 and is now having a pullback. What this proves again and again is that you have to remain vigilant if you are going to trade Intraday. The daily chart hasn't changed its position but trading Intraday saves you losing pips and importantly allows you to bank those important profits.
If you would like to hear my views before the london market opens, please subscribe at 'Market bytes' or email jamesb@mdsmarkets.com
FTSE Early Report, Tuesday 22nd January - 9am
I reported at 8.30am this morning that the market was down 200 points. Within 30 minutes the market had risen 250 points back into the postive. This is an extremely volatile market so be very careful. I mentioned on my video this morning to sell on any rises and I still believe this to be true... Thought - was it intervention or trigger orders? Either way, keep stops tight...
Market Report, Tuesday 22nd January - 9am
Good morning
Well what can we say. The FTSE is down over 200 points and its only 8.07am. Yes this is a problem if you have a large portfolio but no its not a problem if you are trading these markets Daily as its all about jumping on the back of trends. Look at the FTSE chart below...To enter on this Index you would have to look at the 60 min or 15 min chart for an entry point
Xtrata is leading the way down -9.06%. Antofogasta is following at -7.96% and Rio Tinto is tucked in 3rd place at -7.31%.
All stocks around the Globe have been hit with panic due to the US heading into the recession. Nikkei was down 1.5% on open and is now down 13% this year alone. Sydney is down 7.1%, India down 9.75% and Hong Kong 5%. These are big falls but great money making opportunities...
As i write this report a few of the shares are coming into positive territory and Taylor Wimpey leading the way with a few of the banks tucked in behind. HBOS now up 2.13% and Royal Bank of Scotland up 2.0%.
Have a great day and only trade with the main Daily trend.
FX report out at midday.
Well what can we say. The FTSE is down over 200 points and its only 8.07am. Yes this is a problem if you have a large portfolio but no its not a problem if you are trading these markets Daily as its all about jumping on the back of trends. Look at the FTSE chart below...To enter on this Index you would have to look at the 60 min or 15 min chart for an entry point
Xtrata is leading the way down -9.06%. Antofogasta is following at -7.96% and Rio Tinto is tucked in 3rd place at -7.31%.
All stocks around the Globe have been hit with panic due to the US heading into the recession. Nikkei was down 1.5% on open and is now down 13% this year alone. Sydney is down 7.1%, India down 9.75% and Hong Kong 5%. These are big falls but great money making opportunities...
As i write this report a few of the shares are coming into positive territory and Taylor Wimpey leading the way with a few of the banks tucked in behind. HBOS now up 2.13% and Royal Bank of Scotland up 2.0%.
Have a great day and only trade with the main Daily trend.
FX report out at midday.
Monday, 21 January 2008
Market Wrap, Monday 21st January 2008
The FTSE 'crashed' today. Yup... it was the worst day since 9/11.
The FTSE closed won a massive 323.5 points today at 5,578.2, that's 5.5% down on the day. The FTSE 250 closed down 419.5 at 9,260.6. Looks like a recession could be a distinct possibility now.
Wall street is closed today, and just as well. It's Martin Luther King holiday day. We'll have to see what tomorrow brings. Rumours that Citibank are having difficulty finding finance to cover its sub-prime problems were also being circulated.
Here in London it was the miners who took a pasting, with weaker metal prices contributing to the falls. The biggest faller today was BHP, who were off 10% on the day, closing down 143p to 1,235p as it appears the Rio deal looks like being off. They had to come back with a new deal, but they didn't. Rio were also down 10%, off 472p to 4,228. Weekend press said BHP had been calling around trying to drum up a small matter of US$70 bln to fund the deal, but the 7 global banks it called didn't entertain, it seems. Peers were also down heavily, with Xstrata down 184p to close at 3,176.5, Vedanta down 141p at 1,591, Kazakhmys down 114p at 1,041 and Anglo down 238p to 2,353. Recent FTSE 100 joiner Tullow Oil closed down 36p at 517 - they have a trading update on Wednesday, where analysts expect production to be at the lower end of the 72k-75k bbl per day.
Wolseley was down 6.5p to 688.25p after saying its 5 months to Dec07 profits would be down by about a third. Borker downgrade to 'sell' followed.
US private equity firm JC Flowers was sniffing again, with insurance firm Friends Provident a rare riser today, closing up 5.5p at 158p on speculation that the US firm is considering a bid for the company.
Northern Rock was up almost 30p, or 46%, at 94.25p as news from the government that it is still very hopeful of a private buy-out option rather than nationalistation was received as good news. They gave a 2 week deadline for a deal to be sorted.
Refuse specialist Biffa was up 9.25p at 341p on weekend press speculation that a GE-backed group may counter-bid for the group. There is already one deal at 350p just about on the table.
New Star Asset Management rallied in the wake of a massive drop on Friday due to the profit warning given. Bid rumours helped the price rise 5.5p to just shy of 107p.
The FTSE closed won a massive 323.5 points today at 5,578.2, that's 5.5% down on the day. The FTSE 250 closed down 419.5 at 9,260.6. Looks like a recession could be a distinct possibility now.
Wall street is closed today, and just as well. It's Martin Luther King holiday day. We'll have to see what tomorrow brings. Rumours that Citibank are having difficulty finding finance to cover its sub-prime problems were also being circulated.
Here in London it was the miners who took a pasting, with weaker metal prices contributing to the falls. The biggest faller today was BHP, who were off 10% on the day, closing down 143p to 1,235p as it appears the Rio deal looks like being off. They had to come back with a new deal, but they didn't. Rio were also down 10%, off 472p to 4,228. Weekend press said BHP had been calling around trying to drum up a small matter of US$70 bln to fund the deal, but the 7 global banks it called didn't entertain, it seems. Peers were also down heavily, with Xstrata down 184p to close at 3,176.5, Vedanta down 141p at 1,591, Kazakhmys down 114p at 1,041 and Anglo down 238p to 2,353. Recent FTSE 100 joiner Tullow Oil closed down 36p at 517 - they have a trading update on Wednesday, where analysts expect production to be at the lower end of the 72k-75k bbl per day.
Wolseley was down 6.5p to 688.25p after saying its 5 months to Dec07 profits would be down by about a third. Borker downgrade to 'sell' followed.
US private equity firm JC Flowers was sniffing again, with insurance firm Friends Provident a rare riser today, closing up 5.5p at 158p on speculation that the US firm is considering a bid for the company.
Northern Rock was up almost 30p, or 46%, at 94.25p as news from the government that it is still very hopeful of a private buy-out option rather than nationalistation was received as good news. They gave a 2 week deadline for a deal to be sorted.
Refuse specialist Biffa was up 9.25p at 341p on weekend press speculation that a GE-backed group may counter-bid for the group. There is already one deal at 350p just about on the table.
New Star Asset Management rallied in the wake of a massive drop on Friday due to the profit warning given. Bid rumours helped the price rise 5.5p to just shy of 107p.
Morning Market, Monday 21st January 2008
The FTSE started the week down again, and in the first hour was down over 130 points at 5,771.6. The FTSE 250 was down 210 at 9,470.
Over the pond on Friday the DJI had another poor day, with the DJI closing down mopre than 180 points at 12,099.3. Not a good week. The S&P500 was off 8 points at 1,325, whilst the Nasdaq was down nealry 7 points at 2,340.02.
This morning in the Far East the Nikkei 225 closed down 535.35 points at 13,325.94, nearly a 4% drop on the day. In Hong Kong the Hang Seng was down about 700 points by its lunchtime at 24,485 level.
Oil was trading up 41c at US$91 bbl for Light Sweet (Feb delivery).
Back here this morning it is a sea of red. The miners are all down, which causes more of a fall due to the weighted factor. Metal prices were down, so this didn't help. Rio was down early doors as no news from Australia on the BHP bid. There was supposed to be a revised bid due. A further cause of falls was metals price fell today too. Rio Tinto traded sharply lower at the open. This followed its biggest fall in 10 years in Sydney trading after BHP Billiton failed to make a new offer. Weekend press had reported that BHP called on 7 banks to cover the cost of the funding for the Rio bid, which meant the little reason of US$70 bln was required. Rio was down 290p at 4,410 and BHP was down 75 at 1,303. Peers were also lower, with Xstrata down 30p at 3,333 and Anglo American off 103p at 2,488.
Wolseley reported its expected profit would be down a third for its 5 months to end Dec, which resulted in a broker downgrade to 'sell' and a 60p fall to 655p. The US housing market cited as the main reason.
Insurance giant Aviva fell 20p to 559 on news its Dutch unit was in a MOU (Memorandum of Understanding) on a with SNS Reaal to buy Swiss Life Belgium for €135m.
Troubled bank Northern Rock leapt over 30p to 97p as it now appears Nationalisation isn't a certainty as the UK Treasury said that it still prefers a private sector buyout.
New Star Asset Management blounced 4p to 105.25p after its poor day on Friday due to the profit warning issued. The company is also the subject of bid rumours.
Over the pond on Friday the DJI had another poor day, with the DJI closing down mopre than 180 points at 12,099.3. Not a good week. The S&P500 was off 8 points at 1,325, whilst the Nasdaq was down nealry 7 points at 2,340.02.
This morning in the Far East the Nikkei 225 closed down 535.35 points at 13,325.94, nearly a 4% drop on the day. In Hong Kong the Hang Seng was down about 700 points by its lunchtime at 24,485 level.
Oil was trading up 41c at US$91 bbl for Light Sweet (Feb delivery).
Back here this morning it is a sea of red. The miners are all down, which causes more of a fall due to the weighted factor. Metal prices were down, so this didn't help. Rio was down early doors as no news from Australia on the BHP bid. There was supposed to be a revised bid due. A further cause of falls was metals price fell today too. Rio Tinto traded sharply lower at the open. This followed its biggest fall in 10 years in Sydney trading after BHP Billiton failed to make a new offer. Weekend press had reported that BHP called on 7 banks to cover the cost of the funding for the Rio bid, which meant the little reason of US$70 bln was required. Rio was down 290p at 4,410 and BHP was down 75 at 1,303. Peers were also lower, with Xstrata down 30p at 3,333 and Anglo American off 103p at 2,488.
Wolseley reported its expected profit would be down a third for its 5 months to end Dec, which resulted in a broker downgrade to 'sell' and a 60p fall to 655p. The US housing market cited as the main reason.
Insurance giant Aviva fell 20p to 559 on news its Dutch unit was in a MOU (Memorandum of Understanding) on a with SNS Reaal to buy Swiss Life Belgium for €135m.
Troubled bank Northern Rock leapt over 30p to 97p as it now appears Nationalisation isn't a certainty as the UK Treasury said that it still prefers a private sector buyout.
New Star Asset Management blounced 4p to 105.25p after its poor day on Friday due to the profit warning issued. The company is also the subject of bid rumours.
Friday, 18 January 2008
Market Wrap, Friday 18th January 2008
The FTSE ended the week fairly even on the day, but had been down and then up during the session. the FTSE closed down just 0.7 points at 5,901.7. The high today was 6,030.9 and low was 5,856.8. At least we broke over 6k again during the session - shame it fell back again. The FTSE had a poor week - losing over 300 points on the week. The FTSE 250 closed up 17.5 points at 9,680.1.
Over the pond the DJI had a fairly decent start, with GE giving 4th quarter figures showning nearly US$7 bln earnings. Nice. By the time London closed the DJI was up about 20 points at 12,179, but had been up 180 points soon after opening, but fell back. The S&P 500 was down around 3 points at 1,329.
Back here the miners were back in fashion as gold rose above US$880 ounce. Xstrata was up 266p at 3,363 on rumours that Vale will bid soon, whilst BHP were up 29p to 1,378 on feeling they'll finally come in with a formal bid for Rio soon. Rio were up 221p at 4,700. As mentioned this moirning, a 3.6 BHP shares for one Rio share, plus some cash, was the talk. Kazakhmys closed up 24p to 1,155 on broker upgrade.
Pharma giant AstraZeneca was up 82p at 2,380 on rumours that fellow giant GlaxoSmithKline were coming in with a merger deal offer, but many said this was Friday beer talking.
To the High AStreet, where Marks & Sparks reversed some of its recent fall back closing up over 15p at 414.5 as news that Philip Green had been building his holding. Argos and Homebase owner Home Retail Group also clawed back some of yesterday's fall with a 13p rise to just over 279p.
Recent faller and now popular again - The London Stock Exchange Group climbed 63p to close at 1,650 on news that we mentioned this morning that PM Gordon brown was badgering the Chinese to let Chinese firms raise some cash in London etc.
Carphone Warehouse had a yo-yo day, down this morning and up this afetrnoon, then closing almost where it started - down nealry 3p at 302p after it announced it is roughly on track for profits.
After banking sector downgrade by JP Morgan, Barclays closed down 16p at 450. Not a good recent time for Barclays, nor the other banks. Mind you, Northern Rock clawed back 1.5p of it's recent freefall to close at 64.5p as RAB Capital tried to ramp up some interest by saying nationalisation wasn't a certainty.
The Pru closed 37p lower at 596.5, with peers Aviva down 25.5p at 579p and Standard Life down over 14p at just shy of 212p as news that Aegon unit Scottish Equitable had frozen withdrawals from its property fund, which caused some stirs in Amsterdam.
ICAP fell 34p to close at 616.5p as concerns a protracted US recession would hit trading volumes.
Over the pond the DJI had a fairly decent start, with GE giving 4th quarter figures showning nearly US$7 bln earnings. Nice. By the time London closed the DJI was up about 20 points at 12,179, but had been up 180 points soon after opening, but fell back. The S&P 500 was down around 3 points at 1,329.
Back here the miners were back in fashion as gold rose above US$880 ounce. Xstrata was up 266p at 3,363 on rumours that Vale will bid soon, whilst BHP were up 29p to 1,378 on feeling they'll finally come in with a formal bid for Rio soon. Rio were up 221p at 4,700. As mentioned this moirning, a 3.6 BHP shares for one Rio share, plus some cash, was the talk. Kazakhmys closed up 24p to 1,155 on broker upgrade.
Pharma giant AstraZeneca was up 82p at 2,380 on rumours that fellow giant GlaxoSmithKline were coming in with a merger deal offer, but many said this was Friday beer talking.
To the High AStreet, where Marks & Sparks reversed some of its recent fall back closing up over 15p at 414.5 as news that Philip Green had been building his holding. Argos and Homebase owner Home Retail Group also clawed back some of yesterday's fall with a 13p rise to just over 279p.
Recent faller and now popular again - The London Stock Exchange Group climbed 63p to close at 1,650 on news that we mentioned this morning that PM Gordon brown was badgering the Chinese to let Chinese firms raise some cash in London etc.
Carphone Warehouse had a yo-yo day, down this morning and up this afetrnoon, then closing almost where it started - down nealry 3p at 302p after it announced it is roughly on track for profits.
After banking sector downgrade by JP Morgan, Barclays closed down 16p at 450. Not a good recent time for Barclays, nor the other banks. Mind you, Northern Rock clawed back 1.5p of it's recent freefall to close at 64.5p as RAB Capital tried to ramp up some interest by saying nationalisation wasn't a certainty.
The Pru closed 37p lower at 596.5, with peers Aviva down 25.5p at 579p and Standard Life down over 14p at just shy of 212p as news that Aegon unit Scottish Equitable had frozen withdrawals from its property fund, which caused some stirs in Amsterdam.
ICAP fell 34p to close at 616.5p as concerns a protracted US recession would hit trading volumes.
Morning Market, Friday 18th January 2008
The FTSE was down 20 points this morning, at around 5,880, but, but volume was coming back in as we type. The FTSE 250 was down 115 points at 9,548.
Overt the pond yesterday there was a poor day. After rising about 50 points early doors, the DJI closed down a massive 306 points at 12,159.21. The S&P500 was down about 40 points at 1,333.25 and the Nasdaq down nearly 48 points at 2,346.9.
In the Far East today the Nikkei 225 closed up 77.84 points at 13,861.29, this after a fall early on, whilst in Hong Kong the Hang Seng closed up 86.89 points at 25,201.87.
Back here this morning it was the miners who bounced back up from yesterday's poor day. Rio was up about 185 points at 4,656 on news that BHP could arrive with a bid any time, and BHP were up 30p to 1,020 too. The rumours were that BHP would be upping its offer to 3.6 BHP shares for each Rio share, plus some cash which could work out to be as much as 760p per share. Xstrata was up 60p to 3,157 and Kazakhmys was up 22p to 1,153 on an upgrade to overweight from neutral.
Aftre its recent pullback, the London Stock Exchange (LSE:LSE) was up nearly 70p at 1,656 on news that Gordon Brown (our recently appointed PM, currently in China) is trying to sway the Chinese Government to allow Chinese firms the opportunity to raise cash in London for LSE listings.
Carphone Warehouse was down 15p this morning at 289.5p on news that it was on-track and hitting targets. This seems to be the norm lately - if you aren't beating tragets your sharepirce will fall back. The firm said its mobile and broadband revenues were as expected, up 9% for the 3rd quarter to £900m. This was £19m short of analysts forecasts, though.
Heavyweight oil stocks BP and RD Shell were both down as oil was at the US$90 bbl level - this after George Dubya told the producers to produce some more.
Banks weren't doing to well early on, with Barclays down 20p to 445p and HSBC down 13p at 746p after JP Morgan said it felt the sector had further to fall with the sub-priome exposure worse than feared.
Insurance firms were down on some neghative news from Holland, with The Pru down 27p at 606p, Aviva dropped 21p at 583p and Standard Life down almost 10p at 215.5p.
Overt the pond yesterday there was a poor day. After rising about 50 points early doors, the DJI closed down a massive 306 points at 12,159.21. The S&P500 was down about 40 points at 1,333.25 and the Nasdaq down nearly 48 points at 2,346.9.
In the Far East today the Nikkei 225 closed up 77.84 points at 13,861.29, this after a fall early on, whilst in Hong Kong the Hang Seng closed up 86.89 points at 25,201.87.
Back here this morning it was the miners who bounced back up from yesterday's poor day. Rio was up about 185 points at 4,656 on news that BHP could arrive with a bid any time, and BHP were up 30p to 1,020 too. The rumours were that BHP would be upping its offer to 3.6 BHP shares for each Rio share, plus some cash which could work out to be as much as 760p per share. Xstrata was up 60p to 3,157 and Kazakhmys was up 22p to 1,153 on an upgrade to overweight from neutral.
Aftre its recent pullback, the London Stock Exchange (LSE:LSE) was up nearly 70p at 1,656 on news that Gordon Brown (our recently appointed PM, currently in China) is trying to sway the Chinese Government to allow Chinese firms the opportunity to raise cash in London for LSE listings.
Carphone Warehouse was down 15p this morning at 289.5p on news that it was on-track and hitting targets. This seems to be the norm lately - if you aren't beating tragets your sharepirce will fall back. The firm said its mobile and broadband revenues were as expected, up 9% for the 3rd quarter to £900m. This was £19m short of analysts forecasts, though.
Heavyweight oil stocks BP and RD Shell were both down as oil was at the US$90 bbl level - this after George Dubya told the producers to produce some more.
Banks weren't doing to well early on, with Barclays down 20p to 445p and HSBC down 13p at 746p after JP Morgan said it felt the sector had further to fall with the sub-priome exposure worse than feared.
Insurance firms were down on some neghative news from Holland, with The Pru down 27p at 606p, Aviva dropped 21p at 583p and Standard Life down almost 10p at 215.5p.
Currency Report - Friday 18th January - Midday
Good morning all and trust we had a profitable week. It is very important to remain confident in these markets and make sure u jump on the back of big trends.
FTSE - The FTSE has been in free fall since the break of the triangle a week or so ago. I metioned about the 5,850 level to you all and i closed my short trade 60 points away from this level. With such a big fall and being a friday there was always going to be potential profit taking before this level and the Index was so kind to fall exactly to 5,856. At this point what was the risk? Well a cheeky little long with a stop below at 5,840 was the trade and as u can see we have bounced back 130 points..
GBP - This morning we have seen weak GBP figures and retails sales came in at -0.4% below expectation. GBP has since been hit by this...Interesting how the Daily chart hit the 20MA and has since continued its trend down. The next break out point will be 1.9500.
GBPCHF - This currecny pair fell 100 points to 2.1600 and will be interesting to see if it breaks the 200 MA and 50 MA.
If you are interested in my Currency, Indices, Commodity and Equity Video report each morning with all my predictions please register at 'market bytes' which has a link on the top left of this page.
FTSE - The FTSE has been in free fall since the break of the triangle a week or so ago. I metioned about the 5,850 level to you all and i closed my short trade 60 points away from this level. With such a big fall and being a friday there was always going to be potential profit taking before this level and the Index was so kind to fall exactly to 5,856. At this point what was the risk? Well a cheeky little long with a stop below at 5,840 was the trade and as u can see we have bounced back 130 points..
GBP - This morning we have seen weak GBP figures and retails sales came in at -0.4% below expectation. GBP has since been hit by this...Interesting how the Daily chart hit the 20MA and has since continued its trend down. The next break out point will be 1.9500.
GBPCHF - This currecny pair fell 100 points to 2.1600 and will be interesting to see if it breaks the 200 MA and 50 MA.
If you are interested in my Currency, Indices, Commodity and Equity Video report each morning with all my predictions please register at 'market bytes' which has a link on the top left of this page.
Thursday, 17 January 2008
Market Wrap, Thursday 17th January 2008
The FTSE had a better day today, but still closed down another 40.5 points at 5,902.4. This was down over 125 points from the session high of 6,028.4, and up 77 points from the session low of 5,895.4. The FTSE 250 broke ranks and closed UP on the day some 35.7 points at 9,662.6, but this was over 170 points off its high of the day of 9,839. Some positive feeling returning, sort of, one might say. To break 6k during the session this morning gave everyone some hope that the market was trying to fight back and have some sort of breather, but it was short lived, and once the US opened and started to fall again London followed suit.
By the time London closed, over the pond the DJI was down over 100 points at 12,363.
Back here in the Uk some winners included builders and property, with Taylor Wimpey up nearly 6.4% or 10.5p on the day at 176.94p, British Land up over 5% or 47.5p at 980p, Persimmons up 3% or 22p at 752p, Hammersons up 21p at 1,044 and Lan Sec Group up 30p at 1,579.3p.
Despite the British Airways 'incident' today, where one of its 43 Boeing 777 aeroplanes landed 700m short - that's 400m short of runway 27L, coming to a halt on the threshold, some 300m short of where it was supposed to land - the share price was up another 4p to close at 295.4p.
Other winners were the brewers, with Scottish & Newcastle (who finally announced they are talking to Carsberg/Heineken - with a mention of 8-quid a pop), Whitbread, Enterprise Inns and Smith & Nephew all having good days. The only exception to the brewers was SABMiller, who were near the bottom of performers today, closing down 57p at 1,207.5p after it said its figures were as expected, but partly due to price increases off-setting its higher costs, but also added that a one-off charge of US$19 had been taken by Miller Brewing Co in its 3rd quarter in the US.
Some retailers did well, with Marks & Sparks up 3% (12.25p) to close at 4-quid a pop, sainsburys up another 9p at 389p and Next up 22p at 1,350. Associated British Foods was top of the board, up 63p at 838p after announcing that Xmas trading at the group's budget fashion retailer, Primark, was ahead of its expectations.
The biggest losers today were the miners. With commodity prices under pressure we saw all the majors take it on the nose. Gold and copper hadn't had a good day again yesterday, with gold giving up a little of its previous excellent run. Vedanta was bottom of the pile today, closing down 6.63% down, that's 125p lower at 1,799p. Others followed suit, with Kazakhmys down 62p at 1,177.75p, Lonmin down 158p at 3,226.675, BHP down 57p at 1,375, Anglo down 110p at 2,601.3p, Xstrata down 130p to close at 3,097p and Rio down 186p at 4,483.5p. Not a good day for the miners.
By the time London closed, over the pond the DJI was down over 100 points at 12,363.
Back here in the Uk some winners included builders and property, with Taylor Wimpey up nearly 6.4% or 10.5p on the day at 176.94p, British Land up over 5% or 47.5p at 980p, Persimmons up 3% or 22p at 752p, Hammersons up 21p at 1,044 and Lan Sec Group up 30p at 1,579.3p.
Despite the British Airways 'incident' today, where one of its 43 Boeing 777 aeroplanes landed 700m short - that's 400m short of runway 27L, coming to a halt on the threshold, some 300m short of where it was supposed to land - the share price was up another 4p to close at 295.4p.
Other winners were the brewers, with Scottish & Newcastle (who finally announced they are talking to Carsberg/Heineken - with a mention of 8-quid a pop), Whitbread, Enterprise Inns and Smith & Nephew all having good days. The only exception to the brewers was SABMiller, who were near the bottom of performers today, closing down 57p at 1,207.5p after it said its figures were as expected, but partly due to price increases off-setting its higher costs, but also added that a one-off charge of US$19 had been taken by Miller Brewing Co in its 3rd quarter in the US.
Some retailers did well, with Marks & Sparks up 3% (12.25p) to close at 4-quid a pop, sainsburys up another 9p at 389p and Next up 22p at 1,350. Associated British Foods was top of the board, up 63p at 838p after announcing that Xmas trading at the group's budget fashion retailer, Primark, was ahead of its expectations.
The biggest losers today were the miners. With commodity prices under pressure we saw all the majors take it on the nose. Gold and copper hadn't had a good day again yesterday, with gold giving up a little of its previous excellent run. Vedanta was bottom of the pile today, closing down 6.63% down, that's 125p lower at 1,799p. Others followed suit, with Kazakhmys down 62p at 1,177.75p, Lonmin down 158p at 3,226.675, BHP down 57p at 1,375, Anglo down 110p at 2,601.3p, Xstrata down 130p to close at 3,097p and Rio down 186p at 4,483.5p. Not a good day for the miners.
Thomas Cook - Will it Break up off Support...?
We can see that Thomas Cook has been sitting fairly comfortably amongst all the turmoil the last week or so on support. The potential rise on this one would be a decent trade, if it starts to move, but we need to hear that holidays are being bought again! The rain this last week has sent many people to thier local travel agent, I'm sure. If this one breaks up, we'll go long.
Carnival - Example of how difficult intra-day trading is...
Carnival - example. The difficulty to trade CFDs and Spreadbetting intra-day when one feels they have a long position can be shown on today's CCL chart. The lows are getting higher, the RSI broke through, yet the price gaps up over night and actually trades down during the day. The trend can turn up, but unless one is actually buying the stock, so holding the shares for the period of the trade, one can't really gain from trading the upside, so to speak. Check the chart to see what we mean...
Cadburys - Awaiting Break... turning up
Sssshhhh, you know who... Cadbury Schweppes seems to be turning off the floor with the lows getting higher. Another gap up overnight would be seen as positive, but whether the market just fancies a dead-cat bounce today, we'll have to see. It's Friday tomorrow.
Reuters - Coming off Support...?
We're also waiting for Reuters to break the 30 line on the RSI, confirming a turn up. We may go long if we break the previous high, but will be careful with a stop.
Barclays - Waiting for 20MA Break
Barclays has come off support, it would seem, despite the terrible feeling in the financial worls regarding sub-prime loans exposure etc. Whilst we are usually short when under the swing MAs, right now a 20 MA break could see 5% or so on Barclays, we would speculate. Take a look...
Currency Report - Thursday 17th January - Midday
Good morning
Well the markets are moving as planned today and we have had some nice crossovers, showing small amount of support for a pullback.
GBPJPY - Crossed the 50MA and the 1,2,3 approach worked very well. I told everyone who got my afternoon video yesterday to get up early and get that bounce. Well the 1st green conductor appeared on the bounce at 210.00 and as mentioned in the video the profit should have been taken at 212.00 due to the 200MA steaming down. Well done to those who took the trade...
USDJPY had a similar approach and an early morning bounce for a quick 50 points... When we were boxed in between the 50MA and 200MA i tend to be in and out reasonably quickly before the next pullback.
USDCHF found support at the 1.0900 level and bounced to a high of 1.1087.
Good luck and if you would like to see my daily video's with all my predictions for the day, please register with 'Market Bytes'. You will find the link on the top left of this Blog.
Well the markets are moving as planned today and we have had some nice crossovers, showing small amount of support for a pullback.
GBPJPY - Crossed the 50MA and the 1,2,3 approach worked very well. I told everyone who got my afternoon video yesterday to get up early and get that bounce. Well the 1st green conductor appeared on the bounce at 210.00 and as mentioned in the video the profit should have been taken at 212.00 due to the 200MA steaming down. Well done to those who took the trade...
USDJPY had a similar approach and an early morning bounce for a quick 50 points... When we were boxed in between the 50MA and 200MA i tend to be in and out reasonably quickly before the next pullback.
USDCHF found support at the 1.0900 level and bounced to a high of 1.1087.
Good luck and if you would like to see my daily video's with all my predictions for the day, please register with 'Market Bytes'. You will find the link on the top left of this Blog.
Morning Market, Thursday 17th January 2008, 9am
The FTSE was up 1% this morning, up 63 points at 6,005, breaking the 6,000 barrier. A good sign. The FTSE 250 was up 152 points at 9,779.
Last night over the pond the DJI closed down 34.95 points at 12,466.16, whlst the S&P500 was off 7.75 points at 1,373.2 and the Nasdaq down 23 points at 2,394.59.
In the Far East this morning the Nikkei 225 closed up 278.94 points at 13,783.45 and in Hong Kong the Hang Seng was following with a 664 point rise to 25,114.98 by their early aftrenoon - breaking the 25k barrier.
Here in the UK we seem to have taken the bounce in the Far East as a guide and the FTSE was up those 60-odd points in its first hour, but it wasn't all rosy...
The miners were at the bottom of the board this morning, with all the majors down. In the first hour of trading Xstrata was down 79p at 3,148, Anglo down 64p at 2,647, Anto down 13p at 576p, Kazakhmys down 26p at 1,167, Vedanta down 34p at 1,850 and BHP down 21p at 1,381. Rio was also off 18p at 4,647, but we don't feel Rio will be under as much pressure than the rest.
The London Stock Exchange was down another 36p at 1,579 as hopes of a massive bid seem to be dwindling. For now at least.
Despite concerns on housing etc, the builders were doing ok early doors, as were the property guys. British land was top of the board with a 67p rise to 988p, Taylor Wimpey was up 8.1p at 172.8, Hammersons up 36p at 1,058 and Persimmons up 26p at 756p.
Barclays was up 18p at 482.5p and HSBC shrugged off recent downgrades with a 24p rise to 778p - both up about 3.5% this morning. Other banks were also up, but not by as much.
British Airways also kept its rise on the go - up another 6.5p at 296p. 300p will be a significant break for BA (we've half closed for now).
Last night over the pond the DJI closed down 34.95 points at 12,466.16, whlst the S&P500 was off 7.75 points at 1,373.2 and the Nasdaq down 23 points at 2,394.59.
In the Far East this morning the Nikkei 225 closed up 278.94 points at 13,783.45 and in Hong Kong the Hang Seng was following with a 664 point rise to 25,114.98 by their early aftrenoon - breaking the 25k barrier.
Here in the UK we seem to have taken the bounce in the Far East as a guide and the FTSE was up those 60-odd points in its first hour, but it wasn't all rosy...
The miners were at the bottom of the board this morning, with all the majors down. In the first hour of trading Xstrata was down 79p at 3,148, Anglo down 64p at 2,647, Anto down 13p at 576p, Kazakhmys down 26p at 1,167, Vedanta down 34p at 1,850 and BHP down 21p at 1,381. Rio was also off 18p at 4,647, but we don't feel Rio will be under as much pressure than the rest.
The London Stock Exchange was down another 36p at 1,579 as hopes of a massive bid seem to be dwindling. For now at least.
Despite concerns on housing etc, the builders were doing ok early doors, as were the property guys. British land was top of the board with a 67p rise to 988p, Taylor Wimpey was up 8.1p at 172.8, Hammersons up 36p at 1,058 and Persimmons up 26p at 756p.
Barclays was up 18p at 482.5p and HSBC shrugged off recent downgrades with a 24p rise to 778p - both up about 3.5% this morning. Other banks were also up, but not by as much.
British Airways also kept its rise on the go - up another 6.5p at 296p. 300p will be a significant break for BA (we've half closed for now).
Wednesday, 16 January 2008
Market Wrap, Wednesday 16th January 2008
The FTSE closed down 82.7 points at 5,942.9 in the end, after a rollercoaster day. The Far east set the pace for today, after the poor day in US yetserday evening. The low of the day here in London was 5,908.5, whilst the high was 6,031.5. The FTSE 250 closed down 138.9 points at 9,626.9.
By the time London closed, over the pond the DJI was down about 40 points at 12,461, and the S&P500 was down about 20 points at 1,371. The Nasdaq was dowan about 35 points at 2,382.39.
With commodities falling, the miners followed suit. Anto had a bad day, down 43p to close at 589.5, whilst Xstrata closed down 191p lower at 3,227, Kazakhmys closed 74p lower at 1,193 and Vedanta closed down 105p at 1,885. Top dog Rio closed down 331p at 4,665 despite some positive news on iron ore, and hopeful 3-for-1 bidder BHP closed 78p lower at 1,406. Rio still feels the offer is not enough, and said so.
Oil prices were falling, so the heavyweight oil and gas companies followed. BP ended down 9p at just shy of 564p, and RD Shell closed down 52p at 1,986.5.
The brokers weren't feeling very bullish, and a number of downgrades surfaced. The London Stock Exchange closed down 97p at 1,614.
Downgrades were rife. Insurer Aviva closed down 13p on downgrade at 612p. peer Prudential was also off 28p at 642p.
Cable & Wireless had Morgan Stanley giving it an even rating and lowered its tyarget to 190p from 212p, witht eh shares falling 6p to 164.5p.
Vodafone fell 1.4p to 180.3 as broker rating lowered to even was taken negative, but a fellow broker left a 214p target.
British Land bucked the trend with a 38.5p rise to 920.5p on a positive statement by JP Morgans, who reckons the property company is 44% less than nav and will offer a 6% divvy.
British Airways was up another 12p at 289.5p (we're still long) with an upgrade from Goldman Sachs.
AstraZeneca also had an upgrade, closing up 72p at 2,299.
Diageo also did well, up 20.5p at 1,018 on upgrade, but Punch Taverns was off 30.5p to close at 587.25p on a downgrade with a 600p target, down from 13-quid.
Northern Rock was down another 1.25p to 68-1/2 as feers and realisation of nationalisation got closer.
By the time London closed, over the pond the DJI was down about 40 points at 12,461, and the S&P500 was down about 20 points at 1,371. The Nasdaq was dowan about 35 points at 2,382.39.
With commodities falling, the miners followed suit. Anto had a bad day, down 43p to close at 589.5, whilst Xstrata closed down 191p lower at 3,227, Kazakhmys closed 74p lower at 1,193 and Vedanta closed down 105p at 1,885. Top dog Rio closed down 331p at 4,665 despite some positive news on iron ore, and hopeful 3-for-1 bidder BHP closed 78p lower at 1,406. Rio still feels the offer is not enough, and said so.
Oil prices were falling, so the heavyweight oil and gas companies followed. BP ended down 9p at just shy of 564p, and RD Shell closed down 52p at 1,986.5.
The brokers weren't feeling very bullish, and a number of downgrades surfaced. The London Stock Exchange closed down 97p at 1,614.
Downgrades were rife. Insurer Aviva closed down 13p on downgrade at 612p. peer Prudential was also off 28p at 642p.
Cable & Wireless had Morgan Stanley giving it an even rating and lowered its tyarget to 190p from 212p, witht eh shares falling 6p to 164.5p.
Vodafone fell 1.4p to 180.3 as broker rating lowered to even was taken negative, but a fellow broker left a 214p target.
British Land bucked the trend with a 38.5p rise to 920.5p on a positive statement by JP Morgans, who reckons the property company is 44% less than nav and will offer a 6% divvy.
British Airways was up another 12p at 289.5p (we're still long) with an upgrade from Goldman Sachs.
AstraZeneca also had an upgrade, closing up 72p at 2,299.
Diageo also did well, up 20.5p at 1,018 on upgrade, but Punch Taverns was off 30.5p to close at 587.25p on a downgrade with a 600p target, down from 13-quid.
Northern Rock was down another 1.25p to 68-1/2 as feers and realisation of nationalisation got closer.
Indices Report & Crude - Midday
Well it seems to be a bad start for the Indices but great for our longer term short trades.
FTSE is already down 110 points and has broken the all important 6,000 barrier. Look at the red conductors starting from the 04th jan. That was where the move started and we are now 500+ points lower. 5,850 is likely to be the next large support level..
HANG SENG has fallen through triangle... The red conductors showed us the direction back on the 11th Jan. We are now sitting on the 200MA at 24,450
CRUDE has fallen off $100 to the support line at $90.00. The red conductors have kept us in this trade and we now have to play the waiting game to see if this breaks or bounces.
If you would like to know my thoughts and predictions on the FX, Indices and Commodities markets please register at 'Market Bytes' or email jamesb@mdsmarkets.com
Register - http://www.mdstrader.com/register_mb.html
FTSE is already down 110 points and has broken the all important 6,000 barrier. Look at the red conductors starting from the 04th jan. That was where the move started and we are now 500+ points lower. 5,850 is likely to be the next large support level..
HANG SENG has fallen through triangle... The red conductors showed us the direction back on the 11th Jan. We are now sitting on the 200MA at 24,450
CRUDE has fallen off $100 to the support line at $90.00. The red conductors have kept us in this trade and we now have to play the waiting game to see if this breaks or bounces.
If you would like to know my thoughts and predictions on the FX, Indices and Commodities markets please register at 'Market Bytes' or email jamesb@mdsmarkets.com
Register - http://www.mdstrader.com/register_mb.html
Morning Market, Wednesday 16th January 2008
The FTSE broke under thr 6,000 level this morning, down over 50 points in its first hour at 5,975.
Over the pond last night the DJI the Dow plummetd 277.04 points to close at 12,501.11 on news that Citigroup had had to arrange a US$10 bln fund raining from middlle eastern governments. Serious stuff. Citigroup's first ever quarterly loss (a massive US$9.83 bln loss) due to the sub-prime write-downs. Witht he Dow down nearly 2.2% the S&P500 was down 35.5 points at 1,380.95 (-2.5%) and the Nasdaq down 60.71 points to close at 2,417.59 (-2.5%).
Over in the Far East today the Nikkei 225 closed down 468.12 points (a massive 3.5%) at 13,504.51, whilst in Hong Kong the Hang Seng was down over 1,000 points at 24,815 by its lunchtime, which is a massive 4% fall on the morning session.
Oil was also down again after pressure from the US, with Dubya Bush asking the producers to take some action on the current levels shy of US$92 bbl. Light sweet crude (Feb del) was down 18c at US$91.72 bbl whilst Brent North Sea crude (Feb del) was down nearly 2 bucks bbl at US$91.
Experian, the credit checking company, fell 25p to 350p this morning as it reported it was having a fairly tough time. Broker comment kept it at 'hold' status with a 470p target.
The miners took a pasting too, with Rio off 175p at 4,821. Sector peers also fell due to commodity prices also being under pressure, with Xstrata down 110p at 3,308, BHP was off 40p at 1,444 and Lonmin fell 191p at 3,351.
Banks were falling too, especilaly with the US Citigroup news. Lloyds TSB was down 15p at 391p, HSBC was down 25p at 747p and HBOS down 27p at 613p.
British Airways, which we are still long on (see last week's postings) was up another 6p at 283.5p, with an upgrade to 'buy' status. Lower oil prices helping.
Cable & Wireless was off nearly 10p at 160p on broker downgrade, as was SAB Miller down 18p at 1,276.
Scottish & Southern Energy was up 10p at 1,581 on an upgrade, for a change, with a 19-quid target.
A broker upgrade also helped Pearsons, but they barely rose, depsite a 785p target. Pearsons was up 1p at at 653p.
Northern Rock continued its fall, down another massive 15p to 54p as investors feel nationalistaion is inevitable.
Punch Taverns was 42p lower at 576p on negative trading news, also blaming the smoking ban. Peers were also down, with Enterprise Inns off 12p at 380p and Whitbread down 40p at 1,064.
Over the pond last night the DJI the Dow plummetd 277.04 points to close at 12,501.11 on news that Citigroup had had to arrange a US$10 bln fund raining from middlle eastern governments. Serious stuff. Citigroup's first ever quarterly loss (a massive US$9.83 bln loss) due to the sub-prime write-downs. Witht he Dow down nearly 2.2% the S&P500 was down 35.5 points at 1,380.95 (-2.5%) and the Nasdaq down 60.71 points to close at 2,417.59 (-2.5%).
Over in the Far East today the Nikkei 225 closed down 468.12 points (a massive 3.5%) at 13,504.51, whilst in Hong Kong the Hang Seng was down over 1,000 points at 24,815 by its lunchtime, which is a massive 4% fall on the morning session.
Oil was also down again after pressure from the US, with Dubya Bush asking the producers to take some action on the current levels shy of US$92 bbl. Light sweet crude (Feb del) was down 18c at US$91.72 bbl whilst Brent North Sea crude (Feb del) was down nearly 2 bucks bbl at US$91.
Experian, the credit checking company, fell 25p to 350p this morning as it reported it was having a fairly tough time. Broker comment kept it at 'hold' status with a 470p target.
The miners took a pasting too, with Rio off 175p at 4,821. Sector peers also fell due to commodity prices also being under pressure, with Xstrata down 110p at 3,308, BHP was off 40p at 1,444 and Lonmin fell 191p at 3,351.
Banks were falling too, especilaly with the US Citigroup news. Lloyds TSB was down 15p at 391p, HSBC was down 25p at 747p and HBOS down 27p at 613p.
British Airways, which we are still long on (see last week's postings) was up another 6p at 283.5p, with an upgrade to 'buy' status. Lower oil prices helping.
Cable & Wireless was off nearly 10p at 160p on broker downgrade, as was SAB Miller down 18p at 1,276.
Scottish & Southern Energy was up 10p at 1,581 on an upgrade, for a change, with a 19-quid target.
A broker upgrade also helped Pearsons, but they barely rose, depsite a 785p target. Pearsons was up 1p at at 653p.
Northern Rock continued its fall, down another massive 15p to 54p as investors feel nationalistaion is inevitable.
Punch Taverns was 42p lower at 576p on negative trading news, also blaming the smoking ban. Peers were also down, with Enterprise Inns off 12p at 380p and Whitbread down 40p at 1,064.
Tuesday, 15 January 2008
Market Wrap, Tuesday 15th January 2008
The FTSE closed down 190.1 points at 6,025.6 as a reaction to Citigroup's US$9.8 bln loss for the 4th quarter. Nasty. The 6,200 level was another psycological level, as will 6,000 be, obviously. The FTSE 250 closed down 265.8 points at 9,765.8.
By the time London closed, over the pond the DJI was down over 200 points at 12,550. The US retail sales for data for December and the December headline PPI were both lower than expected, giving further concerns about the US economy. The US economy is a good indication of the world's economy, really, so when things aren't very good under Uncle Sam, others follow suit.
In London today, news that inflation was steady at 2.1% was as expected, and gave further hope of a 0.25 or 0.5% interest rate cut in Feb.
Trading updates from Tesco & Debenhams saw an expected reaction as well. Tesco reported sales growth over the Xmas and New Year period was below market forecasts, but up just over 3%. The City bean counters had hoped for one percent more tha that, with a range of 3.8% to 4.5% expected. sainsbury's growth was at 3.7%, so they did better than Tesco, who closed down 13p at 407p. Sainsburys, on the other hand, closed up nealry 7p at 386 on broker upgrade.
Debenhams shares closed down nearly 13p at just shy of 64p on news they had a 4.4% growth for the Xmas period, but taking out new and closed stores the figure was 2.2%.
Oil was taking a hit, down about US$2 bbl, so the oil heavyweights suffered as a consequence. BP closed down 24p at 573 with a broker downgrade, whilst RD Shell was also down by the tune of 66p to 2,004 and Tullows joined the rot with a 17.5p fall to 562p.
Taylor Wimpey confiremd things weren't too rosy in the housing market, and closed down 13.3p at 159.2, adding that its order book wasn't bulging. Persimmons closed down 23p at 716p too, with investors reminding themselves of the Persimmons negative announcement last week.
B&Q owner Kingfisher closed nearly 9p lower at 122.2p on broker downgrade to 'neutral'. Concerns that the slowing of the housing market would affect B&Q being cited as a reason.
Carrying on from this morning, HSBC closed down 38.5p at 772.5p on Goldman Sachs' repeat of its 'sell' stance, mainly due to the sub-prime exposure by the bank, which could mean a massive $13 bln set aside 'just in case' its needed to cover the poor debt. Troubled mortgage bank, Northern Rock, had a poor day. With investors winning the EGM, nationalisation looks more and more likely. The bank closed down at 69.25p, off over 16% on the day. Northern Rock said the single item that won shareholder approval was that the dircetors have to confirm ok with sharehoklders before issuing shares worth more than £5m does not mean it will not be able to find a rescuer. It certainly won't help, we say.
Firstgroup was 40p down at 634p as Goldman Sachs downgraded the group to 'sell' from 'neutral'.
British Land was 62.5p down at 892 on a 'sell' downgrade and 780p target.
Venture Productions closed 109p down at 737 on brojker downgrade to 'sell'.
Burberry lost 80 to 406.5 despite a 26% increase in earnings, which was well off previous hopes.
Game Group fell 26p to an even 2-quid despite figures that looked good. Total sales for the UK and Ireland increased by 77.9% pct, with like-for-like sales up by 30.3%, while the international business recorded a 72.8% rise in total sales and a 35.4% rise in like-for-like sales for the same period.
Imperial Energy dropped 180p to 1,635 as chairman Peter Levine offloaded 35% of his shareholding in the company. hardly a confidence boosetr for shareholders.
By the time London closed, over the pond the DJI was down over 200 points at 12,550. The US retail sales for data for December and the December headline PPI were both lower than expected, giving further concerns about the US economy. The US economy is a good indication of the world's economy, really, so when things aren't very good under Uncle Sam, others follow suit.
In London today, news that inflation was steady at 2.1% was as expected, and gave further hope of a 0.25 or 0.5% interest rate cut in Feb.
Trading updates from Tesco & Debenhams saw an expected reaction as well. Tesco reported sales growth over the Xmas and New Year period was below market forecasts, but up just over 3%. The City bean counters had hoped for one percent more tha that, with a range of 3.8% to 4.5% expected. sainsbury's growth was at 3.7%, so they did better than Tesco, who closed down 13p at 407p. Sainsburys, on the other hand, closed up nealry 7p at 386 on broker upgrade.
Debenhams shares closed down nearly 13p at just shy of 64p on news they had a 4.4% growth for the Xmas period, but taking out new and closed stores the figure was 2.2%.
Oil was taking a hit, down about US$2 bbl, so the oil heavyweights suffered as a consequence. BP closed down 24p at 573 with a broker downgrade, whilst RD Shell was also down by the tune of 66p to 2,004 and Tullows joined the rot with a 17.5p fall to 562p.
Taylor Wimpey confiremd things weren't too rosy in the housing market, and closed down 13.3p at 159.2, adding that its order book wasn't bulging. Persimmons closed down 23p at 716p too, with investors reminding themselves of the Persimmons negative announcement last week.
B&Q owner Kingfisher closed nearly 9p lower at 122.2p on broker downgrade to 'neutral'. Concerns that the slowing of the housing market would affect B&Q being cited as a reason.
Carrying on from this morning, HSBC closed down 38.5p at 772.5p on Goldman Sachs' repeat of its 'sell' stance, mainly due to the sub-prime exposure by the bank, which could mean a massive $13 bln set aside 'just in case' its needed to cover the poor debt. Troubled mortgage bank, Northern Rock, had a poor day. With investors winning the EGM, nationalisation looks more and more likely. The bank closed down at 69.25p, off over 16% on the day. Northern Rock said the single item that won shareholder approval was that the dircetors have to confirm ok with sharehoklders before issuing shares worth more than £5m does not mean it will not be able to find a rescuer. It certainly won't help, we say.
Firstgroup was 40p down at 634p as Goldman Sachs downgraded the group to 'sell' from 'neutral'.
British Land was 62.5p down at 892 on a 'sell' downgrade and 780p target.
Venture Productions closed 109p down at 737 on brojker downgrade to 'sell'.
Burberry lost 80 to 406.5 despite a 26% increase in earnings, which was well off previous hopes.
Game Group fell 26p to an even 2-quid despite figures that looked good. Total sales for the UK and Ireland increased by 77.9% pct, with like-for-like sales up by 30.3%, while the international business recorded a 72.8% rise in total sales and a 35.4% rise in like-for-like sales for the same period.
Imperial Energy dropped 180p to 1,635 as chairman Peter Levine offloaded 35% of his shareholding in the company. hardly a confidence boosetr for shareholders.
Currency Report - Tuesday 15th January - Midday
Good morning
I hope you are all well. 'Market Bytes' is now officially up and running and the response has been amazing. I publish two morning video's of the days events and my thoughts for the day in Currencies, Indices, Gold and Oil. There will be some Equity forecasts this week as well.
GBPUSD has found a little support off the 1.9500 support level earlier this morning and it looks like it wants to retest the 200MA with a break above 1.9700. Retail sales is out at 1.30pm in the US and will def be one to watch this afternoon.
USDCHF looks set to break the 1.0900 support level from the old low back in November and is worth a watch. The CHF is very much a safe haven for investors and in times like these the CHF will always gain.
AUDUSD has been rallying since mid december and with Gold at such demand the Aud has risen strongly. Take a look at all the retracement indicator's in December...
FTSE - I mentioned that the FTSE looked likely to fall through 6,250 and we are now trading at 6,150. The next support level is at 6,000 from november's low.
If you are keen to learn more about my charting service please email jamesb@mdsmarkets.com and register below...
Register - http://www.mdstrader.com/register_mb.html
I hope you are all well. 'Market Bytes' is now officially up and running and the response has been amazing. I publish two morning video's of the days events and my thoughts for the day in Currencies, Indices, Gold and Oil. There will be some Equity forecasts this week as well.
GBPUSD has found a little support off the 1.9500 support level earlier this morning and it looks like it wants to retest the 200MA with a break above 1.9700. Retail sales is out at 1.30pm in the US and will def be one to watch this afternoon.
USDCHF looks set to break the 1.0900 support level from the old low back in November and is worth a watch. The CHF is very much a safe haven for investors and in times like these the CHF will always gain.
AUDUSD has been rallying since mid december and with Gold at such demand the Aud has risen strongly. Take a look at all the retracement indicator's in December...
FTSE - I mentioned that the FTSE looked likely to fall through 6,250 and we are now trading at 6,150. The next support level is at 6,000 from november's low.
If you are keen to learn more about my charting service please email jamesb@mdsmarkets.com and register below...
Register - http://www.mdstrader.com/register_mb.html
Morning Market, Tuesday 15th January 2008
The FTSE was down about 30 points at 6,187 in its first hour of trading, whilst the FTSE250 was also down about 30 points at 10,000 even.
Over the pond the DJI had a good evening, closing up 171.85 points at 12,778.15, whilst the S&P500 closed up 15.23 points to close at 1,416.25 anf the Nadaq was up 38.36 to close at 2,478.30. Later on today the retail sales figures will be released over there.
I the Far East today the Japanses were back from another bank holiday to close the Nikkei 225 down 138.16 points on the day at 13,972.63 and in Hong Kong the Hang Seng was down over 300 points by lunchtime at 26,159. The Yen is strong at the moment, making Japan less attractive.
On to oil, where light sweet crude (Feb del) was about even, just down a cent at US$94.2, whilst Brent North Sea crude (Feb del) was down 5c at US$92.87 bbl.
Here in the UK we get the CPI December inflation figures, which should be at expected levels of just above 2%.
This morning Tesco was down a quite alarming 25p to 395p on reports of a bad Xmas period. In contrast, it's perr and main rival Sainsburys was at the top of the leader board - up 15p at 394p on broker upgrade. Peer Morrisons was also up 2p at 205p.
Bank HSBC was down 17p at 794p on continued broker 'sell' stance and concerns over US exposure to their problems.
Kingfisher was off 2.1p at 129p on a JP Morgan downgrade. Other downgrade to Firstgroup saw them fall 16p this morning to 658.5p.
Oil heavyweight BP was off 10p 587p on a downgrade too. It is felt that th mark down of the revenue from the Azerbaijan oilfield being down by US$1.2 bln hasn't helped. RD Shell was also off 20p at 2,079.
Taylor Wimpey did ok early doors, with a 6.5p rise to 179p as the builder said all was ok and figures should be as expected. Peer Persimmons was up 11p at 750p as well, with smaller firms Redrow up 10p to 236.5p, Bovis up 20p at 620p and Barratts up 7.5p at 367.5.
Burberry was down 42p at 444p as reported revenue was not as good as expected, despite being up 26% for the 3rd quarter.
Over the pond the DJI had a good evening, closing up 171.85 points at 12,778.15, whilst the S&P500 closed up 15.23 points to close at 1,416.25 anf the Nadaq was up 38.36 to close at 2,478.30. Later on today the retail sales figures will be released over there.
I the Far East today the Japanses were back from another bank holiday to close the Nikkei 225 down 138.16 points on the day at 13,972.63 and in Hong Kong the Hang Seng was down over 300 points by lunchtime at 26,159. The Yen is strong at the moment, making Japan less attractive.
On to oil, where light sweet crude (Feb del) was about even, just down a cent at US$94.2, whilst Brent North Sea crude (Feb del) was down 5c at US$92.87 bbl.
Here in the UK we get the CPI December inflation figures, which should be at expected levels of just above 2%.
This morning Tesco was down a quite alarming 25p to 395p on reports of a bad Xmas period. In contrast, it's perr and main rival Sainsburys was at the top of the leader board - up 15p at 394p on broker upgrade. Peer Morrisons was also up 2p at 205p.
Bank HSBC was down 17p at 794p on continued broker 'sell' stance and concerns over US exposure to their problems.
Kingfisher was off 2.1p at 129p on a JP Morgan downgrade. Other downgrade to Firstgroup saw them fall 16p this morning to 658.5p.
Oil heavyweight BP was off 10p 587p on a downgrade too. It is felt that th mark down of the revenue from the Azerbaijan oilfield being down by US$1.2 bln hasn't helped. RD Shell was also off 20p at 2,079.
Taylor Wimpey did ok early doors, with a 6.5p rise to 179p as the builder said all was ok and figures should be as expected. Peer Persimmons was up 11p at 750p as well, with smaller firms Redrow up 10p to 236.5p, Bovis up 20p at 620p and Barratts up 7.5p at 367.5.
Burberry was down 42p at 444p as reported revenue was not as good as expected, despite being up 26% for the 3rd quarter.
Monday, 14 January 2008
Market Wrap, Monday 14th January 2008
The FTSe closed up 13.7 points today at 6,215.7. This was down about 32 points from the session's peak. The FTSE 250 closed up 201.8 points at 10,031.6, which is good news as we are back about the 10k level. The building and property sectors helped the FTSE 250 today.
By the time London closed, over the pond the DJI was up about 112 points at 12,718 and the S&P 500 was up about 12 points at 1,413 and the Nasdaq was up just over 26 points at 2,466.
Back here in London we saw property firm Hammerson having a bullish day as investors moved in on news of a Marks & Spencer JV deal in Leeds. The stock closed up 86.5p at 1,020 as a reaction to the £800m 140k sq/m development which hammersons has a 90% stake in. Others in the sector also had good days, with land securities up 54p at 1,516, Liberty up 60p at 990p and British Land up 45.5p at 944.5p. Even the 2nd division had a good day as Derwent were up 119p at 1,359, great portalnd up 28.5p to just shy of 441p and Segro up 36.5p to 462p.
Taylor Wimpey were up 6.2p at 172.5 on hopes that the trading update from the company tomorrow will give a better picture than has been feared of late, as the builders have all taken their share of the pressure due to the mortgage and financial sector being squeezed of late. Balfour Beatty was also down 13p to close at 458.5p on a Citigroup downgrade to 'sell'. The broker also gave it a 420p target, down from 450p.
Argos owner Home Retail Group was also up 8p to 281p ahead of their trading update on Thursday. Debenhams closed up nearly 9p to close at 76.5p as investors expect tomorrows trading update for Xmas to be far better than previously expected. Some stakeholder building has also been going on, as we reported at the end of last week.
Supermarket giant Tesco closed down 6p to 420p on broker downgrade, and also added a traget down from 480p to a rather suprising 375p. The company gives a trading update tomorrow.
The Market Analyser data feed provider, Reuters, was also down ion a broker downgrade, closing off 10p at 596 with a 550p target, down from 675p.
Another broker downgrade saw Shire close down 38p to 1,142, with the stock now being 'neutral', so should start a channel for a while.
Friends Provident, the insurance group, closed up 5p at 162.5 on news in the press at the weekend that it was looking to sell its 53% stake in F&C Asset management, with £400m going to shareholders. Its peers liked the news, with Standard Life up 10p at just shy of 236p and the Pru up 20p to close at 695p.
Northern Rock took some more squeeze as tomorrow's EGM looks to be a food fight, with the troubled bank down another 4.75p to close at 82.5p. The EGM is to try and prevent the Board selling off all the bank's assets. As we said this morning, nationalisation looks a destinct possibility, but what that gives shareholders no-one knows.
Building materials group Wolseley closed down 17.5p at 681.5p on broker downgrade, with a 650p target. The previous target was 1,450. Quite a reduction in confidence.
Premier Foods was the top riser of the FTSE 250 today, closing up 27p at 160p.
Up-market property firm Savills closed up almost 40p at 297.5p on the back of its bullish statement last week on the better properties doing well in 2008.
By the time London closed, over the pond the DJI was up about 112 points at 12,718 and the S&P 500 was up about 12 points at 1,413 and the Nasdaq was up just over 26 points at 2,466.
Back here in London we saw property firm Hammerson having a bullish day as investors moved in on news of a Marks & Spencer JV deal in Leeds. The stock closed up 86.5p at 1,020 as a reaction to the £800m 140k sq/m development which hammersons has a 90% stake in. Others in the sector also had good days, with land securities up 54p at 1,516, Liberty up 60p at 990p and British Land up 45.5p at 944.5p. Even the 2nd division had a good day as Derwent were up 119p at 1,359, great portalnd up 28.5p to just shy of 441p and Segro up 36.5p to 462p.
Taylor Wimpey were up 6.2p at 172.5 on hopes that the trading update from the company tomorrow will give a better picture than has been feared of late, as the builders have all taken their share of the pressure due to the mortgage and financial sector being squeezed of late. Balfour Beatty was also down 13p to close at 458.5p on a Citigroup downgrade to 'sell'. The broker also gave it a 420p target, down from 450p.
Argos owner Home Retail Group was also up 8p to 281p ahead of their trading update on Thursday. Debenhams closed up nearly 9p to close at 76.5p as investors expect tomorrows trading update for Xmas to be far better than previously expected. Some stakeholder building has also been going on, as we reported at the end of last week.
Supermarket giant Tesco closed down 6p to 420p on broker downgrade, and also added a traget down from 480p to a rather suprising 375p. The company gives a trading update tomorrow.
The Market Analyser data feed provider, Reuters, was also down ion a broker downgrade, closing off 10p at 596 with a 550p target, down from 675p.
Another broker downgrade saw Shire close down 38p to 1,142, with the stock now being 'neutral', so should start a channel for a while.
Friends Provident, the insurance group, closed up 5p at 162.5 on news in the press at the weekend that it was looking to sell its 53% stake in F&C Asset management, with £400m going to shareholders. Its peers liked the news, with Standard Life up 10p at just shy of 236p and the Pru up 20p to close at 695p.
Northern Rock took some more squeeze as tomorrow's EGM looks to be a food fight, with the troubled bank down another 4.75p to close at 82.5p. The EGM is to try and prevent the Board selling off all the bank's assets. As we said this morning, nationalisation looks a destinct possibility, but what that gives shareholders no-one knows.
Building materials group Wolseley closed down 17.5p at 681.5p on broker downgrade, with a 650p target. The previous target was 1,450. Quite a reduction in confidence.
Premier Foods was the top riser of the FTSE 250 today, closing up 27p at 160p.
Up-market property firm Savills closed up almost 40p at 297.5p on the back of its bullish statement last week on the better properties doing well in 2008.
Morning Wrap, Monday 14th January 2208
The FTSE was up a little this monring - about 10 points in its first hour of trading at 6,212. Tyhe FTSE 250 wa sup about 140 points at 9,970.
On Friday the DJI closed at 12,606.3, down almost 194 points on the day (1.5% drop). The S&P500 closed 10.8 points down at 1,401.02 and the Nasdaq closed down 64.71 points at 2,439.94.
In the Far East this morning the Nikkei is closed for another holiday but in Hong Kong the Hang Seng was down about 10 points at lunchtime at 26,858.
Oil was about 12c down at US$92.57 bbl for light sweet (Feb del), with North Sea Brent was up 18c at US$91.25 bbl (Feb del).
This morning in London saw the Scottish & Newcastle saga continue, with more news and players at the table. Weekend press reported that Budweiser brewer, Anheuser-Busch, had approached S&N, together with private equity funds Blackstone and Texas Pacific Group with regards to a pssible £4.6bln bid. It seems everyone wants a piece of the Russian beer market, which is what this is all about. Together with Carlsberg, on a 50/50 JV, S&N owns 50% of the Russian brewer BBH. On Friday is was said that S&N was going 'PacMan' and wanted to bid for Carlsberg, who had already bid for S&N at 780p a share. (Arte u keeping up?) Anyway, S&N was up 10p this morning at 745p. &N already controls 50 pct of the BBH alongside Carlsberg, but the Edinburgh-based brewer is preparing a bid for full control of BBH as part of its own defence against Carlsberg, the paper said. This morning S&N said it expected its full-year results to be as expected.
Smiths Group received a broker upgrade and rose 21p to 1,027 as the defence sector gets some revaluing.
BAE Systems shares was up 4.5p at 493.5p on broker upgrade and a 587p target helped the early rise this morning.
Tesco was down over 11p this morning on broker downgrade, trading at 415p as the target was lowered from 480p to 375p.
Reuters was also on a downgrade, down at 593p from 606p with a 550p target, down from 675p.
Troubled mortgage bank Northern Rock was also down this morning, off 6p at 81.25p, down nearly 7%. The possibility of the troubled bank becoming Nationalised looks a possibility. Tomorrow's EGM, which is for the authorisation to sell more assets, looks to be interesting.
On Friday the DJI closed at 12,606.3, down almost 194 points on the day (1.5% drop). The S&P500 closed 10.8 points down at 1,401.02 and the Nasdaq closed down 64.71 points at 2,439.94.
In the Far East this morning the Nikkei is closed for another holiday but in Hong Kong the Hang Seng was down about 10 points at lunchtime at 26,858.
Oil was about 12c down at US$92.57 bbl for light sweet (Feb del), with North Sea Brent was up 18c at US$91.25 bbl (Feb del).
This morning in London saw the Scottish & Newcastle saga continue, with more news and players at the table. Weekend press reported that Budweiser brewer, Anheuser-Busch, had approached S&N, together with private equity funds Blackstone and Texas Pacific Group with regards to a pssible £4.6bln bid. It seems everyone wants a piece of the Russian beer market, which is what this is all about. Together with Carlsberg, on a 50/50 JV, S&N owns 50% of the Russian brewer BBH. On Friday is was said that S&N was going 'PacMan' and wanted to bid for Carlsberg, who had already bid for S&N at 780p a share. (Arte u keeping up?) Anyway, S&N was up 10p this morning at 745p. &N already controls 50 pct of the BBH alongside Carlsberg, but the Edinburgh-based brewer is preparing a bid for full control of BBH as part of its own defence against Carlsberg, the paper said. This morning S&N said it expected its full-year results to be as expected.
Smiths Group received a broker upgrade and rose 21p to 1,027 as the defence sector gets some revaluing.
BAE Systems shares was up 4.5p at 493.5p on broker upgrade and a 587p target helped the early rise this morning.
Tesco was down over 11p this morning on broker downgrade, trading at 415p as the target was lowered from 480p to 375p.
Reuters was also on a downgrade, down at 593p from 606p with a 550p target, down from 675p.
Troubled mortgage bank Northern Rock was also down this morning, off 6p at 81.25p, down nearly 7%. The possibility of the troubled bank becoming Nationalised looks a possibility. Tomorrow's EGM, which is for the authorisation to sell more assets, looks to be interesting.
Friday, 11 January 2008
Market Wrap, Friday 11th January 2008
The FTSE closed down 20.7 points at 6,202 today, recovering some 55 points from the session low of 6,147. The FTSE 100 has lost 146.5 points this week. The FTSE 250 closed down 29.2 points to close at 9,829.8 - down 435.5 points on the week.
The bad feeling is coming over from the US, with three big Institutional banks reporting figures next week. One of them, Merrill Lynch, is rumoured to be taking a massive $15 bln hit on the sub-prime loans it has, and is also rumoured to - wait for it - actually have its cap in hand for a some cash input so to keep its balance sheet and capital adequacy where it should be. This is serious stuff. JP Morgan & Chase and Citigroup Inc also report next week. just to rub some salt into the American Wound at the moment, it was reported that November's trade deficit over there was at its highest level for 14 months with a gap of US$63.1 bln imports more than exports. That was 5% more than was expected. Parachute, anyone...?
By the time London was closing the DJI was at 12,730, down some 122 points, the S&P 500 was down just 5 pointsd at 1,415 and the Nasdaq was down about 18 points at 2,469.
Back here in London it was a similar story, really, with Utility stocks taking the biggest hits today. International Power fell over 23p to close at 434.5, which was the largest negative today, whilst peers British Energy closed down 25p at 557, and Scottish & Southern Energy closed down 66p at 1,613. Sector peer National Grid joined in with a 27p drop to close at 836p.
Rumours of a profit warning from Cadburys next week caused the food sector to fall back, with Diageo closing down 30p at 1,021 and Cadbury-Schweppes closing 18p lower at 587.5p. Unilever also took a hit, closing off 90p at 1,729, accompanied by a Broker downgrade.
Carrying on from this morning, aero engine maker Rolls Royce closed down 11p at 514p on news that it is cuting 2,300 jobs here in the UK and in germany, with some going in the USA too.
One almost funny and ironic rumour was with the country's flag carrier, British Airways. The self appointed World's favourite is rumours to be becoming a middle-eastern favourite too as UAE-based Emirates are said to be looking to bid for the airline at these sub 3-quid levels. Many dismissed the rumours as just that - rumours. Still, the shares jumped 16.5p to 284.5p, anyway. One thing to add on BA is the London Eye, or should we say the thing to no longer add to BA as they have said they are ditching it. The new, modern London icon, known to the world and as popular as ever, is being dumped by sponsor's BA. Yes, despite the London Eye being London's newest landmark, focus of attention at New Year, across the river from Parliament and Big Ben, BA CEO Willy Walsh (from Dublin, Ireland, I will add) has decided British BA no longer needs to be sponsoring such a prominent and visible landmark in central London. Virgin Airlines ears have pricked up (Sir Dick never slow for an opportunity to get some publicity and 'get one over' on the auld enemy, BA) and also O2, who already have that other big round thing in east London called the dome. Yes, that old monstrosity, that was a white elephant, is shaped like an 'O' and is now doing O2 lots of favours as the O2 Arena, bringing in much revenue and publicity. Maybe another round thing may go well in the ex-Cellnet's portfolio quite nicely. Watch this space - you heard it here first. We are curretnly long on BA, though, just to contradict ourselves. We could see 10% on this one.
Easyjet was up 22.25p to just shy of 460p as a broker upgrade and target of 625p gave the budget airline a much needed boost after the last 12 month's performance for sure. We are also long on Easyjet, who have also recently bought GB Airways from BA. Oh, talking of BA, did we mention the London Eye, by the way... ;-)
Housebuilders were back in favour, with Persimmons up 46.5p at 691.5 after sector peer Bovis came out with a reassuring update saying all was ok. Bovis Homes was up 55p to close at 545p.
BT Group closed up 3.5p at 280.25 on broker upgrade and a 335p target stating that the drop off in customers and revenue from broadband is well and truly built into the price now.
Broker upgrade also helped Icap who closed up 12p at 675.5p.
Scottish & Newcastle was up another 10p at 734.5p on broadsheet reports that the brewer is going 'pac-man' on the Carlsberg bid and will attempt to buy out the Dutch brewer's half of the Russian JV, BBH. BBH is seeing massive growth as Russia moves towards the usual bevarge of beer for the tardtional spud alcohol, Vodka.
Premier Foods was down today, quite heavily, closing off 30.5p at 140.5. That's nearly 19% on the day. Yestredya's negative outlook update sinking in overnight, it seems. Sector peer Northern Foods was also down in synmpathy, off 5p to close at 81p, despite annoucing its acquisition of Baxter Food Group Ltd's soup plant at Grimsby (who make the nice soup, by the way) for an undisclosed sum.
Hochschild Mining jumoped today, up over 50p to close at 413p, recovering after its recent profit warning.
Northern Rock closed up 2p at 87.25p on news it had sold some of its mortgage book to JP Morgans for a 2.25% premium. Newsppaers were still speculating that the troubled bank may get nationalised.
High Street retailer Debenhams closed up nearly 6p at just shy of 68p as Milestone Resources increased their stake to 8.39%. The store chain will report its Xmas takings next Tuesday. Milestone is owned by Dubai-based retailer Landmark. Iceland's Baugur already owns 13.5% of Debenhams, which is worth noting, too.
The bad feeling is coming over from the US, with three big Institutional banks reporting figures next week. One of them, Merrill Lynch, is rumoured to be taking a massive $15 bln hit on the sub-prime loans it has, and is also rumoured to - wait for it - actually have its cap in hand for a some cash input so to keep its balance sheet and capital adequacy where it should be. This is serious stuff. JP Morgan & Chase and Citigroup Inc also report next week. just to rub some salt into the American Wound at the moment, it was reported that November's trade deficit over there was at its highest level for 14 months with a gap of US$63.1 bln imports more than exports. That was 5% more than was expected. Parachute, anyone...?
By the time London was closing the DJI was at 12,730, down some 122 points, the S&P 500 was down just 5 pointsd at 1,415 and the Nasdaq was down about 18 points at 2,469.
Back here in London it was a similar story, really, with Utility stocks taking the biggest hits today. International Power fell over 23p to close at 434.5, which was the largest negative today, whilst peers British Energy closed down 25p at 557, and Scottish & Southern Energy closed down 66p at 1,613. Sector peer National Grid joined in with a 27p drop to close at 836p.
Rumours of a profit warning from Cadburys next week caused the food sector to fall back, with Diageo closing down 30p at 1,021 and Cadbury-Schweppes closing 18p lower at 587.5p. Unilever also took a hit, closing off 90p at 1,729, accompanied by a Broker downgrade.
Carrying on from this morning, aero engine maker Rolls Royce closed down 11p at 514p on news that it is cuting 2,300 jobs here in the UK and in germany, with some going in the USA too.
One almost funny and ironic rumour was with the country's flag carrier, British Airways. The self appointed World's favourite is rumours to be becoming a middle-eastern favourite too as UAE-based Emirates are said to be looking to bid for the airline at these sub 3-quid levels. Many dismissed the rumours as just that - rumours. Still, the shares jumped 16.5p to 284.5p, anyway. One thing to add on BA is the London Eye, or should we say the thing to no longer add to BA as they have said they are ditching it. The new, modern London icon, known to the world and as popular as ever, is being dumped by sponsor's BA. Yes, despite the London Eye being London's newest landmark, focus of attention at New Year, across the river from Parliament and Big Ben, BA CEO Willy Walsh (from Dublin, Ireland, I will add) has decided British BA no longer needs to be sponsoring such a prominent and visible landmark in central London. Virgin Airlines ears have pricked up (Sir Dick never slow for an opportunity to get some publicity and 'get one over' on the auld enemy, BA) and also O2, who already have that other big round thing in east London called the dome. Yes, that old monstrosity, that was a white elephant, is shaped like an 'O' and is now doing O2 lots of favours as the O2 Arena, bringing in much revenue and publicity. Maybe another round thing may go well in the ex-Cellnet's portfolio quite nicely. Watch this space - you heard it here first. We are curretnly long on BA, though, just to contradict ourselves. We could see 10% on this one.
Easyjet was up 22.25p to just shy of 460p as a broker upgrade and target of 625p gave the budget airline a much needed boost after the last 12 month's performance for sure. We are also long on Easyjet, who have also recently bought GB Airways from BA. Oh, talking of BA, did we mention the London Eye, by the way... ;-)
Housebuilders were back in favour, with Persimmons up 46.5p at 691.5 after sector peer Bovis came out with a reassuring update saying all was ok. Bovis Homes was up 55p to close at 545p.
BT Group closed up 3.5p at 280.25 on broker upgrade and a 335p target stating that the drop off in customers and revenue from broadband is well and truly built into the price now.
Broker upgrade also helped Icap who closed up 12p at 675.5p.
Scottish & Newcastle was up another 10p at 734.5p on broadsheet reports that the brewer is going 'pac-man' on the Carlsberg bid and will attempt to buy out the Dutch brewer's half of the Russian JV, BBH. BBH is seeing massive growth as Russia moves towards the usual bevarge of beer for the tardtional spud alcohol, Vodka.
Premier Foods was down today, quite heavily, closing off 30.5p at 140.5. That's nearly 19% on the day. Yestredya's negative outlook update sinking in overnight, it seems. Sector peer Northern Foods was also down in synmpathy, off 5p to close at 81p, despite annoucing its acquisition of Baxter Food Group Ltd's soup plant at Grimsby (who make the nice soup, by the way) for an undisclosed sum.
Hochschild Mining jumoped today, up over 50p to close at 413p, recovering after its recent profit warning.
Northern Rock closed up 2p at 87.25p on news it had sold some of its mortgage book to JP Morgans for a 2.25% premium. Newsppaers were still speculating that the troubled bank may get nationalised.
High Street retailer Debenhams closed up nearly 6p at just shy of 68p as Milestone Resources increased their stake to 8.39%. The store chain will report its Xmas takings next Tuesday. Milestone is owned by Dubai-based retailer Landmark. Iceland's Baugur already owns 13.5% of Debenhams, which is worth noting, too.
Morning Market, Friday 11th January 2008
The FTSE was down about 10 points to 6,614 in its first hour of trading, despite a small gap up. The FTSE 250 was down anbout 50 points at 9,750 despite a better finish in New York last night.
In the US last night the DJI had a rollercoaster day, but closed firmer to the tune of 117.78 points at 12,853.09. The S&P 500 closed up 11.2 at 1,420.33 and the Nasdaq closed up nearly 14 points at 2,488.52.
In the Far East this morning they did the opposiute again, with the Nikkei 225 closing down 277.32 at 14,110.79 and in Honkers the Hang Seng was just up about 20points during its day at 27,250.
Back here this morning and bad news for Unilever, who received a broker downgrade from Morgan Stanley and promptly fell over 60points to 1,754.
Marks & Spencer was also attracting more sellers as it had also fallen another 6p to 388p this morning.
Aero engine firm Rolls-Royce announced it would be shedding 2,300 jobs in the UK, Germany and the USA, but this wasn't taken well and the stock was down 8p at 517p early doors.
News of delays in the delay to the contract for 2 new aircraft carriers for the MoD worth £4 bln saw BAE Systems drop 2p to 491.5 and VT Group fall 32p to 676p on the news as it gave concenrs that the new JV may be affected.
Moving to something positive - the travel sector, where TUI Travel were up 12p to 235p and Thomas Cook up 3p to 229p despite recent falls and concerns due to the public apparently being skint they will cut back on holidays this year.
After its recent falls, Yell Group climbed 6p to 332p as a rumour of the mighty Google sniffing with a potential bid in the cupboard were doing the rounds. Rumoutrs of as much as a fiver a share were being banted around.
Broker upgrade gave BT a 6p push to 282.5p with a 335p target, up from 315p.
Oil prices turned around after recent heavy drops on worries about a US recession that could dampen global demand for crude. Light sweet (Feb delivery) was up about 75cents at about US$94.5 bbl. Brent North Sea crude (Feb delivery) was also up a similar figure to about US$93 bbl. This also helped BG Group, where the price of shares rose 11p to 1,066 this morning. Majors RD Shell and BP were up 20p at 2,118 and 2p to 607 respectively.
In the US last night the DJI had a rollercoaster day, but closed firmer to the tune of 117.78 points at 12,853.09. The S&P 500 closed up 11.2 at 1,420.33 and the Nasdaq closed up nearly 14 points at 2,488.52.
In the Far East this morning they did the opposiute again, with the Nikkei 225 closing down 277.32 at 14,110.79 and in Honkers the Hang Seng was just up about 20points during its day at 27,250.
Back here this morning and bad news for Unilever, who received a broker downgrade from Morgan Stanley and promptly fell over 60points to 1,754.
Marks & Spencer was also attracting more sellers as it had also fallen another 6p to 388p this morning.
Aero engine firm Rolls-Royce announced it would be shedding 2,300 jobs in the UK, Germany and the USA, but this wasn't taken well and the stock was down 8p at 517p early doors.
News of delays in the delay to the contract for 2 new aircraft carriers for the MoD worth £4 bln saw BAE Systems drop 2p to 491.5 and VT Group fall 32p to 676p on the news as it gave concenrs that the new JV may be affected.
Moving to something positive - the travel sector, where TUI Travel were up 12p to 235p and Thomas Cook up 3p to 229p despite recent falls and concerns due to the public apparently being skint they will cut back on holidays this year.
After its recent falls, Yell Group climbed 6p to 332p as a rumour of the mighty Google sniffing with a potential bid in the cupboard were doing the rounds. Rumoutrs of as much as a fiver a share were being banted around.
Broker upgrade gave BT a 6p push to 282.5p with a 335p target, up from 315p.
Oil prices turned around after recent heavy drops on worries about a US recession that could dampen global demand for crude. Light sweet (Feb delivery) was up about 75cents at about US$94.5 bbl. Brent North Sea crude (Feb delivery) was also up a similar figure to about US$93 bbl. This also helped BG Group, where the price of shares rose 11p to 1,066 this morning. Majors RD Shell and BP were up 20p at 2,118 and 2p to 607 respectively.
Currency Report - Friday 11th January - Video
Morning all...
Very sad news today with Sir Edmund Hillary passing away. What a heroic man and a true legend...
Here are the last 2 examples of the 'Market Bytes' reports. From Monday you will need to subscribe and i will go into greater detail on levels and breakouts etc.
You will receive the 1st video between 7.00am and 8.00am each morning and there could be as many as 3 per day, depending on the market and trade strategies. Have a great day.
Example Video link below...
Video link - http://www.mdstrader.com/video/1101a17342.html
Video link - http://www.mdstrader.com/video/1101b17342(1).html
Register - http://www.mdstrader.com/register_mb.html
Good luck.
Very sad news today with Sir Edmund Hillary passing away. What a heroic man and a true legend...
Here are the last 2 examples of the 'Market Bytes' reports. From Monday you will need to subscribe and i will go into greater detail on levels and breakouts etc.
You will receive the 1st video between 7.00am and 8.00am each morning and there could be as many as 3 per day, depending on the market and trade strategies. Have a great day.
Example Video link below...
Video link - http://www.mdstrader.com/video/1101a17342.html
Video link - http://www.mdstrader.com/video/1101b17342(1).html
Register - http://www.mdstrader.com/register_mb.html
Good luck.
Thursday, 10 January 2008
Market Wrap, Thursday 10th January 2008
The FTSE closed down today, with the Bank of England deciding to leave interest rates at 5.5% for at least another month. The FTSE 100 was down 50 points at 6,222.7 at the close, down about 92 points from its session high. The FTSE 250 closed down 163.4 points at 9,800.6.
Over the pond, by the time London closed the DJI was down about 37 points at 12,698, with the S&P500 down about 8 poinst at 1,400 and the Nasdaq down 18 points at 2,455.
Back here, and following on from this morning, Sainsbury's gave a decent trading update on its 3rd quarter trading over Xmas and closed up 23 points at 388p. High Street retailer Marks & Spencers didn't fair as well as it fell 14p to 395 after its poor figures yesterday. Peer Next fell 37p to 1,294p.
The decsion not to lower interest rates caused some pressure on the builders again, with Taylor Wimpey down 4.7p at 157.1 and Redrow down 6p to 261 despite a fairly upbeat tradinmg statement this morning.
Oil stocks were also under pressure, with BP down another 5.5p to close at 605p and Tullows was down 33.5p to 594. BG Group also fell 32p to close at 1,055.
Satelitte TV and telecoms provider BSkyB was off 9.5p to close at 549p with brokers still holding their 'sell' stance on the stock.
Carphone Warehouse closed up 6.5p to close at 306.25p as its Xmas figures are due tomorrow.
Scottish & Newcastle closed up 5.5p at 724.5 as the brewer rejected the Diutch brewer Carlsberg 780p offer for the group. The Dutch being after the Russian business owned by S&N that is growing at a phenominal rate. Rumours that an 8-quid bid may be closer to the mark pushed the shares up on the day.
Man Group had a poor day, closing down 21.5p at 507p after a fairly decent trading upbeat, but not exciting enough.
Beeting firm William Hill closed down 32.25p at 401 on announcing it expected profits to be about £285m for the year.
Over the pond, by the time London closed the DJI was down about 37 points at 12,698, with the S&P500 down about 8 poinst at 1,400 and the Nasdaq down 18 points at 2,455.
Back here, and following on from this morning, Sainsbury's gave a decent trading update on its 3rd quarter trading over Xmas and closed up 23 points at 388p. High Street retailer Marks & Spencers didn't fair as well as it fell 14p to 395 after its poor figures yesterday. Peer Next fell 37p to 1,294p.
The decsion not to lower interest rates caused some pressure on the builders again, with Taylor Wimpey down 4.7p at 157.1 and Redrow down 6p to 261 despite a fairly upbeat tradinmg statement this morning.
Oil stocks were also under pressure, with BP down another 5.5p to close at 605p and Tullows was down 33.5p to 594. BG Group also fell 32p to close at 1,055.
Satelitte TV and telecoms provider BSkyB was off 9.5p to close at 549p with brokers still holding their 'sell' stance on the stock.
Carphone Warehouse closed up 6.5p to close at 306.25p as its Xmas figures are due tomorrow.
Scottish & Newcastle closed up 5.5p at 724.5 as the brewer rejected the Diutch brewer Carlsberg 780p offer for the group. The Dutch being after the Russian business owned by S&N that is growing at a phenominal rate. Rumours that an 8-quid bid may be closer to the mark pushed the shares up on the day.
Man Group had a poor day, closing down 21.5p at 507p after a fairly decent trading upbeat, but not exciting enough.
Beeting firm William Hill closed down 32.25p at 401 on announcing it expected profits to be about £285m for the year.
Morning Market, Thursday 10th January 2008
The FTSE was up in its first hour of trading about 17 points at 6,290, whilst the FTSE 250 was up about 45 points at 10,009. Volume is coming back in now, as investors and bears get back to trading.
The Bank of England gives its decision on interst rates today as well, with hopes of another 25 point cut to the base rate (1/4%). We'll all be looking at the screen at lunchtime. We feel there is more than a good chance of another cut, especially after the poor retail sales at Xmas in the High Streets. If rates aren't cut today, it's almost a certainty for next month.
Over the pond last night the DJI closed up 146.24 points at 12,735.31 despite being down nearly 90 points earlier in the day - quite a rollercoaster session, indeed. The S&P 500 closed up almost 19 points at 1,409.13, and the Nasdaq was also up with a 34 point gain to close at 2,474.55. Later today Ben Bernanke gives a speech on how the US Central Bank feels about the economy over there.
This morning in the Far East the Nikkei 225 was down over 200 points, and in Hong Kong the Hang Seng was down nearly 250 points - neither market swayed by the US late rally last night.
Oil was up again, with light sweet (Febdelivery) up about 30c at just shy of US$96 bbl. Brent North Sea crude was up 16c at US$94.53 bbl, recovering from the dollar or so fall back the day before.
Back here in London, early this morning Sainsburys gave some good news, they seem to have knicked Marks & Sparks Xmas trade. The Supermarket Group chain was up 15.5p at 380.5p early doors after it reported a 3.7% rise in sales compared to last year for the quarter up to 29Dec. Others from the sector joined in, with Morrisons up 11p at 318 and Tesco up 6p at 425p.
Housebuilders were coming back into favour after recent pressure with Persimmons up 25p at 670 and Taylor Wimpey up 2p at 164. Others also did well early on with Redrow up 7p at 273.5 despite saying Dec sales were down.
British Land rose over 20p to 896p as it emerged that the Singapore Government had now amassed 3% of the property giant. Peer Hammerson was also up this morning, gaining 17p to 928p on broker upograde and 1,500p target, although this target was down on the previous target of 1,650.
Scottish & Newcastle gained 7p to 726p on news that it had rebuffed the 780p a share offer from Dutch brewer Carlsberg A/S and Heineken NV, who are after securing the S&N Russian business.
The Bank of England gives its decision on interst rates today as well, with hopes of another 25 point cut to the base rate (1/4%). We'll all be looking at the screen at lunchtime. We feel there is more than a good chance of another cut, especially after the poor retail sales at Xmas in the High Streets. If rates aren't cut today, it's almost a certainty for next month.
Over the pond last night the DJI closed up 146.24 points at 12,735.31 despite being down nearly 90 points earlier in the day - quite a rollercoaster session, indeed. The S&P 500 closed up almost 19 points at 1,409.13, and the Nasdaq was also up with a 34 point gain to close at 2,474.55. Later today Ben Bernanke gives a speech on how the US Central Bank feels about the economy over there.
This morning in the Far East the Nikkei 225 was down over 200 points, and in Hong Kong the Hang Seng was down nearly 250 points - neither market swayed by the US late rally last night.
Oil was up again, with light sweet (Febdelivery) up about 30c at just shy of US$96 bbl. Brent North Sea crude was up 16c at US$94.53 bbl, recovering from the dollar or so fall back the day before.
Back here in London, early this morning Sainsburys gave some good news, they seem to have knicked Marks & Sparks Xmas trade. The Supermarket Group chain was up 15.5p at 380.5p early doors after it reported a 3.7% rise in sales compared to last year for the quarter up to 29Dec. Others from the sector joined in, with Morrisons up 11p at 318 and Tesco up 6p at 425p.
Housebuilders were coming back into favour after recent pressure with Persimmons up 25p at 670 and Taylor Wimpey up 2p at 164. Others also did well early on with Redrow up 7p at 273.5 despite saying Dec sales were down.
British Land rose over 20p to 896p as it emerged that the Singapore Government had now amassed 3% of the property giant. Peer Hammerson was also up this morning, gaining 17p to 928p on broker upograde and 1,500p target, although this target was down on the previous target of 1,650.
Scottish & Newcastle gained 7p to 726p on news that it had rebuffed the 780p a share offer from Dutch brewer Carlsberg A/S and Heineken NV, who are after securing the S&N Russian business.
Currency Report - Thursday 10th January - Video
Morning
I hope everyone is well. The England rugby squad has been picked and i have to say i like the look of it. It's a shame we aren't world champions for another 4 years but i have a really good feeling about our potential...
Anyway, interesting day ahead with BoE Interest Rate decision out at midday. I have produced a small video on my thoughts for the day. From Monday my predictions and analysis for the days trading will only be available for the 'Market Bytes' subscriber's so if you are keen on learning how to trade, please register on the link below. We have had a great response and i look forward to working closely with you. 100 points a day is great target to set yourself and i know quite a few of you made it yesterday, which is great... Fantastic Trading... Well done!!!
Please note that you will need to listen with speakers and not head phones.. The updated video will be posted tomorrow
Example Video link below...
Video link - www.mdstrader.com/video/1001a15234.html
Register - http://www.mdstrader.com/register_mb.html
Good luck today.
I hope everyone is well. The England rugby squad has been picked and i have to say i like the look of it. It's a shame we aren't world champions for another 4 years but i have a really good feeling about our potential...
Anyway, interesting day ahead with BoE Interest Rate decision out at midday. I have produced a small video on my thoughts for the day. From Monday my predictions and analysis for the days trading will only be available for the 'Market Bytes' subscriber's so if you are keen on learning how to trade, please register on the link below. We have had a great response and i look forward to working closely with you. 100 points a day is great target to set yourself and i know quite a few of you made it yesterday, which is great... Fantastic Trading... Well done!!!
Please note that you will need to listen with speakers and not head phones.. The updated video will be posted tomorrow
Example Video link below...
Video link - www.mdstrader.com/video/1001a15234.html
Register - http://www.mdstrader.com/register_mb.html
Good luck today.
Wednesday, 9 January 2008
Market Wrap, Wednesday 9th January 2008
The FTSE closed down 83.8 points today at 6,272.7 as the retail and builders sectors took a bit of a pasting. The FTSE 250 was off 197.6 points at 9,964, under the 10k barrier.
Over the pond, by the time London closed the DJI was about even at 12,590, but looked like some weight was coming in for some positive movement.
Back here in London Marks & Sparks took a hammering today, with the High Street retailer closing down just over a massive 94 points at 409p after the retailer said it had had a poor Xmas. The Group then added that 2008 'looks challenging'. well, stick your lead boots on, we say. Figures for the 3rd quarter to 29Dec were down 2.2% on last year, which is significant in such a fiercely competitive and tight margined sector. Just 7 months ago M&S was trading at nearly 50% higher than the current level.
Sector peers took some stick too, with J Sainsbury down 19.25 at 365 and Home Retail Group down 17.25 at 268.5p. Kingfisher, who own B&Q, were also down in sympathy nearly 11p at 115.3.
The builders had a poor day, with taylor Wimpey down 9.3p at 161.8 and Redrow down 5p at 267p. The sector is feeling presure. Persimmons tried to brighten the day with figures that were better than expected, but they still received a broker downgrade, clsoing at 641.5, down 10p, with a broker target of 605p down from 1,169. Quite a cut and a sure sign that the builders aren't going to be having it so easy.
The Pharmas did well, bucking the trend, as Glaxo and AstraZ both doing well. Astra closed up over 4%, up 91p at 2,325.
The miners also did well, with Lonmins top of the daily league, clsoing up 134p at 3,396p.
Over the pond, by the time London closed the DJI was about even at 12,590, but looked like some weight was coming in for some positive movement.
Back here in London Marks & Sparks took a hammering today, with the High Street retailer closing down just over a massive 94 points at 409p after the retailer said it had had a poor Xmas. The Group then added that 2008 'looks challenging'. well, stick your lead boots on, we say. Figures for the 3rd quarter to 29Dec were down 2.2% on last year, which is significant in such a fiercely competitive and tight margined sector. Just 7 months ago M&S was trading at nearly 50% higher than the current level.
Sector peers took some stick too, with J Sainsbury down 19.25 at 365 and Home Retail Group down 17.25 at 268.5p. Kingfisher, who own B&Q, were also down in sympathy nearly 11p at 115.3.
The builders had a poor day, with taylor Wimpey down 9.3p at 161.8 and Redrow down 5p at 267p. The sector is feeling presure. Persimmons tried to brighten the day with figures that were better than expected, but they still received a broker downgrade, clsoing at 641.5, down 10p, with a broker target of 605p down from 1,169. Quite a cut and a sure sign that the builders aren't going to be having it so easy.
The Pharmas did well, bucking the trend, as Glaxo and AstraZ both doing well. Astra closed up over 4%, up 91p at 2,325.
The miners also did well, with Lonmins top of the daily league, clsoing up 134p at 3,396p.
USDSEK Trade - 300 Points
Good evening
Well what a great trading day and i hope you all made a lot of pips.
I mentioned a few potential trades today on the video's. Take a look at the 300 point trade on the USDSEK today, from 6.4000 to 6.4300.
We have had a great response and I would personally like to say a warm welcome to all of you who have joined 'Market Bytes' and i look forward to working closely with you. I have already had a testimonial from Thomas Davies below...
As I said to James earlier today, for the cost of £87 it is like having a daily lesson and hot tip service for £5 a day...Fantastic. I will be looking at 500-800 pips a week with some nice long trades using a variety of currency
pairs...This is now a reality, thanks for all your hard work.
Well what a great trading day and i hope you all made a lot of pips.
I mentioned a few potential trades today on the video's. Take a look at the 300 point trade on the USDSEK today, from 6.4000 to 6.4300.
We have had a great response and I would personally like to say a warm welcome to all of you who have joined 'Market Bytes' and i look forward to working closely with you. I have already had a testimonial from Thomas Davies below...
As I said to James earlier today, for the cost of £87 it is like having a daily lesson and hot tip service for £5 a day...Fantastic. I will be looking at 500-800 pips a week with some nice long trades using a variety of currency
pairs...This is now a reality, thanks for all your hard work.
Morning Market, Wednesday 9th January 2008
The FTSE down about 85 points in its first hour of trading at 6,265. The FTSE 250 was down about 145 points at 10,008.
Last night over the pond the DJI closed down another 238.42 points at 12,589.07, whilst the S&P500 was down almost 26 points at 1,390.19 and the Nasdaq was down nearly 59 points at 2,440.51. New that US home sales had fallen 2.6% in Novmeber wasn't taken lightly. There is a genuine fear all round.
Howeever, the Far East didn't agree. In Japan the Nikkei 225 closed up 70.49 points at 14,599.16 and in Hong Kong the Hang Seng was up about 60 points half way through its session at 27,172.
Oil is up again, with Light Sweet (Feb delivery) up 36c at US$96.69 bbl. Brent North Sea crude (Feb delivery) was up 25c at US$95.79 bbl. This didn't help Oil Giant BP, who were down 24p this morning at 610p on the view that the market leader is trying to guide forecasts lower.
Other commodity strength helped the miners this morning again, with Lonmin up 135p at 3,397 and Xstrata up 95p at 3,460p, both sitting at the top of the performers. Kazakhmys was also up 25p at 1,360.
One suprise this morning was for last year's decent retail perfomaer, Marks & Sparks, who were down a massive 19% early doors, off 95p at 408p on a poor trading update relating to Xmas, and also adding that the future doesn't look too cleaver, either. Broker downgrade followed. M&S said sales for 3 months to 29Dec were down 2.2% on last year. High Street peer Next was also off a quid - trading at 1,307p, whilst Debenhams was down 6p at 65p. Kingfishers, who own B&Q, were also down this morning, off 6p at just shy of 121p.
Other retailers also fell, with J Sainsbury down over 20p this morning at 362p and Tesco down 16p at 424p. Wolworths was also down, despoite getting a broker upgrade, and was off half a penny at 11.5p.
The builders are also on a nasty down trend, with Persimmons down 25p at 627p on news that it was 5% down on sales, whilst Taylor Wimpey fell nearly 9p to 162p and Barratts was down nearly 20p at 343p and Redrow fell 12p to 259p.
Broker upgrades helped the pharmas this monring, with Glaxo up 16p at 1,377 and AstraZ up 28p at 2,262, and Shire up 16p at 1,155.
Last night over the pond the DJI closed down another 238.42 points at 12,589.07, whilst the S&P500 was down almost 26 points at 1,390.19 and the Nasdaq was down nearly 59 points at 2,440.51. New that US home sales had fallen 2.6% in Novmeber wasn't taken lightly. There is a genuine fear all round.
Howeever, the Far East didn't agree. In Japan the Nikkei 225 closed up 70.49 points at 14,599.16 and in Hong Kong the Hang Seng was up about 60 points half way through its session at 27,172.
Oil is up again, with Light Sweet (Feb delivery) up 36c at US$96.69 bbl. Brent North Sea crude (Feb delivery) was up 25c at US$95.79 bbl. This didn't help Oil Giant BP, who were down 24p this morning at 610p on the view that the market leader is trying to guide forecasts lower.
Other commodity strength helped the miners this morning again, with Lonmin up 135p at 3,397 and Xstrata up 95p at 3,460p, both sitting at the top of the performers. Kazakhmys was also up 25p at 1,360.
One suprise this morning was for last year's decent retail perfomaer, Marks & Sparks, who were down a massive 19% early doors, off 95p at 408p on a poor trading update relating to Xmas, and also adding that the future doesn't look too cleaver, either. Broker downgrade followed. M&S said sales for 3 months to 29Dec were down 2.2% on last year. High Street peer Next was also off a quid - trading at 1,307p, whilst Debenhams was down 6p at 65p. Kingfishers, who own B&Q, were also down this morning, off 6p at just shy of 121p.
Other retailers also fell, with J Sainsbury down over 20p this morning at 362p and Tesco down 16p at 424p. Wolworths was also down, despoite getting a broker upgrade, and was off half a penny at 11.5p.
The builders are also on a nasty down trend, with Persimmons down 25p at 627p on news that it was 5% down on sales, whilst Taylor Wimpey fell nearly 9p to 162p and Barratts was down nearly 20p at 343p and Redrow fell 12p to 259p.
Broker upgrades helped the pharmas this monring, with Glaxo up 16p at 1,377 and AstraZ up 28p at 2,262, and Shire up 16p at 1,155.
Currency Report - Wednesday 9th January - Video
This is an example of the 'Market Bytes' video reports going 'LIVE' next Monday.
The link below is a sample Technical Analysis video in the Currency and Indices market this morning and not the trading opportunities that will be posted in Market Bytes service. Please note that you will need to listen with speakers and not head phones.
Video link: www.mdstrader.com/video/0901.html
Video link: www.mdstrader.com/video/0901pm.html
To register your interest in The Market Bytes trading opportunity service please register at www.mdstrader.com/register_mb.html
Market Bytes is a twice daily video service showing the trading opportunites in Forex, Indices, Commodities and Equities markets.
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Market Wrap, Tuesday 8th January 2008
The FTSE closed up 20.8 points at 6,356.5 today, although this was over 40 points down on the session high of 6,399.6, The FTSE 250 closed up 68.5 points at 10,161.6.
Over the pond, by the time London closed the DJI was up about 40 points at 12,787.
Rising commodity prices helped the miners today, as gold and copper both did well. BHP closed up 47p at 1,538 as they said they's be continuing with the Rio merger target. Rio closed up 102p at 5,134. Kazakmys closed up 44p at 1,335 and Lonmin closed up 117p at 3,262 on broker upgrade.
Biggest riser of the say was Smith & Nephew, who closed up 43p at 640p as the company's share buy-back program was seen as positive by investors.
The Pharmas also did well today, with GlaxoSmithKline up 40p to 1,361 and AstraZeneca up 64p at 2,234. sector peer Shire was also up 29p at 1,139.
Also doing well today was the telecoms guys, with Vodafone adding another 3.5p to close at 191.6. A broker target of 215p also helped push up the price. BT Group closed up 13.75p at 277.75.
Airlines haven't been doing well of late, with Ryan Air and easyjet falling back some way off their peaks last year. Today Easyjet closed down over 74p at 460.25, that's down some 13%, after they announced that their aeroplanes were less than 79% full. That's 2.2% less than last year. Broker downgrade didn't help the price, either. Peer British Airways lost 8p to close just shy of 284p.
The builders were under pressure again. Persimmon closed down 33.5p at 651.5 and Taylor Wimpey closed down 8.7p at 171.1 on broker downgrades. Sector peer Redrow closed down 14p at 272 and Bellway was off 4p at 730p. Bovis Homes was also 8p down to close at 532p.
Yell Group closed down 21.25 points at 321.75 also on broker downgrade.
Over the pond, by the time London closed the DJI was up about 40 points at 12,787.
Rising commodity prices helped the miners today, as gold and copper both did well. BHP closed up 47p at 1,538 as they said they's be continuing with the Rio merger target. Rio closed up 102p at 5,134. Kazakmys closed up 44p at 1,335 and Lonmin closed up 117p at 3,262 on broker upgrade.
Biggest riser of the say was Smith & Nephew, who closed up 43p at 640p as the company's share buy-back program was seen as positive by investors.
The Pharmas also did well today, with GlaxoSmithKline up 40p to 1,361 and AstraZeneca up 64p at 2,234. sector peer Shire was also up 29p at 1,139.
Also doing well today was the telecoms guys, with Vodafone adding another 3.5p to close at 191.6. A broker target of 215p also helped push up the price. BT Group closed up 13.75p at 277.75.
Airlines haven't been doing well of late, with Ryan Air and easyjet falling back some way off their peaks last year. Today Easyjet closed down over 74p at 460.25, that's down some 13%, after they announced that their aeroplanes were less than 79% full. That's 2.2% less than last year. Broker downgrade didn't help the price, either. Peer British Airways lost 8p to close just shy of 284p.
The builders were under pressure again. Persimmon closed down 33.5p at 651.5 and Taylor Wimpey closed down 8.7p at 171.1 on broker downgrades. Sector peer Redrow closed down 14p at 272 and Bellway was off 4p at 730p. Bovis Homes was also 8p down to close at 532p.
Yell Group closed down 21.25 points at 321.75 also on broker downgrade.
Tuesday, 8 January 2008
Currency Report - Tuesday 08th January - Midday
Morning all... I hope you are all well and enjoying to days trading.
GBP has been the flavour of the day and we saw positive results for HBOS House prices which keeps pressure on the Bank of England not to reduce rates.
I mentioned yesterday about GBPJPY and USDJPY crossing the 50MA and wait for a retracement for a long trade. Well both worked out very well... GBPJPY rose 182 points from 215.50 to a high of 217.32 and USDJPY from 108.50 to 109.50.
We are now what i call 'Boxed In' between the 50 and 200MA. You will need to range trade from here until we see a break.
Just so you know I will be producing 2 video's each day through 'Market Bytes' where i will be discussing my views on the market and teaching you how to trade. If you are serious about building your knowledge and having that helping hand then please email jamesb@mdsmarkets.com
GBP has been the flavour of the day and we saw positive results for HBOS House prices which keeps pressure on the Bank of England not to reduce rates.
I mentioned yesterday about GBPJPY and USDJPY crossing the 50MA and wait for a retracement for a long trade. Well both worked out very well... GBPJPY rose 182 points from 215.50 to a high of 217.32 and USDJPY from 108.50 to 109.50.
We are now what i call 'Boxed In' between the 50 and 200MA. You will need to range trade from here until we see a break.
Just so you know I will be producing 2 video's each day through 'Market Bytes' where i will be discussing my views on the market and teaching you how to trade. If you are serious about building your knowledge and having that helping hand then please email jamesb@mdsmarkets.com
Morning Market, Tuesday 8th January 2008
The FTSE
The FTSE was up about 35 points by 9am this morning, around the 6,370 mark. The FTSE 250 was up the same, about 30 points at 10,123.
Last night over the pond the DJI closed up 27.31 at 12,827.49, this despite initial concerns over the incident in the Gulf with a few Iranian small boats. Investors soon returned, though, as the feeling is the Feds will lower interest rates again. The S&P 500 closed up 4.55 poinmts at 1,416.18 and the Nadaq up 5.19 at 2,499.46.
This morning in the Far East the Nikkei 225 closed up 28.12 points at 14,528.67 and in Hong Kong the the Hang Seng closed 66.59 points lower at 27,112.9.
Back here in London commodity prices did the miners a favour, with gold and copper both up again. The gainers included Anto, up 15p at 684, Kazakhmys up 40p at 1,331 and Lonmin up over a quid at 685p.
Bank Alliance & Leicester was up 8p at 753 as news that house prices actually rose in December. Halifax said the average rise was 1.3% for the month - this after 3 months of falls previously. Builders didn't do so well, though, with Taylor Wimpey down 6p at 173p on broker downgrade and Persimmons down 16p at 667p, a new 12-month low.
Yell Group was down 5p on broker downgrade.
The FTSE was up about 35 points by 9am this morning, around the 6,370 mark. The FTSE 250 was up the same, about 30 points at 10,123.
Last night over the pond the DJI closed up 27.31 at 12,827.49, this despite initial concerns over the incident in the Gulf with a few Iranian small boats. Investors soon returned, though, as the feeling is the Feds will lower interest rates again. The S&P 500 closed up 4.55 poinmts at 1,416.18 and the Nadaq up 5.19 at 2,499.46.
This morning in the Far East the Nikkei 225 closed up 28.12 points at 14,528.67 and in Hong Kong the the Hang Seng closed 66.59 points lower at 27,112.9.
Back here in London commodity prices did the miners a favour, with gold and copper both up again. The gainers included Anto, up 15p at 684, Kazakhmys up 40p at 1,331 and Lonmin up over a quid at 685p.
Bank Alliance & Leicester was up 8p at 753 as news that house prices actually rose in December. Halifax said the average rise was 1.3% for the month - this after 3 months of falls previously. Builders didn't do so well, though, with Taylor Wimpey down 6p at 173p on broker downgrade and Persimmons down 16p at 667p, a new 12-month low.
Yell Group was down 5p on broker downgrade.
Monday, 7 January 2008
Market Wrap, Monday 7th January 2008
The FTSE closed slightly down today after the retail sector contiunued to give concerns. The FTSE 100 closed down 12.8 points at 6,335.7 whilst the FTSE 250 closed down 172.2 points at 10,093.1. It wasn't a really busy day, either, with volume fairly low.
By the time London closed at 4.30pm, over in the States the DJI had a rollercoaster start, first down after Bush gave Iran a bit of a warning and then up again as hopes of the Feds cutting interest rates over there again took priority. Regarding the Iran warning, it was relating to an incident invoilving 3 US Navy ships with some of Iran's forces in the Strait of Hormuz. This initially concerned the market, but by the time London closed was back to about 12,845, up about 45 points. The S&P500 was up about 7 points at 1,419 and the Nasdaq up 9 points at 2,513.5.
The hopes of a cut in interest rates to stimulate the recent poor economy in the States was seen as a welcome speculative rumour - almost a presumption. No-one wants a poor year, and it's down to the Governments to help where they can. Or the Bank of England in our case over here as Gordon Brown offloaded that rather important control to the BoE when he found himself incharge of the economy. Let's hope the BoE gives the UK some cheer this month with another 25 point cut in interest rates over here in the UK too.
Back to stocks over here as well - retailers continued to buckle under the pressure with J Sainsbury down 14.5p at 391 as newspaper reports said the supermarket chain had a poor run up to Xmas and was forced to discount heavily on unsold produce.
The High Street suffred too as Marks & Sparks closed down 23p at 494.5p (down 4.5%) as investors fear some poor figures on Wednesday when the clothes retailer gves us all its Xmas season trading news. Sector peers Next and Debanhams also faired poorly, down 68p at 1,396 and down 4.5p at 71.25p respectively.
Staying with retailers, B&Q owner Kingfisher also slid another 6.5p to close at 123.4, its lowest in several years.
As we reported this morning, phone book distributer Yell received a broker downgrade, closing off 16.5p at just shy of 340.8p.
Also on from this morning, the builders took a hit on fears of a recession. Taylor Wimpey was top of the losers, off 14.2p at 179.7p, whilst Persimmons closed down 41.5p at 683.5. Sector peer Redrow was also off 11p at 286.5, and Bovis down 35p at 739p, with Belways also down 38p at just shy of 735p. Not a good day for the housebuilders.
A couple of positives against the turmoil saw British Energy close up 32.5p at 571p as broker Cazenove continued with its buy stance and raised its target to 730p from 660p. Sector peer Scottish & Southern Energy rose 31p to 1,666 after the company said it will be buying Airtricity, the Irish renewable energy firm for €1.83 bln cash. Brokers gave a 1,635p target.
Other risers included the two Pharma majors, with Glaxo up 45p to close at 1,321 and Astra up 60p to close at 2,170.
Telecoms Emporer Vodafone closed up 2.3p at 188.05 on news of 25% more stores planned for Germany, taking their outlet numbers there to 2,000.
One other in the news today was Autonomy, who closed up 12.5p at 905.25 on broker upgrade after news of some decent deals with major software firms in the US.
By the time London closed at 4.30pm, over in the States the DJI had a rollercoaster start, first down after Bush gave Iran a bit of a warning and then up again as hopes of the Feds cutting interest rates over there again took priority. Regarding the Iran warning, it was relating to an incident invoilving 3 US Navy ships with some of Iran's forces in the Strait of Hormuz. This initially concerned the market, but by the time London closed was back to about 12,845, up about 45 points. The S&P500 was up about 7 points at 1,419 and the Nasdaq up 9 points at 2,513.5.
The hopes of a cut in interest rates to stimulate the recent poor economy in the States was seen as a welcome speculative rumour - almost a presumption. No-one wants a poor year, and it's down to the Governments to help where they can. Or the Bank of England in our case over here as Gordon Brown offloaded that rather important control to the BoE when he found himself incharge of the economy. Let's hope the BoE gives the UK some cheer this month with another 25 point cut in interest rates over here in the UK too.
Back to stocks over here as well - retailers continued to buckle under the pressure with J Sainsbury down 14.5p at 391 as newspaper reports said the supermarket chain had a poor run up to Xmas and was forced to discount heavily on unsold produce.
The High Street suffred too as Marks & Sparks closed down 23p at 494.5p (down 4.5%) as investors fear some poor figures on Wednesday when the clothes retailer gves us all its Xmas season trading news. Sector peers Next and Debanhams also faired poorly, down 68p at 1,396 and down 4.5p at 71.25p respectively.
Staying with retailers, B&Q owner Kingfisher also slid another 6.5p to close at 123.4, its lowest in several years.
As we reported this morning, phone book distributer Yell received a broker downgrade, closing off 16.5p at just shy of 340.8p.
Also on from this morning, the builders took a hit on fears of a recession. Taylor Wimpey was top of the losers, off 14.2p at 179.7p, whilst Persimmons closed down 41.5p at 683.5. Sector peer Redrow was also off 11p at 286.5, and Bovis down 35p at 739p, with Belways also down 38p at just shy of 735p. Not a good day for the housebuilders.
A couple of positives against the turmoil saw British Energy close up 32.5p at 571p as broker Cazenove continued with its buy stance and raised its target to 730p from 660p. Sector peer Scottish & Southern Energy rose 31p to 1,666 after the company said it will be buying Airtricity, the Irish renewable energy firm for €1.83 bln cash. Brokers gave a 1,635p target.
Other risers included the two Pharma majors, with Glaxo up 45p to close at 1,321 and Astra up 60p to close at 2,170.
Telecoms Emporer Vodafone closed up 2.3p at 188.05 on news of 25% more stores planned for Germany, taking their outlet numbers there to 2,000.
One other in the news today was Autonomy, who closed up 12.5p at 905.25 on broker upgrade after news of some decent deals with major software firms in the US.
FTSE & DOW JONES
Well the Indices are certainly taking a small hammering at the moment. Even with an election year, i do wonder if the markets are going to recover that quickly. With Commodities flying and Indexes collapsing there are huge potential profits to be taken as a home trader...
DOW - Well the 50MA has crossed the 200MA which is exceedingly bearish so any retracement back up will be hit with a huge amount of sellers.
FTSE The chart below shows the break of the triangle and today has seen a fall of around 50 points. Interesting times and if we fall below the support at 6,250 we will start seeing 6,000 again pretty quickly...
DOW - Well the 50MA has crossed the 200MA which is exceedingly bearish so any retracement back up will be hit with a huge amount of sellers.
FTSE The chart below shows the break of the triangle and today has seen a fall of around 50 points. Interesting times and if we fall below the support at 6,250 we will start seeing 6,000 again pretty quickly...
Currency Report - Monday 07th January
Good morning and welcome to the midday report...
It's been reasonably quiet today with a lot of currencies finding support after their big falls.
GBPJPY - This currency has had a low of 213.45 and is now trading at 215.60. The main trend is certainly still down but with all trends you have small retracements. The 60minute chart shows the candles breaking the 50 MA for the 1st time in over a week and this is usually a key signal for a possible retracement.
USDJPY has also found support after falling 700 points to 108.00. The Daily Chart is key here and you need to read the candles closely to look for that pull back. The 60 minute chart has also crossed its 50 MA for the 1st time in over a week and we saw a profitable 80 points on the break.
Good luck...If you are interested in my Daily Charting Video's called Market Bytes, please email james at jamesb@mdsmarkets.com ... An email will be sent out to you very shortly explaining all...Have a great day.
It's been reasonably quiet today with a lot of currencies finding support after their big falls.
GBPJPY - This currency has had a low of 213.45 and is now trading at 215.60. The main trend is certainly still down but with all trends you have small retracements. The 60minute chart shows the candles breaking the 50 MA for the 1st time in over a week and this is usually a key signal for a possible retracement.
USDJPY has also found support after falling 700 points to 108.00. The Daily Chart is key here and you need to read the candles closely to look for that pull back. The 60 minute chart has also crossed its 50 MA for the 1st time in over a week and we saw a profitable 80 points on the break.
Good luck...If you are interested in my Daily Charting Video's called Market Bytes, please email james at jamesb@mdsmarkets.com ... An email will be sent out to you very shortly explaining all...Have a great day.
Morning Market, Monday 7th January 2008
The FTSE started the week fairly even, and by 9am was about 5 points down at 6,343.5, although did rise to about 6,370 early doors. The FTSE 250 was down over 100 points at 10,160.
On Friday over in the US, the DJI closed down a worrying 256.54 points, which is a 2% fall in one day, at 12,800.18. The S&P 500 closed down 35.53 at 1,411.63. This could give some concern as we would normally like to see a posiutive, healthy start to the early trading days in the year. The feeling is that the US will rise when it opens, but we'll have to wait and see.
Over here this morning there is some neagative feeling around, mainly in that if we break 6,400 then we'll be looking at pivot points and Fib lines for support levels. Again, let's see what hapens when the US wakes up later on.
In the Far East today the Nikkei 225 closed down 190.86 points at 14,500.55 and in Honk Kong the Hang Seng closed down over 340 points at 27,179.5.
The price of the black stuff is backing off a little, with Light Sweet (Feb delivery) trading down 70c at about US$97.25 bbl. Oil falling back towards this level still didn't put off investors as BP and RD Shell both rose, with rises of 7p to 635p 20p to 2,145 respectively.
Media and press reports this morning paint a poor picture for the banking sector, if all is to beleived, as the papers say that there is worse to come. There is feeling among analysts and big businesses that the credit crunch will hit some more. Rumours that GE Capital may sell its massive store card business diue to worries over how much Joe Public owes on the cards that seem to have been handed out so freely seems to be worrying them too, now.
One positive early on this morning was the troubled bank Northern Rock rose 2p this morning to 86p at RAB Capital, who are continually toping up their holding of the mortgage bank, said that it would cover some of the rights issue that will be offred by the bank. It said it would, togtjher with other third parties, underwrite the rights offer. Other news that the Bank of England may not be pushing for its (our?) £25 bln back so quickly was also talken positively. There's an EGM next Tuesday up in Newcastle, where shareholders will be there in force, we feel. The BoE decision to not push for the repayment of the loan as soon as it should do may take some pressure off the bank for a while, once it sorts out any deal and Rights Issue.
Retailers aren't doing too well, which included the supermarkets this morning. J Sainsbury was down 27p at 378p due to press reports that the supermarket chain didn't hit its Xmas targets. The report said that heavy discounts were given on unsold produce near to Xmas.
Marks & Sparks was down 20p this morning at 497p as investors also feared bad Xmas figures for the high street retailer. M & S will be reporting its Xmas sales figures on Wednesday.
Schroders fell 71p to 1018 on broker downgrade, as fears on the sector were murmured, whilst 'Telephone directory and more' offerer Yell was down 10p this morning at 347p also on broker downgrade.
Fears of a possible recession caused the builders to take a hit as well, as Persimmons were off 22p at 702 amongst other sector peers all in negative territory.
Positives this morning seem to be the Pharmas, with Glaxo up 17p at 1,293 and Shire up 20p at 1,122.
Heavyweight Telphone Emporer Vodafone was up about 2p to just shy of 188p on news of some serious German expansion, by upping its store numbers by another 25%.
On Friday over in the US, the DJI closed down a worrying 256.54 points, which is a 2% fall in one day, at 12,800.18. The S&P 500 closed down 35.53 at 1,411.63. This could give some concern as we would normally like to see a posiutive, healthy start to the early trading days in the year. The feeling is that the US will rise when it opens, but we'll have to wait and see.
Over here this morning there is some neagative feeling around, mainly in that if we break 6,400 then we'll be looking at pivot points and Fib lines for support levels. Again, let's see what hapens when the US wakes up later on.
In the Far East today the Nikkei 225 closed down 190.86 points at 14,500.55 and in Honk Kong the Hang Seng closed down over 340 points at 27,179.5.
The price of the black stuff is backing off a little, with Light Sweet (Feb delivery) trading down 70c at about US$97.25 bbl. Oil falling back towards this level still didn't put off investors as BP and RD Shell both rose, with rises of 7p to 635p 20p to 2,145 respectively.
Media and press reports this morning paint a poor picture for the banking sector, if all is to beleived, as the papers say that there is worse to come. There is feeling among analysts and big businesses that the credit crunch will hit some more. Rumours that GE Capital may sell its massive store card business diue to worries over how much Joe Public owes on the cards that seem to have been handed out so freely seems to be worrying them too, now.
One positive early on this morning was the troubled bank Northern Rock rose 2p this morning to 86p at RAB Capital, who are continually toping up their holding of the mortgage bank, said that it would cover some of the rights issue that will be offred by the bank. It said it would, togtjher with other third parties, underwrite the rights offer. Other news that the Bank of England may not be pushing for its (our?) £25 bln back so quickly was also talken positively. There's an EGM next Tuesday up in Newcastle, where shareholders will be there in force, we feel. The BoE decision to not push for the repayment of the loan as soon as it should do may take some pressure off the bank for a while, once it sorts out any deal and Rights Issue.
Retailers aren't doing too well, which included the supermarkets this morning. J Sainsbury was down 27p at 378p due to press reports that the supermarket chain didn't hit its Xmas targets. The report said that heavy discounts were given on unsold produce near to Xmas.
Marks & Sparks was down 20p this morning at 497p as investors also feared bad Xmas figures for the high street retailer. M & S will be reporting its Xmas sales figures on Wednesday.
Schroders fell 71p to 1018 on broker downgrade, as fears on the sector were murmured, whilst 'Telephone directory and more' offerer Yell was down 10p this morning at 347p also on broker downgrade.
Fears of a possible recession caused the builders to take a hit as well, as Persimmons were off 22p at 702 amongst other sector peers all in negative territory.
Positives this morning seem to be the Pharmas, with Glaxo up 17p at 1,293 and Shire up 20p at 1,122.
Heavyweight Telphone Emporer Vodafone was up about 2p to just shy of 188p on news of some serious German expansion, by upping its store numbers by another 25%.
Friday, 4 January 2008
Market Wrap, Friday 4th January 2008
London did not have such a good day in the end, as the FTSE closed down 130.9 points at 6,348.5. earlier in the day we had reached a high of 6534.7, so we closed some 190 points of the session's peak. The FTSE finished the week down almost 130 points. The FTSE 250 closed down 237.4 points at 10,303.
By the time London closed the DJI had fallen under the 13k level to about 12,893, down about 164 points in its first 2 hours of trading, and the NASDAQ was down about 22 points at 1,425. These were due to the non-farm payroll figures, which showed only 18k more jobs for December, despite this usually being a good month. 70k is what would have been seen as 'nice', say economists.
Back here in London British Airways closed won almost 8p to 302.75 as the airline announced its load factor had fallen by 0.7% to 73.5% for December. It dis add that it carried over 2.5m passengers in December, which was actually up over 1% on last year.
Cairn Energy also had a poor day after it said that it plans to plug the Magnama-1 well in Block 16 off Bangladesh. It closed down 71p lower at 2,876.
A positive today was Carphone Warehouse, who were up nearly 9p at just shy of 340p as it said it was doing well selling the new Apple iPhones. Rumours of Vodafone moving in for a bid were also doing the rounds.
London Stock Exchange fell 125p to 1,854 as general concerns about the financial arena in general took their toll. The US falling below 13,000 was taken badly.
Admiral closed down 32p at 1,068 and Prudential closed down 29p at 685.5 as news that Merrill's were no longer so bullish on the stocks saw investors sell.
Old Mutual closed down 8.8p at 160.5p.
Retailers didn't do very well at all, with Kingfisher down 9.5p at 130.0, Next down another 88p at 1,464 and Home Retail Group down nearly 13p at 288.5 on worries about the public's wallets being empty. DSG also fell another penny to 77p as brokers downgraded the stock (one with a target of 60.5p) due the the company's profit warning yesterday. Goldman Sachs reckoned it had fallen enough, though, and promptly upgraded it to a neutral from a sell.
In the next tier down we saw Halfords fall nearly 8p on broker downgrade, with worries over the satnav market being the main cause.
Land of Leather fell nearly 50% (nearly 55p) to 59p after it warned its full-year profit will be significantly below expectations.
By the time London closed the DJI had fallen under the 13k level to about 12,893, down about 164 points in its first 2 hours of trading, and the NASDAQ was down about 22 points at 1,425. These were due to the non-farm payroll figures, which showed only 18k more jobs for December, despite this usually being a good month. 70k is what would have been seen as 'nice', say economists.
Back here in London British Airways closed won almost 8p to 302.75 as the airline announced its load factor had fallen by 0.7% to 73.5% for December. It dis add that it carried over 2.5m passengers in December, which was actually up over 1% on last year.
Cairn Energy also had a poor day after it said that it plans to plug the Magnama-1 well in Block 16 off Bangladesh. It closed down 71p lower at 2,876.
A positive today was Carphone Warehouse, who were up nearly 9p at just shy of 340p as it said it was doing well selling the new Apple iPhones. Rumours of Vodafone moving in for a bid were also doing the rounds.
London Stock Exchange fell 125p to 1,854 as general concerns about the financial arena in general took their toll. The US falling below 13,000 was taken badly.
Admiral closed down 32p at 1,068 and Prudential closed down 29p at 685.5 as news that Merrill's were no longer so bullish on the stocks saw investors sell.
Old Mutual closed down 8.8p at 160.5p.
Retailers didn't do very well at all, with Kingfisher down 9.5p at 130.0, Next down another 88p at 1,464 and Home Retail Group down nearly 13p at 288.5 on worries about the public's wallets being empty. DSG also fell another penny to 77p as brokers downgraded the stock (one with a target of 60.5p) due the the company's profit warning yesterday. Goldman Sachs reckoned it had fallen enough, though, and promptly upgraded it to a neutral from a sell.
In the next tier down we saw Halfords fall nearly 8p on broker downgrade, with worries over the satnav market being the main cause.
Land of Leather fell nearly 50% (nearly 55p) to 59p after it warned its full-year profit will be significantly below expectations.
Morning Market, Friday 4th January 2008
The FTSE 100 was up about 40 points in its first our of trading this morning at around the 6,520 level.
Last night over the pond Wall Street closed up nearly 13 points at 13,056.72 with everyone having an eye on today's non-farm figures for December. The S&P 500 closed unchanged at 1,447.17, and the Nasdaq closed down nearly 7p at 2,602.68.
Today in the Far East the Nikkei 225 closed down 616.37 points at 14,691.41 (down 4%) as investors worried about the $100 bbl oil price and the weak dollar. This is a 18-month low. Not a nice day after their 4-day holiday, as breaking 15,000 is a psycological blow as well. In Hong Kong the Hang Seng index closed up 632.41 points (nealry 2.5%) at 27,519.69.
Back here in London, Carphone Warehouse was doing well as rumours of US leader Best Buy were sniffing, as were Vodafone, both with an eye on a bid, we hear. The price was up 21p early doors at 352p. The company is also said to be doing a roaring trade in iPhones.
The mining heavyweights were doing ok early on, mainly due to higher commodity prices. Gold was up again too.
Xstrata was up 120p at 3,695 on M&A rumours relating to a Vale takeover. Vedanta was up 75p and Rio was up over a quid at 5,472.
With the Bancio Santander bid still a strong possibility, Alliance & Leicester, was up nealry 20p at 777p. Rumours of a National Australia Bank also sniffing helping the rise.
The oil price was helping BP, who were up nearly 9p early on at 644p, with peer Tullow Oil up 4p at 685. US$100 bbl giving more weight to the oil and gas boys.
Cairn Energy wasn't doing so well, down nearly 30p at 2,918 on news of a well being plugged offshore of Bangladesh.
Last night over the pond Wall Street closed up nearly 13 points at 13,056.72 with everyone having an eye on today's non-farm figures for December. The S&P 500 closed unchanged at 1,447.17, and the Nasdaq closed down nearly 7p at 2,602.68.
Today in the Far East the Nikkei 225 closed down 616.37 points at 14,691.41 (down 4%) as investors worried about the $100 bbl oil price and the weak dollar. This is a 18-month low. Not a nice day after their 4-day holiday, as breaking 15,000 is a psycological blow as well. In Hong Kong the Hang Seng index closed up 632.41 points (nealry 2.5%) at 27,519.69.
Back here in London, Carphone Warehouse was doing well as rumours of US leader Best Buy were sniffing, as were Vodafone, both with an eye on a bid, we hear. The price was up 21p early doors at 352p. The company is also said to be doing a roaring trade in iPhones.
The mining heavyweights were doing ok early on, mainly due to higher commodity prices. Gold was up again too.
Xstrata was up 120p at 3,695 on M&A rumours relating to a Vale takeover. Vedanta was up 75p and Rio was up over a quid at 5,472.
With the Bancio Santander bid still a strong possibility, Alliance & Leicester, was up nealry 20p at 777p. Rumours of a National Australia Bank also sniffing helping the rise.
The oil price was helping BP, who were up nearly 9p early on at 644p, with peer Tullow Oil up 4p at 685. US$100 bbl giving more weight to the oil and gas boys.
Cairn Energy wasn't doing so well, down nearly 30p at 2,918 on news of a well being plugged offshore of Bangladesh.
Currency Report - Friday 04th January
Well the figures have been posted and we have seen $ weakness all round. Non Farm Report was very weak and far fewer jobs were being created than expected. The unemployment figure came in 0.2% worse than expected at 5.0%, so overall a bad day for the $. On the back of the reasonable figures in the UK this am we should see some strength in the GBP but its all about choosing your currency pair.
I have found today a little messy and fundamentals are one thing but if the charts don't match your strategy it is very difficult to trade.
USDJPY - This currency has been falling from 114.00 and i traded a triangle break (with the trend) at 109.00. We are now trading at 108.45...
GBPUSD - This currency has been tempting me all day but i couldn't find the correct entry level. This game is about risk to reward and the pair didn't fit my structure. The daily chart is very bearish but the 60 min is still below the 200 MA which makes it very hard for me to go long here with weak $ figures. I am going to be patient and wait for a break which could happen next week. It is very important to stay out at the right times!!!
GBPJPY - Again the GBPJPY daily chart has been in free fall since 227.00. We are now 1,300 points lower and it is very important to remember the trend in this example. The 15 minute showed the break at 09.30am on the upside but i was well aware of the 200MA steaming down upon me so i didn't take the trade. Take a look at how it hit the 216.80 resistance level and then started to turn. Now this is the trade to take with a stop above the 200MA at 217.50. The currency has now resumed its strong daily trend and we are now trading at 213.95 with the main trend...
I can't over state how important the Daily chart is and to only work off the Intraday charts for an entry level...
I have found today a little messy and fundamentals are one thing but if the charts don't match your strategy it is very difficult to trade.
USDJPY - This currency has been falling from 114.00 and i traded a triangle break (with the trend) at 109.00. We are now trading at 108.45...
GBPUSD - This currency has been tempting me all day but i couldn't find the correct entry level. This game is about risk to reward and the pair didn't fit my structure. The daily chart is very bearish but the 60 min is still below the 200 MA which makes it very hard for me to go long here with weak $ figures. I am going to be patient and wait for a break which could happen next week. It is very important to stay out at the right times!!!
GBPJPY - Again the GBPJPY daily chart has been in free fall since 227.00. We are now 1,300 points lower and it is very important to remember the trend in this example. The 15 minute showed the break at 09.30am on the upside but i was well aware of the 200MA steaming down upon me so i didn't take the trade. Take a look at how it hit the 216.80 resistance level and then started to turn. Now this is the trade to take with a stop above the 200MA at 217.50. The currency has now resumed its strong daily trend and we are now trading at 213.95 with the main trend...
I can't over state how important the Daily chart is and to only work off the Intraday charts for an entry level...
Last night's Indicies News, Friday 4th January
The Nikkei closed 616.37 points lower at 14,691.41 which is 4.03% down for the day. It seems investors are concerned over the strong yen and high oil prices...
Large companies like Sony and Nissan took a tumble due to export fears to the states. This is a huge market for them and if the US falls into a recession the rest of the world's exports will suffer...
It is a big day for Economic Alerts and so far the Eur PMI has come in at as expected. The market will probably remain quiet until NonFarm employment rate at 1.30pm and this will give a key indication on how weak the US economy is at the moment. GBP PMI and reserves figure came out better than expected and hence why GBP has jumped 50 points in the last 10 minutes...
There are fears in the UK that the global credit crunch will worsen as defaults on mortgage payments continue to rise. This will put renewed pressure on the Bank of England to reduce rates and assist home owners.
The FTSE has had a good run this morning and is up 40 points with support off its 20 and 50 moving average on the daily. The 60 minute chart shows the retracement indicators coming in perfectly yesterday and we are now trading above 6,500.
The Dow daily chart shows the large triangle from march 2007 and the estimated major support line is at around 12,800 from the chart. If it falls out of the triangle i can only presume we will start seeing 12,000 again...
FX Report will be out after Non Farm Payroll later today.
Large companies like Sony and Nissan took a tumble due to export fears to the states. This is a huge market for them and if the US falls into a recession the rest of the world's exports will suffer...
It is a big day for Economic Alerts and so far the Eur PMI has come in at as expected. The market will probably remain quiet until NonFarm employment rate at 1.30pm and this will give a key indication on how weak the US economy is at the moment. GBP PMI and reserves figure came out better than expected and hence why GBP has jumped 50 points in the last 10 minutes...
There are fears in the UK that the global credit crunch will worsen as defaults on mortgage payments continue to rise. This will put renewed pressure on the Bank of England to reduce rates and assist home owners.
The FTSE has had a good run this morning and is up 40 points with support off its 20 and 50 moving average on the daily. The 60 minute chart shows the retracement indicators coming in perfectly yesterday and we are now trading above 6,500.
The Dow daily chart shows the large triangle from march 2007 and the estimated major support line is at around 12,800 from the chart. If it falls out of the triangle i can only presume we will start seeing 12,000 again...
FX Report will be out after Non Farm Payroll later today.
Thursday, 3 January 2008
Market Wrap, Thursday 3rd January 2008
The FTSE closed up 62.7 points today at 6,479.4, with the FTSE 250 closing down 109.8 points at 10,540.9.
The bigger stocks did well today, with the commodities also doing well, helping the mining sector especially.
Over the pond the US started its day quite well as the report of higher new jobs figures for Dec gave everyone a positive attitude for once (!). By the London shut up shop the DJI was up about 52 points at 13,096, whilst the S&P 500 was up nearly 6 points at 1,453 and the Nasdaq up a point at 2,611.
Back here in London the retailers took a pasting today, as a poor Xmas seemed to be the norm for the sector. Next closed down a massive 110p at 1,556 (down 6.6% on the day) despite promising figures for year end 26 January 2008 being at the £500m mark, which is about expectations, actually. Peer DSG closed down 28.8p at 78.5p, down an astonishing 26.8% after it announced profits would be down £40m - £50m for the year after a poor Xmas.
Bank Alliance & Leicester had Merrill Lynch singing positive songs, closing up 5p at 759p. This after the news yesterday that Banco Santander were moving back in for another improved bid. There would be some profit taking expected, we'd say, as it has run very quickly since the market opened again after New Year.
2nd tier Pharma Skyepharma said a one-off $2m payment plus a few % free-carry ongoing royalty would be coming its way after the US Food & Drug Administration approved its new Sular blood pressure treatment formulation dosage strengths.
The bigger stocks did well today, with the commodities also doing well, helping the mining sector especially.
Over the pond the US started its day quite well as the report of higher new jobs figures for Dec gave everyone a positive attitude for once (!). By the London shut up shop the DJI was up about 52 points at 13,096, whilst the S&P 500 was up nearly 6 points at 1,453 and the Nasdaq up a point at 2,611.
Back here in London the retailers took a pasting today, as a poor Xmas seemed to be the norm for the sector. Next closed down a massive 110p at 1,556 (down 6.6% on the day) despite promising figures for year end 26 January 2008 being at the £500m mark, which is about expectations, actually. Peer DSG closed down 28.8p at 78.5p, down an astonishing 26.8% after it announced profits would be down £40m - £50m for the year after a poor Xmas.
Bank Alliance & Leicester had Merrill Lynch singing positive songs, closing up 5p at 759p. This after the news yesterday that Banco Santander were moving back in for another improved bid. There would be some profit taking expected, we'd say, as it has run very quickly since the market opened again after New Year.
2nd tier Pharma Skyepharma said a one-off $2m payment plus a few % free-carry ongoing royalty would be coming its way after the US Food & Drug Administration approved its new Sular blood pressure treatment formulation dosage strengths.
Currency Report - Thursday 03rd January @ 12.00
Back again...The currency report will be coming out at midday from now on.
I have been itching to get back to my desk and start Intraday trading again. Longer positions in Gold and Oil look after themselves but there always seems to be a buzz sitting at your desk, ready and waiting for the London opening. I was up at 3am drawing all my chart patterns and waiting for those breakouts today...
I will be offering a chart service in the next couple of weeks where i will email you all my patterns on every London opening, showing you all the breakouts for the day before they happen. You will also be able to watch a daily market wrap video in the afternoon of me trading and showing you how to trade these breakouts. If you are seriously keen on improving your trading and increasing your profits, then this chart service might be for you. I will teach you how to trade 12 different currencies, 3 indices and the Gold and Oil market, which is definitely enough to make yourself a very comfortable living. We will let you know in the next week or two...
Well it's definitely been a weak GBP day and we have seen 3 breakouts on london opening...
GBPUSD - The low of yesterday was 1.9772 so sell orders were triggered at 1.9770 for a quick 50 points, with a low just before the figure at 1.9710...
GBPJPY - The low of yesterday was 216.38 and sell orders were triggered below 216.00. We are now trading below 214.50 for over 150 points...
GBPCAD - An ascending triangle formed and i was looking for a potential break either way. With GBP weak across the board, the currency was definitely struggling at 1.9700 with a pullback of 100 points to the 200MA.
Not a bad day and you can often be finished now by trading the london Market. Will let you know about the chart service in the next week or so. Speak tomorrow...
I have been itching to get back to my desk and start Intraday trading again. Longer positions in Gold and Oil look after themselves but there always seems to be a buzz sitting at your desk, ready and waiting for the London opening. I was up at 3am drawing all my chart patterns and waiting for those breakouts today...
I will be offering a chart service in the next couple of weeks where i will email you all my patterns on every London opening, showing you all the breakouts for the day before they happen. You will also be able to watch a daily market wrap video in the afternoon of me trading and showing you how to trade these breakouts. If you are seriously keen on improving your trading and increasing your profits, then this chart service might be for you. I will teach you how to trade 12 different currencies, 3 indices and the Gold and Oil market, which is definitely enough to make yourself a very comfortable living. We will let you know in the next week or two...
Well it's definitely been a weak GBP day and we have seen 3 breakouts on london opening...
GBPUSD - The low of yesterday was 1.9772 so sell orders were triggered at 1.9770 for a quick 50 points, with a low just before the figure at 1.9710...
GBPJPY - The low of yesterday was 216.38 and sell orders were triggered below 216.00. We are now trading below 214.50 for over 150 points...
GBPCAD - An ascending triangle formed and i was looking for a potential break either way. With GBP weak across the board, the currency was definitely struggling at 1.9700 with a pullback of 100 points to the 200MA.
Not a bad day and you can often be finished now by trading the london Market. Will let you know about the chart service in the next week or so. Speak tomorrow...
Morning Market, Thurs 3rd January 2008 - 10am
Good morning everyone and I hope you are all well. I look and feel like I have eaten 3 turkeys and 127 sausages over this period and i have promised myself to only eat soups and smoothies for the next month.
Well the markets have certainly been entertaining us over the break and Commodity prices have continued to strengthen which is great news for all you long term traders out there.
GOLD - Take a look at the retracement indicators last week and the week before at around $800.00 oz. We are now trading at over $865.00 oz which is a telling sign of the concerns ahead in the stock market. Look how the price holds the 20MA and 50 MA..
OIL - I have been talking about US Crude for a while now and i mentioned a while ago to get rid of those 4x4 cars and buy Oil on any dips. Well we have finally hit that famous $100.00. I mentioned strike prices being sold well above $100.00 so hold onto your seats. The daily chart shows the longer term trend but look at the breakout of the channel on early wednesday morning for a 350 point move...
Fundamentally the violence in Nigeria, Algeria and Pakistan, the weak US Dollar and the threat of cold weather have all had an effect on the price of crude. With crude higher the equity markets have dropped and the safe haven of Gold has surged on. The problems ahead have to lie with Inflation and with central banks trying to cut interest rates to stimulate growth, Inflation really could get out of control...
The Dow Jones closed down 220 points at -1.7% for the day, closing at 13,043.96, whilst the S&P 500 closed down 21.2 points at 1,447.16 and the Nasdaq closed down 42.65 at 2,609.63.
Not a good start to the year as a whole but great for us day traders as we can take huge advantage over these markets. Oil hitting the $100 bbl level frightened everyone too, it seems.
By 9am this morning the FTSE was down about 5 points at 6,411.5 after opening up 35 points higher.
In the Far East the Nikkei is still closed as the Japanese enjoy a longer break than we had, and in Hong Kong the Hang Seng was about 670 points lower at 26,885.
Back here in London the retail sector was taking some stick as DSG warned that its year end figures will be down some £40m-£50m as its Xmas was so poor. Peer Next saw its shares fall early on, down 60p to 1,606 despite trying to reassure everyone with a ~£500m year end pre-tax profit for 26Jan08. Broker downgrade followed.
Other retailers also fell, with Home Retail Group dropping 25p to 295p, Marks & Sparks doen 11p at 549p and Kingfisher down about 7p at 140p.
Turning to the upside, commodity issues dominated the leaderboard amid rising commodity prices with oil trading above 100 usd a barrel for the first time ever.
Persimmon shares were down 25p at 758p on poor feeing on the sector in general.
Oil at $100 bbl helped Tullow Oil, who were up 15p at 660p. Heavyweights BP and RD Sheel were up 6p to 623 and 15p to 2,112 respectively.
The miners also did ok, with Anto up 7p at 717p, Vedanta up 22p at 2,101, Rio up 26p at 5,281 and Xstrata up 46 at 3,508.
Alliance & Leicester was up another 7p this monring at 761p as Merrils gave it an upgrade following the Banco Santander news yesterday. The Spanish bank, which already owns Abbey, looks like moving back in for A & L with a higher offer.
FX to follow at midday...
Well the markets have certainly been entertaining us over the break and Commodity prices have continued to strengthen which is great news for all you long term traders out there.
GOLD - Take a look at the retracement indicators last week and the week before at around $800.00 oz. We are now trading at over $865.00 oz which is a telling sign of the concerns ahead in the stock market. Look how the price holds the 20MA and 50 MA..
OIL - I have been talking about US Crude for a while now and i mentioned a while ago to get rid of those 4x4 cars and buy Oil on any dips. Well we have finally hit that famous $100.00. I mentioned strike prices being sold well above $100.00 so hold onto your seats. The daily chart shows the longer term trend but look at the breakout of the channel on early wednesday morning for a 350 point move...
Fundamentally the violence in Nigeria, Algeria and Pakistan, the weak US Dollar and the threat of cold weather have all had an effect on the price of crude. With crude higher the equity markets have dropped and the safe haven of Gold has surged on. The problems ahead have to lie with Inflation and with central banks trying to cut interest rates to stimulate growth, Inflation really could get out of control...
The Dow Jones closed down 220 points at -1.7% for the day, closing at 13,043.96, whilst the S&P 500 closed down 21.2 points at 1,447.16 and the Nasdaq closed down 42.65 at 2,609.63.
Not a good start to the year as a whole but great for us day traders as we can take huge advantage over these markets. Oil hitting the $100 bbl level frightened everyone too, it seems.
By 9am this morning the FTSE was down about 5 points at 6,411.5 after opening up 35 points higher.
In the Far East the Nikkei is still closed as the Japanese enjoy a longer break than we had, and in Hong Kong the Hang Seng was about 670 points lower at 26,885.
Back here in London the retail sector was taking some stick as DSG warned that its year end figures will be down some £40m-£50m as its Xmas was so poor. Peer Next saw its shares fall early on, down 60p to 1,606 despite trying to reassure everyone with a ~£500m year end pre-tax profit for 26Jan08. Broker downgrade followed.
Other retailers also fell, with Home Retail Group dropping 25p to 295p, Marks & Sparks doen 11p at 549p and Kingfisher down about 7p at 140p.
Turning to the upside, commodity issues dominated the leaderboard amid rising commodity prices with oil trading above 100 usd a barrel for the first time ever.
Persimmon shares were down 25p at 758p on poor feeing on the sector in general.
Oil at $100 bbl helped Tullow Oil, who were up 15p at 660p. Heavyweights BP and RD Sheel were up 6p to 623 and 15p to 2,112 respectively.
The miners also did ok, with Anto up 7p at 717p, Vedanta up 22p at 2,101, Rio up 26p at 5,281 and Xstrata up 46 at 3,508.
Alliance & Leicester was up another 7p this monring at 761p as Merrils gave it an upgrade following the Banco Santander news yesterday. The Spanish bank, which already owns Abbey, looks like moving back in for A & L with a higher offer.
FX to follow at midday...
Wednesday, 2 January 2008
Market Wrap, Wednesday 2nd January 2008
The FTSE closed its first day back at work for the New Year at 6,416.7, down some 40.2 points, but had been up about 60 points earlier in the day. The day's low was 6,402.6, with all the fall coming aftre the US opened and fell. The FTSE 250 closed down 7.1 points at 10,650.7.
By the time we were shutting up shop over here, over in the US the DJI was down nearly 150 points at 13,116 in its first 2 hours of trading. The S&P 500 was down about 15 points at 1,453 and the Nasdaq was down about 33 points at 2,619.
Back here in London Alliance & Leicester had a wonderful day - up 106p at 754p, which is about 16.5% rise on the day. This was due to reports that Banco Santander, who already own Abbey, were looking at a possible takeover for the UK bank. Press reports said that the previous negotiations, which were ceased a month ago due to disagreements on valuation, could soon be back on with a more relaxed stance on the price. It is no secret that the Spanish bank wants to grow via acquisitions in the UK.
RAB Capital, the Hedge Fund, seems to think there is still value in Northern Rock as it said it had raised its stake to 7.9% from 7.1%.
High Street retailer Next closed up 45p at 1,669, which wasn't what everyone expected, as they had a better Xmas than everyone assumed. Sector peer Marks & Spencer closed up 4p at 564p after Goldman Sachs said the retail chain would be the Xmas winner of the sector. The broker also played down the sector for 2008, though.
Bookies didn't do so well today, with Ladbrokes down 7.25p at 316 and William Hill down 25p at just under 5-quid a share. News that racing TV firm TurfTV had reached an agreement with ladbrokes to show its channels was seen as a loss for the bookies as they prefer to show their own channels in their shops. William Hill will more than likely follow, with a broker downgrade following the TurfTV deal with Ladbrokes being announced.
By the time we were shutting up shop over here, over in the US the DJI was down nearly 150 points at 13,116 in its first 2 hours of trading. The S&P 500 was down about 15 points at 1,453 and the Nasdaq was down about 33 points at 2,619.
Back here in London Alliance & Leicester had a wonderful day - up 106p at 754p, which is about 16.5% rise on the day. This was due to reports that Banco Santander, who already own Abbey, were looking at a possible takeover for the UK bank. Press reports said that the previous negotiations, which were ceased a month ago due to disagreements on valuation, could soon be back on with a more relaxed stance on the price. It is no secret that the Spanish bank wants to grow via acquisitions in the UK.
RAB Capital, the Hedge Fund, seems to think there is still value in Northern Rock as it said it had raised its stake to 7.9% from 7.1%.
High Street retailer Next closed up 45p at 1,669, which wasn't what everyone expected, as they had a better Xmas than everyone assumed. Sector peer Marks & Spencer closed up 4p at 564p after Goldman Sachs said the retail chain would be the Xmas winner of the sector. The broker also played down the sector for 2008, though.
Bookies didn't do so well today, with Ladbrokes down 7.25p at 316 and William Hill down 25p at just under 5-quid a share. News that racing TV firm TurfTV had reached an agreement with ladbrokes to show its channels was seen as a loss for the bookies as they prefer to show their own channels in their shops. William Hill will more than likely follow, with a broker downgrade following the TurfTV deal with Ladbrokes being announced.
FTSE Finishes 2007 up 3.8% on the Year
Well, another year gone. Looking back we can all smile in the MDS office - it has been an excellent one on the trading front. There are a couple of trades that stood out, including the long Gold call back at the start of last year. I recall everyone looking with their mouths open when we called $840 an ounce back in January last year. Yes, $840 an ounce. Not a bad forecast.
For those who may be interested, we worked it out that the FTSE rose about 3.8% over the year in 2007. That includes that terrible mini-crash late summer time, too.
As for 2008, we can expect Cable to come under some pressure, we think, as the pound weakens. The US is still not complete with its problems, but there is more downside here we feel, as interest rates look like being trimmed again. We could possibly see cycling on USD-GBP, down to $1.90 and up to $2.10 - a volotile year with Cable-Dollar, we feel, as things pan out.
What do we think for this year...? We think not such a good first half but alot more stability in the 2nd half.
What we do know is, no matter what it does we can still trade!
May we take this opportunity to wish all subscribers the very best for 2008, and may it be a very sucessful year for you all.
Anyway - we shall repeat - all the best for 2008!
For those who may be interested, we worked it out that the FTSE rose about 3.8% over the year in 2007. That includes that terrible mini-crash late summer time, too.
As for 2008, we can expect Cable to come under some pressure, we think, as the pound weakens. The US is still not complete with its problems, but there is more downside here we feel, as interest rates look like being trimmed again. We could possibly see cycling on USD-GBP, down to $1.90 and up to $2.10 - a volotile year with Cable-Dollar, we feel, as things pan out.
What do we think for this year...? We think not such a good first half but alot more stability in the 2nd half.
What we do know is, no matter what it does we can still trade!
May we take this opportunity to wish all subscribers the very best for 2008, and may it be a very sucessful year for you all.
Anyway - we shall repeat - all the best for 2008!
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