Banks

NYSE Euronext has welcomed BTG Pactual on NYSE Euronext’s regulated market in Amsterdam. BTG Pactual (NYSE:BTGP) was listed on NYSE Euronext Amsterdam through the admission of 198,511,396 European units following a transfer from NYSE Alternext. Each European unit represents one common share and two Series A preferred shares of Banco BTG Pactual S.A. in the […]

Banking on a booming economy? Business confidence in the economy increased to the highest level since 2002 according to the Lloyds Bank (LSE:LLOY) Business Confidence Barometer. More than two thirds (68 per cent) of companies surveyed said that they were more optimistic about how the economy would fare compared with three months ago. The net […]

Pound Sterling The Pound began the week softer against the Euro after Angela Merkel won a landslide victory in the German elections. The result was seen as a positive for stability in Europe and sent the Euro slightly higher against Sterling. Disappointing economic data releases for the UK and negative comments from a Bank of […]

A number of years ago I was privileged to work alongside a recently retired U.S. Army “Bird Colonel.”  Had he not retired, his next rank would have been Major General.  I consider him one of my mentors.  Perhaps the greatest lesson that he taught me was that, “You do not have to fight every battle. […]

Pound Sterling While the Pound began the week trading in the region of multi-month highs against both the US Dollar and Euro, the British asset broadly softened on Thursday as an unexpected decline in UK retail sales dented investor confidence in the nation’s economic recovery. To ask a currency expert a question direct, click HERE […]

I was pondering the ups and downs of the FTSE 100 this morning as I was reading headlines from a couple of dozen newspapers.  One source said that waiting for this month’s imminent U.S. Federal Reserve announcement was holding the FTSE down.  Another said that the FTSE will reach 8,000.  The problem was that it […]

The share price of Lloyds Banking Group (LSE:LLOY) declined by 2.88% at midday from its closing price yesterday of 77.36.  The shares are currently trading at 75.13.  This is not a bad thing, considering that the price is holding slightly above the 75 pence that institutional investors spent per share yesterday as the government sold […]

Summer has come and is almost gone.  Larry Summers, on the other hand has already come and gone.  I understand how the end of Summer affect the entire planet, but I am somewhat in the dark as to how the end of Summers is cited as the almost singular reason for world markets to be […]

The share price of Morrison (WM) Supermarkets (LSE:MRW) led the FTSE this morning, rising from 294.oo at yesterday’s close to to 312.00 minutes after 9:00 am.  The MRW share price remains up 3.06% at 13:20 today, an increase of 9.10 pence to 306.30. The investor response followed the release of Morrison’s first half results and […]

Every evening Americans turn on their TV’s to catch up on the news of the day.  Among the top five headlines of the day, there is inevitably something like this:  “The Dow Jones Industrial Average was up 32 points today on news that . . .”  For the average American, that’s the most attention that […]