May Day celebrations
14 May 2012 [0 Comments | 4 views]
On the first of May, the day when the great spring sale is supposed to begin, the Dow Jones hit a four year high. If that simple fact is not on its own a sign that the markets are ready for another one of those spring time sell-offs it is hard to think of what [...]
Are markets riding into the valley of death?
14 May 2012 [0 Comments | 4 views]
There is a well knowing saying in investment circles ‘sell in May and go away’. The idea is that during the heady days of spring and summer, trading is thin on the ground, and so with less activity, freak results are more likely to occur. At least that’s one of the explanations.
Sterling rises on Hollande victory
8 May 2012 [0 Comments | 1 views]
Something odd happened with the markets over the last weekend and during the UK bank holiday Monday. Sterling hit its highest value relative to the euro since October 2008. Against the dollar its run wasn’t quite so good, but even so at 1.6118 at the time of writing, it is not far off a nine [...]
Scientists give food warning
26 Jan 2011 [1 Comment | 11 views]
A new report compiled by taking the views of 400 people apparently in the know and from across the world, should be enough to scare the willies out of you. The report is called The Future of Food and Farming, and was put together by the Government Office for Science in London. It pretty much [...]
Cost of food set to escalate, but is this crisis what it seems?
6 Jan 2011 [0 Comments | 338 views]
According to data out from the UN, global food prices hit a new all-time high in December. The Guardian and the Independent were full of woe on the news, warning that prices are now higher than their levels in 2008 when we saw rioting across the world. The Guardian quoted Abdolreza Abbassian, an economist at [...]
Equities: what happened in 2010
5 Jan 2011 [0 Comments | 198 views]
There is not much to say here. We thought this was one of those occasions when a nice simple table says it all: This is what key indices, commodities and currencies did in 2010. 31 Dec 2009 31 Dec 2010 Percentage change FTSE 100 5,412.88 5,899.94 9.00 Dow 10,428.05 11,577.50 11.02 NASDAQ 2,269.15 2,652.87 [...]
Gold: arch bears turn to bulls – is the barbarous relic set to move even higher?
22 Dec 2010 [1 Comment | 526 views]
For quite a while Capital Economics have been bears on gold. As of this week that has changed, with the consultancy now forecasting that the pretty yellow metal could reach $2,000. Mind you, contrarians argue that the time to buy is when the most bullish of investors has turned bearish, and the time to sell [...]
FTSE set to achieve new record next year, but housing market to be flat – early forecasts for 2011 roll in
17 Dec 2010 [0 Comments | 479 views]
It’s that time of the year when predictions start rolling in. Here are a couple of good ones. Gavin Oldham at The Share Centre reckons the FTSE 100 will hit a new all-time high next year, and the Council of Mortgage Lenders sees sharp falls in mortgage borrowing and a rise in mortgages in arrears [...]
Peak oil has already arrived
19 Nov 2010 [1 Comment | 882 views]
Yesterday, it was told here how the UK Industry Taskforce on Peak Oil and Energy Security (ITPOES) has predicted that peak oil, that’s that point when global output of oil starts to peak, is less than ten years away and could even occur during the lifetime of this government. Well, just a few hours later [...]
Peak oil is less than a decade away
18 Nov 2010 [3 Comments | 1,721 views]
Peak oil is meant to describe that future time when the supply of oil goes into permanent decline. It’s the date some fear; others dismiss it, saying it’s a very long way off indeed. But both sides of the peak oil debate agree on one thing. The day it arrives will be a bleak day. [...]
