Banks

How about Really Bad Service?  How about Run by Blokes with no Scruples?  Or Riddled By Scandals?  Or, for the more sophisticated, Robbery by Sophism?  Or, synonymously, Royal Bank of Scotland (LSE:RBS). RBS is a glowing example of the conflict between ethics & morals on the one hand and revenues & profits on the other. […]

Mike van Dulken, Head of Research at Accendo Markets, commented in his Weekly Roundup to clients, Something different this week. Well, kind of. We’re halfway through November meaning just 5 shopping weeks until the big day. It also means market observers such as myself are busy updating their annual Santa Rally research showing off their […]

Lloyds Banking Group (LSE:LLOY) share price is currently trading 78.19 pence, down slightly from the 80 pence mark it had reached at Friday’s close.  The share price has been climbing steadily through this calendar year, in effect, doubling in value from one year ago.  If the share price continues to remain above 73.6 pence for […]

When I settle in to my office on a typical morning, Londoners have already had lunch and are ready for afternoon tea.  This sometimes works to my advantage, when I manage to catch the late-breaking stories.  At other times, I feel like I have been left with the scraps left over from my prolific colleagues, […]

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 […]