Commodities staff slashed at JPMorgan July 22, 2010 JPMORGAN has made around 50 commodities traders around the world redundant as a result of its takeover of Royal Bank of Scotland’s Sempra Commodities, a source said yesterday. The American bank closed the $1.6bn (£1bn) purchase of RBS Sempra earlier this month. It inherited the Scottish institution’s share of a joint venture (JV) with US-based [...]
BEST OF THE BROKERS July 11, 2010 WILLIAM HILL Bank of America Merrill Lynch (BoAML) has upgraded William Hill to a “buy” rating and said it believes that the stock is high quality and at good value. Strong trends online and improvement in machines are key catalysts for 2010, according to BoAML, which said that execution risk is believed to be low. [...]
Firms’ sanctions compliance must be tightened up August 31, 2010 FINANCIAL regulation reform is all the rage. Last week, President Nicolas Sarkozy unveiled his programme of “action and ambition” for France’s forthcoming presidency of the G20. It puts global reform of financial markets and systems at the very top of the agenda. The US has already passed sweeping reform legislation and the coalition government has [...]
BEST OF THE BROKERS July 12, 2010 GLAXOSMITHKLINE Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS) has given GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) a “buy” rating and said that it believes that the drug company is returning to sales growth in 2010 on an underlying basis, excluding pandemic flu sales. RBS has made some minor adjustments to its sales and costs forecasts ahead of GSK’s second quarter results. [...]
Eurozone pain eases profits at Santander July 29, 2010 SPANISH banking giant Santander yesterday unveiled a year-on-year fall in first-half profits, stung by a weak performance in the crisis-hit Eurozone and another hike in the amount it put aside to cover bad loans. Net attributable profit over the first six months of the year slumped 1.6 per cent to €4.45bn (£3.73bn), dragged down by [...]
Eurozone pain eases profits at Santander July 29, 2010 SPANISH banking giant Santander yesterday unveiled a year-on-year fall in first-half profits, stung by a weak performance in the crisis-hit Eurozone and another hike in the amount it put aside to cover bad loans. Net attributable profit over the first six months of the year slumped 1.6 per cent to €4.45bn (£3.73bn), dragged down by [...]
PERSONAL FINANCE NEWS August 19, 2010 LOYALTY DOESN’T ALWAYS PAY Shopping around for a cheaper quote for your car insurance really does pay off, according to research from Which?, the independent product-testing and consumer campaigning champion. It surveyed nearly 2,500 consumers and found that more than a third accepted their original car insurers’ renewal quotes because they “couldn’t be bothered to [...]
Q&A: THE GOLDMAN SETTLEMENT July 15, 2010 Q.WHAT DOES THIS MEAN FOR OTHER BANKS? A.For any bank that already has a pending SEC investigation, it could open the door to more settlements. However, there is some speculation that it could also pave the way for further SEC investigations and action by US federal prosecutors. Q.WHAT DOES THIS MEAN FOR GOLDMAN TRADER FABRICE [...]
More steam left in the bond rally August 22, 2010 IT’S A case of how low they can go for bond yields. After another week marked by disappointing jobs and manufacturing data in the US, investors ploughed into the relative safety of government debt, pushing yields to record lows. But is this an opportunity for spread betters? While it’s true that bonds have been in [...]
More steam left in the bond rally August 22, 2010 IT’S A case of how low they can go for bond yields. After another week marked by disappointing jobs and manufacturing data in the US, investors ploughed into the relative safety of government debt, pushing yields to record lows. But is this an opportunity for spread betters? While it’s true that bonds have been in [...]