| Five things about rogue traders
One of the world's major banks, Societe Generale, said Thursday that an employee lost more than $7 billion in a year of secret trading. The trader, Jerome Kerviel, had to circumvent at least five layers of risk-control systems as he matched each of his investments of the bank's money in European stock futures with fictitious ones, according to the Toronto Star. .
From East to West, panic grips the world’s investors
After the carnage on global markets on Black Monday, Japan and Australia were the first powerhouse economies to see the dawn of Tuesday morning. While American markets had taken Monday off for Martin Luther King Day, the panic gripping global markets had continued to wreak havoc.
Yesterday, as US traders slept, the bloody trading began anew on the other side of the world. By midnight GMT Australia’s markets had been open an hour. Investors’ rush for the door crashed the website of the country’s leading online share broker, CommSec, as the market started an immediate downward spiral. The stock market’s fall of nearly 3 per cent on Monday looked timid as it raced towards its biggest one-day slide in 20 years. Hans Kunnen, the head of investment markets research for Colonial First State, said: "Judging by the mood of the market today, the bears are certainly winning."
However, what the Asian markets did not know, as they started their downward spiral, was that in America the members of the Federal Reserve were calling each other.
Starbucks Axes Sandwiches As Part of Fix
The company's stock is down about 50 percent since late 2006, when it was trading close to $40 a share.
Sharon Zackfia, an analyst with investment firm William Blair & Co., said the lackluster quarter came as no surprise. "I think an investor would have had to be living in a cave not to know that the December quarter was bad for the majority of retailers," she said.
As part of a broad push to revitalize its business, the company said it plans to open about 425 fewer domestic stores and 75 more overseas than previously planned, for a global total of 2,150 new stores. Starbucks has more than 15,700 worldwide.
Schultz said the slowdown in U.S. growth will allow the company to make better use of its time, money and staff and could reduce "cannibalization" -- easing pressure some stores experience when a new one opens nearby.
Wall St set to start higher
US STOCK index futures pointed to a higher market open as investors bet the Federal Reserve would cut interest rates. Shares of several big US banks, including Citigroup and Bank of America, rose in European trading. "The anticipation of a rate cut is putting in a floor under the financial stocks and moving many of them higher in Europe as rate cuts generally help the financial sector of the market," said Paul Mendelsohn, chief investment strategist at Windham Financial Services in Charlotte, Vermont. Fed funds futures are pricing in a quarter point cut in the benchmark rate to 4.5 per cent. Markets were rattled on Tuesday, however, after the Wall Street Journal's Fed watcher wrote a cut was not a "sure thing." "Any surprises could quickly move things off centre," Mr Mendelsohn said.
Tempus analysis: Cold shoulder
Mike Ashley has spent considerable time and energy trying to bring back the passion at Newcastle United. With Kevin Keegan in place, he’d be well advised to concentrate on doing the same in the City for Sports Direct. Panmure Gordon remarks that some analysts seem to have given up covering the stock, while at Merrill Lynch, the investment bank that floated the business, Sports Direct is one of its least preferred retail stocks. Today’s trading update from the company had little to interest the investment community. There was yet again scant information on trading, and no prior year comparatives nor growth rates for investors to digest. Sports Direct has encouragingly stuck to earnings guidance given before Christmas but joined the list of retailers warning that trading is likely to get tougher.
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