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Showing posts with label ahead. Show all posts
Showing posts with label ahead. Show all posts
Tuesday, March 1, 2011
Friday, February 25, 2011
Calm returns to European markets ahead of weekend (AFP)
LONDON (AFP) – European stock rose on Friday as some calm returned to global financial markets after a rocky week driven by Middle East fears while London resumed trading after a technical glitch closed the bourse for the morning.
In early afternoon deals, the Paris CAC 40 was up 1.21 percent to 4,058.22 points and Frankfurt's DAX 30 added 0.39 percent to 7,158.27 points.
London's FTSE 100 index of top shares rose 0.86 percent to 5,971.18 points, having reopened at 12H15 GMT following an outage which halted trading for more than four hours.
Markets suffered heavy losses earlier this week as investors flocked to the safe-haven Swiss franc and yen amid violent unrest in Libya that sent oil prices rocketing close to $120 per barrel.
"A little bit of calm descends on the markets," said research director Kathleen Brooks at online trading site Forex.com on Friday.
"After taking a battering this week, risky assets are getting a little respite today. Stocks are higher, the (Swiss franc) and yen are off their highs and the dollar ... is finding support."
In foreign exchange trade, the European single currency edged up to $1.3808 from $1.3797 late Thursday as traders also bet on rising interest rates to combat building inflationary pressures in the eurozone.
London's technical glitch, meanwhile, followed similar outages in both Milan and Paris earlier this week, and comes amid a fast-moving flow of company earnings and economic data against a backdrop of nerves over the unrest in Libya.
"At a time of uncertainty in the markets, where traders are having to keep on their toes with the situation in Libya, the last thing they need is an unexpected halt to trading," City Index analyst Joshua Raymond said.
Britain's economy shrank by a worse-than-expected 0.6 percent in the fourth quarter of 2010, official data showed on Friday, hit partly by the impact of harsh wintry weather.
"Gross domestic product (GDP) contracted by 0.6 percent in the fourth quarter of 2010, revised down from the previously estimated fall of 0.5 percent," the Office for National Statistics said in statement.
That marked the largest quarterly drop in GDP -- the total value of goods and services produced in the economy -- since the second quarter of 2009.
The sharp contraction followed expansion of 0.7 percent in the third quarter of last year. Market expectations had been for no change to the initial estimate.
On the corporate front, Britain's state-rescued bank Lloyds on Friday posted annual pre-tax profits of £2.2 billion (2.6 billion euros, $3.6 billion), recovering from a steep loss as it slashed bad debts.
International Airlines Group, formed last month via the merger of British Airways and Iberia, posted modest 2010 net profits, shrugging off the impact of strikes and severe weather conditions late in the year.
The results were calculated on a pro-forma basis as if British Airways and Iberia had already been trading as a combined group.
Tuesday, February 22, 2011
US stocks hesitant ahead of 3-day weekend (AFP)
NEW YORK (AFP) – US stocks wobbled Friday as investors faced a long holiday weekend with no economic releases for guidance and fresh unrest in the Middle East.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average gained 15.33 points (0.12 percent) to 12,333.47 in early trades, while the broad-market S&P 500 fell 0.21 point (0.02 percent) to 1,340.22.
The tech-rich Nasdaq Composite rose 1.32 points (0.05 percent) to 2,832.90.
"The S&P 500 hit a 32-month high Thursday. Equity market returns remain supported by improving economic trends and a strong corporate sector," said Kimberly DuBord at Briefing.com.
Amid a lack of economic releases and a bare calendar Monday, when markets are closed for a public holiday, investors appeared bound to extend the rally, shrugging off warnings the market is overextended.
"Despite the gains, valuations remain attractive and, given the wealth of cash on corporate balance sheets raising the specter of dividend hikes and share buybacks, stocks continue to charm investors," DuBord said.
Investors also kept an eye on spreading unrest in the oil-rich Middle East after uprisings ousted the Tunisian and Egyptian presidents in recent weeks. Protesters trying to topple more of the region's rulers staged fresh mass demonstrations Friday and buried the victims of crackdowns by embattled regimes.
On Thursday Wall Street equities markets rose to new two-year highs, buoyed by a report from the Philadelphia branch of the central bank a surge in regional manufacturing activity.
The Dow added 0.24 percent, the S&P 500 rose 0.31 percent and the Nasdaq climbed 0.21 percent to close at its highest level since October 31, 2007.
Monday, February 14, 2011
Gov't: Philippine rebels stronger ahead of talks (AP)
MANILA, Philippines – Communist guerrillas grew stronger last year after a long period of battle losses, acquiring more fighters and guns and killing more government forces in a spike of attacks, a Philippine government report says ahead of renewed peace talks.
Government and rebel negotiators are to resume talks stalled for more than six years, on Tuesday in Norway. Both sides have declared a weeklong cease-fire to bolster the negotiations aimed at ending one of Asia's longest-running Marxist insurgencies.
Government negotiators have expressed hope that last year's election of reformist President Benigno Aquino III on the promise he would reduce poverty and improve governance would soften the rural-based insurgency, which has survived decades of military crackdown.
A confidential government threat assessment report, however, said the guerrillas managed to recover last year from a decline dealt by battle losses since 2002 with its fighters increasing by 30 to 4,398 and firearms rising by more than 130 in just a year to 4,871.
The rebels managed to re-establish six rural strongholds that had been overrun by the military and staged 413 attacks — 11 percent more than in 2009. Security personnel killed by the rebels rose by nearly 9 percent to 172, including 102 soldiers, due to improved guerrilla capability to make bombs used in ambushes, according to the report. A copy was obtained by The Associated Press.
"Despite what many consider its anachronistic ideology, the insurgency has endured," the Brussels-based International Crisis Group said. "Many of its criticisms of income inequality, human rights abuses and broader social injustice still resonate with some Filipinos."
The report said government forces killed 35 rebels last year and captured 131 others while more than 150 surrendered.
Military chief of staff Gen. Ricardo David Jr. said army troops and police captured Allan Jazmines, a member of the policy-making central committee of the Communist Party of the Philippines, at a rebel safehouse in Baliuag town in Bulacan province before nightfall Monday.
The rebels protested the arrest and demanded his immediate and unconditional release "so that there will be no disruption of the formal peace talks."
Chief rebel negotiator Luis Jalandoni said in a statement that Jazmines is among guerrilla consultants to the talks covered by a government immunity from arrests and prosecution amid the negotiations.
The military has said that it was willing to release Jazmines if he was covered by the government immunity.
David said without elaborating that the arrest of Jazmines, shortly before a cease-fire came into force, was a setback to the Maoist rebels' "organizing, deception and propaganda efforts, adding "arrests of this kind will continue."
Jazmines was captured twice during the reign of dictator Ferdinand Marcos and was among communist leaders who were freed when President Corazon Aquino took power following a 1986 "people power" revolt that toppled the strongman, said Satur Ocampo, a former rebel spokesman and negotiator.
Both sides imposed a weeklong cease-fire that began Tuesday to foster the negotiations, which stalled in 2004 after the Maoist rebels accused then President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo's government of instigating the inclusion of the communist party and its armed wing, the New People's Army, in U.S. and European terrorist blacklists.
It was the first time since on-and-off talks started 25 years ago that the rebels have agreed to a cease-fire while negotiations are being held.
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Associated Press reporter Oliver Teves contributed to this report.
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