Tag Archives: market

Safe/banks? Protect your money from dark Mondays

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UK interest rates cut by 0.5% as US Federal Reserve leads co-ordinated effort across the world to restore economic confidence. In this catastrophic period for financial markets and particularly after the disastrous events of Monday, people are questioning the safety of their savings, pensions and nest-eggs.

So let’s have a look at which is the best bank for you and your business, taking in to account the recent turn of events. On this page you can find a form with the main UK bank accounts that compares and applies 40 UK bank accounts, savings, current accounts and ISAs.

Made Simple Group provides you with 5 banking and special services for start-up businesses: check here tomorrow for all the details!

Lehman Bros & Co: a black monday

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It was a tough morning for many going to work in The City today; it’s Monday and it’s a black day for the Market. The fourth-largest U.S. investment bank has gone bust and all the front pages are dedicated to what could be the largest scale bankruptcy in history. Bloomberg.com explains in detail what is happening: “Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc. succumbed to the subprime mortgage crisis it helped create in the biggest bankruptcy filing in history. The 158-year-old firm, which survived railroad bankruptcies of the 1800s, the Great Depression in the 1930s and the collapse of Long-Term Capital Management a decade ago, has filed a Chapter 11 petition with U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Manhattan today. The collapse of Lehman, which listed more than $613 billion of debt, surpasses WorldCom Inc.’s insolvency in 2002 and Drexel Burnham Lambert’s failure in 1990.”

Unfortunately the crisis is not limited to the Lehman collapse: the Bank of America has brought Merrill Lynch, and Wall Street is in crisis. Thetimesonline.co.uk says: “London woke up to discover that, overnight, two of the biggest pillars of Wall Street had either collapsed or passed into new ownership, the world’s largest insurer was forced into an emergency restructuring, and 10 banks put together an emergency fund to lend to any other ailing banks”. This bad news will probably not come as a surprise to many. But the problem is serious and involves all the Markets and a huge numbers of bankers, who can’t predict anything about their future. “One New York observer (thetimesonline.co.uk goes on to say) estimated that 40 per cent of Merrill’s workforce, or 24,000 people, could be out of a job. The situation at Lehman will inevitably be much worse”.

But, as Douglas Adams would say, Don’t Panic! “This is undoubtedly the worst banking crisis since the 1930s, but traders shouldn’t panic and start to sell shares of other leading banks. It doesn’t make sense. American, British and other global banks  are cooperating to make the transition as smooth as possible”, said Allister Heath, City A.M. editor.

Tesco: an example of British success

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Hello! Welcome back to our business blog. Do you need to do your food shopping? Here in London you can choose from supermarkets such as Sainsbury’s, Somerfield, Waitrose, Marks & Spencer and Tesco: there are stores everywhere, open everyday (also 24 hours per day). From getting to know London, it’s easy to understand that Britain’s largest supermarket chain is Tesco and why it has been able to spread abroad.

In fact, the UK company will open its first site in Mumbai by the end of 2009, investing millions to be able to open in Delhi, Bangalore and the surrounding areas as soon as possible. This news represents a new direction in the expansion of british businesses into Eastern economies.

Next to the big licensed chains, London also has Indian, Pakistan, Chinese and Thai shops to offer, and in the same way in few years the biggest Indian cities will host several british shops. So, European companies start to export their brand to developing countries. In our evermore globalised economy, these countries are rich markets into which new business can expand; Sir Terry Leahy, chief executive of Tesco, said: “This is another exciting development for Tesco. It complements our entries into China and the United States, giving us access to another of the most important economies in the world.”

What is spread-betting?

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Hi there! As the market continues its turbulent trend, prices are uncertain and shares unstable. But if you play the market, you will appreciate the everyday challenges and the opportunity to find a new solution to consolidate and grow your money pot. There are of course no certainties, however when a stock market storm is brewing and you’re still looking for your pot of gold at the end of the rainbow, the experts say : “Spread bet!”. But what does it mean?

When you play the stock market you buy and sell shares. With spread-betting, you bet on whether shares will go up or down – you don’t buy or sell anything. So you simply designate the price per point and place your bet on whether options will increase or decrease. Easy? Not really, but there are a multitude of options: you decide on the direction, margin, value and stop-loss of the shares on which you are betting. The stop loss is the biggest loss that you can afford, the price that automatically closes out the bet: a real parachute.

Much like the broker who profits from market activity in either direction, the shrewd spreadbetter can also succeed in a troubled economy; “Volatility and falling shares prices are good for us. When shares go down, we are the only game in town,” says Tim Howkins, Boss of IG, Britain’s top spread betting and CFD firm.

For all the non-professionals, we have found one of the best explanations of what spread-betting means here: http://www.financial-spread-betting.com/Spread-bet.html.

And here are 10 things that you should know about spread bet: http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/money/investment/article1305642.ece. Many investors use spread-bets to protect their positions. But the usual risk warnings apply… they are bets and you can win or lose. Just hopefully win.

Latest News to start the new week

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Good morning! We are back to make you more of a Londoner. So here is a quick update on all the latest business news:

  • Here comes summer, and with it the spectacle of swathes of public sector workers taking to the streets. Soaring inflation is cutting real-terms pay, say the unions, but employers claim they can’t afford any more. From PublicFinance.co.uk
  • Disgraced Tory MP Derek Conway given year to repay money Derek Conway, the MP who paid his son £50,000 as a researcher while he was away at university, has been given a year to repay a quarter of the money, it has been reported. From the Telegraph.co.uk
  • European Stocks, U.S. Futures Fall; Banks, Airlines Lead Drop. European stocks and U.S. index futures fell as concern deepened credit losses and the economic slowdown will hurt earnings. Most Asian shares advanced. From Bloomberg.com
  • Ryanair profits plunge 85%. Shares in airlines slumped today as budget carrier Ryanair reported an 85% fall in first-quarter net profit and warned it could plunge into the red for the full year. Ryanair shares tumbled 15% to €2.74 (217p), dragging down low-cost rival EasyJet, which fell 10% to 301.75p. From Guardian.co.uk
  • MPs seek windfall tax on energy profits. There is a “compelling rationale” for a windfall tax on the profits of energy companies, MPs argue in a report on Monday. They also claim businesses and households are paying excessive fuel bills because of failures in the British energy market. From FT.com
  • House Prices ‘Will Soar by 25%’. House prices fell for the 10th month in a row during July – but there are claims the property market will bounce back stronger than ever. House prices fell for the 10th month in a row during July – but there are claims the property market will bounce back stronger than ever. Homes in England and Wales lost a further 1.2% of their value during the past four weeks, new figures show. From Sky News

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