A day after posting the best gains since mid-July, the Dow fell 2.5% to 9713 while the S&P 500 shed 2.8% and the Nasdaq declined 2.5%. The losses left the Dow essentially flat for the month wile the S&P and Nasdaq snapped their streaks of monthly
Even with Friday’s dip, both oil and retail gasoline prices are near their highs of the year. The good news is energy prices typically peak around this time of year amid buying in anticipation of winter heating season.”Odds favor we’ll get a correcti
Gold is likely to make a new inflation-adjusted high before its current bull move ends. That’s the word from Frank Holmes the man behind the Morningstar 5-star rated U.S. Global Investors Gold and Precious Metals Fund, which is up 33% in the past ye
Contrary to the hysterical panic you hear about inflation these days, it’s actually not a problem, says the FT’s chief economics commentator Martin Wolf. Right now, the economy’s capacity utilization and bank lending are so low, that inflation isn’t
America’s economy grew at an annual rate of 3.5% in the third quarter and stocks surged yesterday on the better-than-expected news. The IMF also raised its forecasts for Asia to 2.8% growth this year, 5.8% in 2010. It’s hard not to feel better about
Remember last fall, when our government explained that the reason we needed to give $800 billion to Wall Street was so the banks could lend it back to us and shock the economy back to life again?That was a happy story!And we fell for it.What happened, of
The dollar resumed its downward path Thursday, lending credence to the idea any rally in the greenback is doomed to be short-lived. Many believe the dollar is going to lose its reserve status and more extreme observers like Mark Faber say it’s on an inevi
Highlights from the Thomson Reuters Investment Banking Scorecard:
BIGGEST EUROPEAN IPO SINCE MAY 2008
As part of a government privatisation program, Polska Grupa Energetyczna SA (PGE), an electric utility, raised $2.1 billion in an IPO on the Warsaw stock exchange this week. The offering marks the largest IPO from a Polish company on record and the biggest IPO in Europe since the $2.5 billion listing of Dutch coal miner, New World Resources NV, in May 2008.
Goldman Sachs and Unicredit led the offering, which brings year-to-date European IPO activity to $3.3 billion, a decline of 76% compared to last year at this time.
* REAL ESTATE ACCOUNTS FOR 19% OF CHINESE M&A
China’s Stellar Megaunion’s planned $2.7 billion acquisition of real estate assets from Guilherme Holdings brings the volume of Chinese M&A to $73.6 billion for year-to-date 2009, a 14% decline from last year’s levels but far outpacing the 40% downturn for worldwide mergers.
M&A activity in the real estate sector accounts for 19% of overall activity in China this year, with financials accounting for 17% and industrials comprising 15% of the year-to-date total for Chinese targets.
* U.S. IPO ACTIVITY CONTINUES PACE
For the seventh consecutive week, companies listed new shares on U.S. exchanges, marking the longest consecutive weekly period for IPO activity this year. Overall, U.S. IPO activity totals $11.6 billion for year-to-date 2009, a decline of 56% over year-to-date 2008.
Consumer products leads all sectors for U.S. IPO volume year-to-date with $2.9 billion or 25% of all new issues. The real estate and healthcare sectors comprise 20% and 16%, respectively.
That big, candy-coated M&A bellwether, Kraft-Cadbury, remains at the forefront of many dealmakers’ thinking. Brad Dorfman examines how the clock will really start ticking on a deal to create the world’s biggest confectioner once Kraft (KFT.N) reports earnings next week. Meanwhile, a clutch of other companies are making more upbeat noises about M&A, to wit:
* Juniper Networks Inc’s (JNPR.N) chief executive says the network equipment maker is open to acquisitions, although in-house research and partnerships remain its priorities.
* Macquarie Group Ltd (MQG.AX), Australia’s largest investment bank, has grown its surplus capital by almost half to a hefty A$4.5 billion ($4.1 billion), giving it muscle to hunt for assets overseas.
* And in Canada, Teck Resources (TCKb.TO) doesn’t plan to sell any more assets to pay down debt taken on last year to finance its takeover of Fording, and may start considering acquisitions, the company’s CEO says.
For all the latest deals news from Reuters, click here.
Elsewhere:
Forbes magazine offers up cut-out Halloween masks of Bernie Madoff, Glenn Beck and others.
And the WSJ crunches the numbers on the planned transatlantic tie-up between law firms Lovells and Hogan & Hartson.
The “reflation” trade was back in force Thursday as rumors of the rally’s demise proved premature, once again. If it’s not obvious already, the session provided clear evidence of how the dollar holds the key to fates of financial assets, now mor
The recession is over! Pundits and economists have been saying it for months, and now the third-quarter GDP results back that claim. The economy grew at a 3.5% pace in the third quarter on the back of President Obama’s stimulus bill. …
The people who are telling you to buy gold because of impending hyper-inflation don’t know what they’re talking about, says “cycles” analyst Charles Nenner.Yes, gold has done well in times of inflation. But it has also done well in times o