Markets pulled their socks up last week, with global equities putting some distance between the November lows and Friday’s close. The FTSE 100 enjoyed a 13% weekly gain, while the Dow, S&P500 and Nasdaq are up 17.1%, 19.9% and 18.3% from the November lows respectively. The week started well with traders liking what they saw in the massive bailout of Citi group. The US government effectively...
It is clearly award season for BetOnMarkets.com with the addition of two Financial Times and Investors Chronicle Investment 08 Awards! During a recent black tie event in the Grosvenor House, London, hosted by the Financial Times and the Investors Chronicle, BetOnMarkets.com bagged the awards for Best Fixed-Odds Firm and Best Customer Communication. “The fact that we are winning one award...
Last week US equities ended a volatile week with big rallies on Friday, but these only came after the benchmark S&P 500 index had plunged to levels not seen for over a decade on Thursday. Despite Friday’s 6%+ rallies on the Dow Jones and S&P 500, those markets still finished the week down 5.31% and 8.39% respectively. After months of bailouts, mini rallies, rate cuts, and false...
World stock markets took another tumble last week with the major US indices penetrating the October lows intraday. The FTSE finished the week down around 4%, but it was UK plc that took a battering. The Pound fell to record lows against the European single currency, even breaking through the synthetic Euro/ Deutsche Mark lows from 1996.The week’s action was all the more damning considering the...
Good news – BetOnMarkets.com is awarded for the "Best Fixed-Odds Financial Trading Provider" for the second consecutive year.
Last week the Bank of England hit the headlines with an unexpected 1.5% rate cut. The move was largely pre meditated as a shock tactic to boost the ailing UK economy ahead of the all important Christmas period. Spreading the cut over a number of months would have had much less of an impact as it can take many months for the benefits of a rate cut to filter down to consumers. This is especially...
Last week global equities finally managed to finish the week with significant gains, but October was still a very poor month overall. Barry Ritholtz of The Big Picture highlighted just how volatile the last month has been. October was the worst month for the S&P 500 since the 1987 stock market crash, not only that, it was also the most volatile in the market’s 80 year history. There was...
It could be argued that even with the wild gyrations of the past few months, many were still in denial about the state of the financial markets. Last week, fear was rife as traders, investors, and the man on the street could no longer deny the magnitude of the global sell off. Some commentators are referring to it as the great crash of 2008. Certainly, there have been bigger one day falls in...
Another dramatic weekend saw four banks receive government bail outs, not to mention the further file sales and mergers. Mondays have been chaos for the last few weeks, as governments on both sides of the pond prefer to work through major announcements, mergers, and bailouts, over the relative calm of the weekend. Although Bradford and Bingley grabbed the headlines in the UK, governments in...
Traders, investors, and financial journalists must have been glad to reach the end of a week that will surely go down in the history of financial markets. The FTSE closed the week just 66 points down which the S&P 500 actually managed a small profit. Homeowner, the closing figures do not even begin to tell the whole story with the FTSE trading in a 521 point range and posting its best one day...