19.10.12 Friday Morning

Opposing unemployment figures from either side of the Atlantic have not proven enough to force the FTSE out of the tight range it has been stuck between for the past fortnight.

The UK rate fell to below 8% for the first time since last August when the Eurozone problems heightened.

The Dow Jones was temporarily stunned however when the weekly jobs figure revealed 46,000 more claims than a week prior, thus reminding us of the inherent issues their economy faces prior to the election.

Eurozone fears seem not to halt the strengthening Euro as it held above the 1.30 level despite risky yields such as Spain’s jumping and Portugal pushing ahead with their harshest austerity package. Samaras was reputed to be confident that Greece would secure an aid tranche, however, aid talks broke down after Athens rejected further cuts.

With banking systems outlook remaining negative, strikes in Greece looking likely and the S&P saying sovereigns could be further downgraded it will be interesting to see if the Euro can remain above the 1.30 threshold.
As investors and traders continued to put money into equities it was commodities that suffered with both Gold and Nymex selling off.

Mitt Romney openly admitted that if he were to become President then Ben Bernanke’s head would roll and easing would be a thing of the past, maybe finally the meteoric rise of the precious metal might be stemmed.

Oil still trades around the $90 level with slower growth in China being deemed the primary reason even though Asian markets are at a 7 month high.
Even though the FTSE has range traded for the past few weeks there has still be some interesting equity developments.

Rosneft’s proposed $50bn plus takeover of TNK-BP seems more likely, it will turn the state-run group into one of the world’s largest oil producers controlling nearly half of Russia’s output.

Nat Rothschild resigned from the struggling coal mining company Bumi citing unequal return to investors if the Bakrie deal goes ahead.

GKN are once again amid bid speculation with a 350p cash bid from SAIC being reported, but it seems every month a GKN related bid story surfaces, whilst BHP Billiton revealed no shocks with their update with all in line with expectations.
Britvic, which also had rumours surrounding it a while back, released revenue in line at £1.26bn and are confident of meeting FY expectations.

Man group revealed a 5th consecutive quarter of net outflows, $2.2bn this time around which was worse than expected whilst Informa released unchanged FY forecasts after bid speculation last week said Axel Springer were lining up a 550p offer.

RBS, still over 80% owned by the tax-payer, confirmed its exit from Asset Protection Scheme, good news indeed and opens up the possibility that shares may be floated back on the stock exchange in the nearer future that imagined.

Next week important figures concern European services and manufacturing, core durable goods orders and advanced GDP from the US. Earnings come from ARM Holdings, Home Retail, AstraZeneca and ASOS with a production statement from Anglo American. Primary US earnings come from Caterpiller, Du Pont, Facebook and Boeing.