The ShortsandLongs Trading Update, Friday, 9th December 2011
Welcome to the ShortsandLongs.com Weekly Trading Update, which features a round-up of all the latest financial spread betting news and includes next week's Economic Calendar.
Markets This Week:
The same factors that have kept investors on the back foot in recent months continued to plague markets again. Italian ministers continued developing austerity measures this week, but S&P has now put the entire eurozone on downgrade watch. At the EU Summit late this week, 23 of 27 member states agreed to move forward with fiscal integration. Britain remains isolated though, and some states are pushing for referenda. The ECB also cut rates by 25 basis points. These Eurozone contagion fears largely suppressed any big gains from being made this week.
In corporate news, TUI Travel record underlying operating profit of £471 million, up 18%. The EPS growth of 24% is largely attributed to the smaller operator winning significant business from beleaguered competitor Thomas Cook. Elsewhere in the travel sector, Aer Lingus showed passenger volume up by 8.8% in November. Camping and outdoor equipment retailer Blacks Leisure announced it was putting itself up for sale after failing to complete a fundraising. The firm’s debt stands at £36 million. PZ Cussons was out of favour after announcing it missed first-half expectations, and shares traded at a 1 year low of 306. High raw material costs and adverse exchange rate movements ate into margins at the soap and shampoo maker.
|
Market |
Open (Monday) |
Close (Thursday) |
Change |
High |
Low |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
|
UK 100 |
5164.65 | 5489.34 |
6.29% |
5538.96 |
5164.65 |
|
Wall Street |
11232.47 |
12020.03 |
-4.53% |
12045.68 |
11232.16 |
|
GBP/USD |
1.5496 |
1.5695 |
-1.73% |
1.5755 |
1.5460 |
|
Gold |
1708.6 |
1748.7 |
-1.53% |
1757.90 |
1707.70 |
(Source: Proquote International)
This Week's Outlook:
Looking ahead to next week’s macroeconomic news, UK CPI figures come on Tuesday, UK Employment report on Wednesday and UK Retail Sales on Thursday. From the US, we will get a glimpse of pre-holiday shopping trends in the Retail Sales report on Tuesday, and inflationary reports on Thursday and Friday. Thomas Cook, Betfair, Supergroup, and Sports Direct International all give updates next week.
See our Financial Diary for more.
