Category: Strategic News
The analysis published under this category are as follows.
Friday, July 24, 2009
Massive New Jersey Corruption / Politics / Strategic News
By: Sarah_Jones
Three city mayors, two state politicians, several city councilmen and five rabbis were among 44 people arrested across New Jersey yesterday when federal agents cracked an alleged Sopranos-style crime ring accused of bribery, money laundering and trafficking body parts and counterfeit handbags.
Read full article... Read full article...
Thursday, July 23, 2009
Artificial Brain 10 Years Away / Politics / Strategic News
By: Sarah_Jones
A detailed, functional artificial human brain can be built within the next 10 years, a leading scientist has claimed.
Read full article... Read full article...
Thursday, August 28, 2008
Iframes Injection Trojan Downloader Virus Hacking Sites and Desktops Protection / sitenews / Strategic News
By: Nadeem_Walayat
The Market Oracle web site was the victim of being hacked on Saturday the 23rd of August 2008 at 10.42am (CST)
The site was brought down for 5 hours on Saturday, following which we managed to bring the site back online, following which we attempted to determine exactly what had happened to bring the site down.
Read full article... Read full article...
Sunday, September 09, 2007
Site Down for 50 minutes - Attack and Server Load Issues / sitenews / Strategic News
By: Sarah_Jones
The site was down earlier today for about 50 minutes, this was due to excessive server load apparently caused by an denial of service attack which crashed our main server and the back up host was only able to cope with the load for a few minutes hence the account suspension message, until the main server was rebooted.Read full article... Read full article...
Monday, August 20, 2007
Top 50,000 web sites ranked by traffic as measured by Alexa / sitenews / Strategic News
By: Sarah_Jones
Despite there being hundreds of millions of website's around the world. The fact is that the top 50,000 website's account for approximately 50% of the worlds internet traffic. Alexa is one of the few organisation's that is both able to measure traffic accurately for sites that feature in the worlds top 50,000, and makes their traffic rankings available to the general public via their toolbar and site for easy comparison.Read full article... Read full article...
Tuesday, July 10, 2007
Market Oracle Traffic Ranks in the Top 69,000 Global Website's - Alexa / sitenews / Strategic News
By: Sarah_Jones
The Market Oracle continues to go from strength to strength, now passing into the top 69,000 World Traffic Website's as measured by Alexa.com's unique base of tens of millions of web user's.
The key reasons for our continuing success are :
100% Free
The Market Oracle's aim has always been to provide quality content for FREE, so as to advance the debate on market analysis and forecasts without any limitations, and to provide a non competing platform for authors from across the world to contribute towards.
Saturday, May 05, 2007
Server Upgrades in Progress / sitenews / Strategic News
By: Sarah_Jones
Please note access to the MarketOracle Site maybe erratic during the period 6th May to 8th May 2007. This is due to DNS propagation. DNS propagation can take up to 72 hours to fully complete for all Domain Name Servers, so some users may experience problems in site access. If so, then please again try later.
Sarah J.
Friday, March 30, 2007
New website facility this weekend - Easier to locate the articles you want to read / sitenews / Strategic News
By: Sarah_Jones
Thanks to Tim77's suggestion, The Market Oracle website will introduce a new facility this weekend, making it much easier for site visitors to find the articles that they want.
Tim77, emailed to us that he wishes that he could easily find like articles to the ones he is reading, as the Topic categories contain far too many articles.
Read full article... Read full article...
Sunday, March 18, 2007
Server Move In Progress / sitenews / Strategic News
By: Sarah_Jones
Please note that the MarketOracle Server will be moved to a new data centre at 2am GMT. This will affect site access whilst DNS propagation takes place. DNS propagation can take up to 24 hours to fully complete for all Domain Name Servers, so some users may experience problems in site access. If so, then keep retrying, as your browser will query alternative name servers during the 24 hour transfer period.Sarah J.
Wednesday, March 07, 2007
US and Global Economy Strong and inflation under control - Henry Paulson / Economics / Strategic News
By: Sarah_Jones
U.S. Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson expressed confidence in the global economy - "We have a very strong global economy," Paulson said after a meeting with South Korean Finance Minister Kwon O-kyu. "We have a global economy with low inflation, high levels of liquidity and I feel very comfortable with the global economy."
Friday, March 02, 2007
Dow Jones Index gave 150 point false Index reading on Tuesdays crash - Who profited? / Stock-Markets / Strategic News
By: Brady_Willett
Late Tuesday afternoon, Dow Jones Indexes made a seemingly minor confession about a technical glitch that took place earlier that day. Specifically, in the middle of Tuesday's market decline – beginning at 1:50 pm precisely – Dow Jones Indexes began incorrectly reporting the Dow Jones Industrial Average (Dow). In other words, instead of displaying say 12,200 - the actual trading level of the 30-Dow components - the Dow was showing 12,350. Ever vigilant, they eventually identified the problem and “switched over to a back-up system” at 3:00PM.
Now there is no question that computers sometimes do err: instances of market miscalculation and/or miscommunication have dotted the financial ledger in the past - like between the futures and cash markets during the crash of 1987. However, and although a potentially innocent event, the interesting thing about Tuesday's computer malfunction is that it persisted without being recognized for 70-minutes! The question to ask, naturally enough, is what on earth was going on during this 70-minute interval?
Read full article... Read full article...
Thursday, February 22, 2007
Bank of England February Minutes of Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) - To Hold UK Interest Rates / Interest-Rates / Strategic News
By: Shahla_Walayat
The latest MPC minutes show that the decision to keep interest rates on hold at 5.25% was tighter than expected, with two members (Tim Besley and Andrew Sentance) voting to raise interest. And 7 electing to adopt a wait and see attitude following the last rise, and better the inflation figures for January. This implies that a future rate rise is still on the cards.
Tuesday, February 13, 2007
The Market Oracle Server Upgrade in Progress / sitenews / Strategic News
By: Sarah_Jones
The Market Oracle, is in the process of upgrading to a new servers. In the meantime the site is hosted on a temporary backup server, which may not be able to cope with access during periods of high demand. If you experience any difficulties, please try again later.We hope to complete the upgrade by Thursday the 15th of February.
Friday, February 09, 2007
Bank of England leaves UK Interest Rates on hold at 5.25% / Interest-Rates / Strategic News
By: Shahla_Walayat
Despite speculation of another rise in interest rates, the Bank of England Monetary Policy Committee decided to keep interest rates on hold at 5.25%, following January's surprise rise to 5.25%. In a wait and see attitude, hoping that January's rise will be enough to curb pay deals and inflation.Read full article... Read full article...
Thursday, February 08, 2007
Gold Anti-Trust Action Committee (GATA) Attack EMail on Article about Gold Price Manipulation / Commodities / Strategic News
By: Clive_Maund
After my article Gold price manipulation - DOES IT MATTER? was posted yesterday on www.clivemaund.com and The Market Oracle, I was somewhat surprised to find myself the subject of a personal attack by a Chris Powell, who is apparently the Secretary/Treasurer of an organization going by the acronym of GATA (Gold Anti-Trust Action Committee), that was delivered in the form of an Email circulated to the "Friends of GATA and Gold", the contents of which are reproduced unedited below.
This unwarranted attack, which was foolishly made not just against myself but against Dennis Gartman of The Gartman Letter and Technical Analysts generally, is something I feel entitled and obliged to respond to, and you will find my response lower down the page, but first read the contents of Mr Powell's Email...
Read full article... Read full article...
Friday, February 02, 2007
Uranium Bull Market Set to Continue During February / Commodities / Strategic News
By: James_Finch
Buyers have begun to show willingness in paying higher prices for uranium oxide (U3O8). Sellers remain confident they can get even higher prices. The recent six-week stalemate ended when Trade Tech raised the uranium spot price indicator to $75/pound in the consulting firm's month-end report.
Thursday, February 01, 2007
Alliance & Leicester (A&L) - Award Winning Premier Current Account with the 12% interest Premier Regular Saver Offer ends on 7th of Feb 2007 / Personal_Finance / Strategic News
By: Shahla_Walayat
Alliance & Leicester's award winning 'Premier Current Account' with the associated record paying 12% AER interest Premier Regular Saver Account, closes to new accounts on 7th of February 2007. So if you have been waiting to open an new A&L current account with the 12% Regular Saver, then its better to act now whilst time remains, as the 12% Regular Saver offer will be withdrawn as of 7th February 2007.
The Key Account Specs of the A&L Premier Current Account / 12% AER Premier Regular Saver are -
Read full article... Read full article...
Tuesday, January 30, 2007
Microsoft Vista goes on Sale Today 30th Jan 07 - But NO Mad Rush to Buy / ConsumerWatch / Strategic News
By: Certman
The big day for Microsoft finally came, when consumers could buy one of the 5 versions of Vista as it went on general release. Yes that's FIVE versions, you are probably only aware of the 4 consumer versions, but there is also a developers edition which makes the total 5.Read full article... Read full article...
Monday, January 29, 2007
Halifax (HBOS) Bank Error - Posts account details of 75,000 customers by mistake to an unsuspecting customer / Personal_Finance / Strategic News
By: Shahla_Walayat
Halifax the Bank that likes to give a little Extra, surely did when it posted off the bank details of 75,000 customers in 5 parcels to Stephanie McLaughlin of Aberdeen.
Ms McLaughlin had requested a copy of her own bank statement, but instead Halifax sent her 2,500 sheets of paper containing the bank details of 75,000 customers, which included names, sort codes, account numbers and details of transactions.
Saturday, January 27, 2007
UK Tax 2005-06 Self Assessment Tax Return Filing Deadline - 31st January 2007 / Personal_Finance / Strategic News
By: Shahla_Walayat
The billboards across the UK seem to have been taken over with the JAN 31 deadline for filing of self assessment tax returns, for the Tax year 2005-06. Failure to meet the deadline will mean an automatic £100 fine and ongoing penalty and interest charges for further delays in both filing of the return and making payment of tax due.
Tuesday, January 16, 2007
Upgrade options for Microsoft XP to Vista / ConsumerWatch / Strategic News
By: Nadeem_Walayat
Less than 2 weeks to go before Microsoft Vista goes on general release.
The favoured install option is to perform a clean install, however if you do need to upgrade your current version of XP to Vista then please see the table below to determine which version of XP can upgrade to which version of Vista.
Read full article... Read full article...
Tuesday, January 16, 2007
UK inflation hits the Bank of England's 3% CPI limit / Economics / Strategic News
By: Sarah_Jones
The UK inflation rate as measured by the Consumer Price Index (CPI), hit the upper limit of 3% today. The highest level in over a decade supports the Bank of England's surprise decision to raise interest rates last week to 5.25% from 5%. (Bank of England raises UK interest rates to 5.25%, catching the financial markets off guard )
Thursday, January 11, 2007
Bank of England raises UK interest rates to 5.25%, catching the financial markets off guard / Interest-Rates / Strategic News
By: Nadeem_Walayat
The Bank of England raised interest rates by 0.25% to 5.25%, whilst most of the city of London was caught of guard and had already started to consider the next move for a cut in interest rates. If you have been following our forecasts and analysis at the market oracle you will be aware that we are expecting interest rates to rise to 5.50% this year and possibly even as high as 5.75%. Whilst the first anticipated rise in interest rates was Feb. 07, this rise is one month early. Though only one of 50 economists polled by Reuters predicted an increase in interest rates.
Read full article... Read full article...
Monday, January 08, 2007
Russia cuts oil to Europe in response to Belarus syphoning off thousands barrels of oil / Commodities / Strategic News
By: Nadeem_Walayat
Belarus smarting from the doubling in the price of gas agreed just over a week ago, started to illegally syphon oil from the Druzhba pipeline,after the Russian pipeline operator Transneft refused to pay a retaliatory duty imposed by Belarus of $45 per metric ton of Russian oil shipped to Western Europe in pipelines that cross Belarus.
Wednesday, January 03, 2007
NHS runs out of money - Despite a £100 billion budget , time to privatise ? / Politics / Strategic News
By: Nadeem_Walayat
NHS trusts up and down Britain have reportedly run out of money, and as a consequence are cancelling routine operations such as treatments for varicose veins, teeth etc. We highlighted this possibility in our article of 25th December 06 - The NHS is killing Britain as it wastes tens of billions every year , Hospital trusts continue to request billions more as GP's are told to refer fewer patients to hospitals. As well as hospital departments being told to turn patents away.
Whilst in the meantime, the debt that has built up through utter incompetence and mis-management by NHS Trusts CEO's, that have in some cases tripled salaries of none front-line staff, which is the primary reason why £100 billion per year is not enough to meet the needs of patents, despite reduced patient load due to lengthening in waiting lists
Read full article... Read full article...
Tuesday, January 02, 2007
Site Down For Maintenance 2-1-07 - 5.45pm to 11pm GMT / sitenews / Strategic News
By: Nadeem_Walayat
The Market Oracle website will be down between 5.45pm to 11pm(GMT) on 2nd Jan 07 for Server Maintenance / Upgrades.
Tuesday, December 26, 2006
Microsoft Vista - More security flaws revealed in the new operating system / ConsumerWatch / Strategic News
By: Nadeem_Walayat
More security flaws discovered in Microsoft's Vista operating system, weeks prior to going on general release to the public next month by a Silicon Valley security firm Determina and a russian programmer.
Serious security breaches include :
- A flaw in Internet Explorer 7, that could allow hackers to take over any computers that visit a rogue website set-up to exploit the flaw in the browser software.
- Another flaw allows users upgrade their privileges on a computer, potentially allowing them to change system settings and to install software as well as access the wider corporate network.
- Another flaw found in Microsoft Exchange lets anyone shut down the mail server by sending an infected e-mail to the server
Friday, December 22, 2006
Shell sells controlling block of shares in Sakhalin-2 to Gazprom for $7.5 billion / Companies / Strategic News
By: Nadeem_Walayat
Russia's state controlled gas monopoly Gazprom has purchased 50 percent plus one share in Sakhalin Energy , the project operator of Sakhalin-2 oil and gas venture in the Far East, for $7.45 billion, in a deal that consolidates Putins control over Russia's energy resources.The agreement was announced at the Kremlin, in a meeting between President Putin, and executives from Gazprom, Royal Dutch Shell as well as top executives from Japanese shareholders, comes after months of mounting pressure from the Russian regulators.Read full article... Read full article...
Thursday, December 14, 2006
US Retail sales gain by a surprising 1% , reducing expectations of an early Fed interest rate cut / Economics / Strategic News
By: Sarah_Jones
Two reports released on Wednesday showed retail sales surging in November by 1%, contrary to the expectations of a hard landing for the economy. The market had been expecting a rise of just 0.1%. Bonds immediately fell and the dollar strengthened on the news as the markets reevaluate the expectations of an early cut in US interest rates.
Read full article... Read full article...
Tuesday, December 12, 2006
Russians file $10 billion lawsuit against Royal Dutch Shell for environmental damages on Sakhalin-2 project / Companies / Strategic News
By: Nadeem_Walayat
Russia's Environment agency Rosprirodnadzor, today said it was to file lawsuits against foreign oil companies developing the Sakhalin-2 oil and gas fields during early 2007. The agency estimated initial costs of the damage at $10 billions but could rise as high as $50 billion. Intense pressure from the Russian government is forcing Royal Dutch Shell to give up control of the lucrative $30 billion Sakhalin-2 project to state gas monopoly Gazprom as an attempt to elevate the pressure and get the project moving forward. Shell holds a controlling 55 percent stake in Sakhalin Energy. Japan's Mitsui and Mitsubishi own 25 percent and 20 percent.
Thursday, December 07, 2006
ECB raises interest rates to 3.5%, whilst the BOE keeps rates on hold at 5% / Interest-Rates / Strategic News
By: Nadeem_Walayat
In widely expected interest rates moves, the European Central bank raised interest rates to 3.5% (a 5 year high) and the Bank of England kept rates on hold at 5%.
Wednesday, December 06, 2006
Gordon Browns Pre-budget report increases petrol by 1.25 a litre / Economics / Strategic News
By: Sarah_Jones
Gordon Brown presented his last pre-budget report before he is destined to takeover from Tony Blair as the next Prime Minister of the UK.
He pledged increased expenditure on education and defense. Brown also reiterated that Britain had enjoyed the longest post-war period of continuous growth, now sustaining a record 38 quarters. Ten years ago Britain was 7th in the Group of Seven, bottom of the league for national income per head. In the last two years, Britain has been second only to the USA," he said. Brown also raised UK's growth forecast to 2.75 percent for 2006 and 3.25 percent for 2007.
Read full article... Read full article...
Tuesday, December 05, 2006
Who owns the world ? Most of the wealth in the hands of 2% of the people / Economics / Strategic News
By: Nadeem_Walayat
Whilst most of the worlds attention is focused on the GDP growth rates of China and India, a study published by the Helsinki-based World Institute for Development Economics Research (part of the United Nations University), reveals that the worlds wealth is heavily concentrated in North America, Europe and a handful of developed Pacific rim countries. With 2% of adults owning more than 50% of the worlds wealth.
Read full article... Read full article...
Monday, December 04, 2006
Pfizer shares plunge after new heart drug Torcetrapib fails clinical trials / Companies / Strategic News
By: Phillipa_Green
Pfizer shares fell by nearly 12 per cent after the worlds largest drug manufacturer, announced it was halting trails of its heart medicine Torcetrapib , after it revealed deaths and cardiovascular problems among people taking the drug during the clinical trials. The stock was also downgraded by several market analysts on concern that Pfizer's revenue growth will now weaken.
Friday, December 01, 2006
US Dollar tumbles against most major currencies falling to historic lows against the British Pound and the Euro / Currencies / Strategic News
By: Nadeem_Walayat
The dollar hits new lows against several major currencies, plunging to 1.96 Dollars to the British Pound, 1.33 Dollars to the European Euro, and to 115.5 Japanese Yen to the Dollar. The recent downtrend has been developing since early October, since when US interest rate expectations of further rises have shifted to a possibility of cuts in the new year in the face of a slowing economy on the back of a slump in the US housing market.
The downtrend was recently further reinforced by the outcome of the US election and rumors that the Chinease were planning on significantly diversifying their reserves away from the dollar, including comments made by the Governor of the Chinease Central bank as implying as such.
| British Pound (GBP/$) | Euro (EUR/$) |
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| Japanese Yen ($/JPY) | Canadian Dollar ($/Can$) |
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Monday, November 27, 2006
Japanese economy continues to grow as the dollar weakens / Currencies / Strategic News
By: Sarah_Jones
The Japanese economy grew by 0.5 percent in the three months to September, with GDP at 2.0 percent, showing a seventh straight quarter of positive growth, according to the Japanese Cabinet Office, beating market expectation of just 1.2%. This supports the view of a further strengthening in Japanese stock and housing markets.Read full article... Read full article...
Wednesday, November 22, 2006
FTSE 100 falls to 6160 on oil price fall and MPC minutes / Stock-Markets / Strategic News
By: Phillipa_Green
Despite moving higher into mid-day, the FTSE slumped to close 42 points lower on the back of a $2 drop in the price of Crude OIl to $55 and fears of a rate rise. A large part of the decline was attributed to declines in a few stocks, namely, DSG, BP, RDSB, Vodafone and HSBC, which pulled the rest of the market lower later in the day on the back continuing worries about the US Economy. Also many stocks went ex-dividend today which further depressed prices. Read full article... Read full article...
Sunday, November 19, 2006
US Housing slump continues as housing starts plunge 27% / Housing-Market / Strategic News
By: Sarah_Jones
Contrary to Alan Greenspans comments last month that the US housing market was showing signs of having bottomed, the latest data released by Commerce Department show that the housing market is still weak and likely to continue to drift lower well into 2007
Sunday, November 19, 2006
Sony releases Playstation 3 (PS3), after giving Microsoft Xbox360 a 12 month head start / ConsumerWatch / Strategic News
By: Nadeem_Walayat
Sony finally releases Play Station 3 in the US and Japan, though other parts of the world will have to wait a while. This might sound like good news for US & Japanese game players, but Sony is not expected to be able to satisfy the demand until well into 2007, so most game players wanting the Sony 3 will still have to wait a while longer. The official price for the PS3's is between $549 and $659 (depending on extras), but some of the PS3s are being offered on eBay for up to five times their retail price i.e. $2,500.
Thursday, November 16, 2006
Dispute between Biscit CSP (V21 V Two One) and Netservices leaves thousands of internet users disconnected and in limbo / ConsumerWatch / Strategic News
By: Nadeem_Walayat
As of 15th November, thousands of internet users across the UK, woke up to find their internet service with V21 has been disabled with a message on screen informing them that due to a legal dispute V21, which has recently been acquired by Biscit, would no longer be supplying their broadband service. Instead, customers had the option of moving their account to a company called ezeeDSL, or waiting until 24 November to have their service terminated so they could get broadband from a different provider. Read full article... Read full article...
Wednesday, November 15, 2006
First Direct to end Free Banking for some by charging 10 pounds per month, which can easily be avoided / ConsumerWatch / Strategic News
By: Phillipa_Green
First Direct (HSBC's online banking arm) is to charge Current Account customers a fee of £10 per month if they do not deposit £1,500 per month or maintain an average balance of £1,500. Other banks could follow suit to recoup money lost as regulators clamped down on fees in other areas.
The £10 fee will be charged from the 1 February 2007, if the only product held with First Direct is a Bank Account or Cheque Account and if paying in less than £1,500 per month or maintaining an average monthly balance of £1,500 or less. The banking fee will be charged monthly in arrears, so the first charges will be debiting accounts during the month of March 2007.
How to Avoid paying the £10 monthly fee Read full article... Read full article...
Sunday, November 12, 2006
Microsoft Vista operating system to be released on 30th January 2007 / ConsumerWatch / Strategic News
By: Nadeem_Walayat
The release of Microsoft's new operating 'Vista' has been scheduled for 30th January 2007. It was originally expected to be released in Mid 2006, but the launch date has repeatedly been postponed. Microsoft had to agree to make changes to Vista in order to avoid antitrust actions and to prevent a delay in releasing the product in Europe. The EU threatened in March to ban Vista over concerns that software included in the operating system violated antitrust laws.
Microsoft has scheduled a press conference for November 30th, to announce the new operating system, along with Office 2007. The releases, mark major updates to Microsoft's two key money makers. Vista's debut has been a long time in the making. Microsoft announced detailed plans for a new Windows release, code-named Longhorn, in October 2003.
Friday, November 10, 2006
China's plan to diversify $1trillion reserves sends the dollar plunging / Currencies / Strategic News
By: Sarah_Jones
The statement by the Chinese central bank governor Zhou Xiaochuan on Thursday that 'China has a clear plan to diversify its $1 trillion foreign exchange reserves and is considering various options to do so', sends the dollar reeling in response.
The diversification comment made by Zhou, was in retaliation to Democratic US Senator Schumer an leading US-China trade/currency critic's celebratory comments following the Democrats election victories. Senator Schumer, has been pushing for tariffs on Chinese goods amid charges it artificially keeps an undervalued yuan to make exports cheap. Along with others, Schumer wants a 27.5 percent levy on imports from China
Read full article... Read full article...
Wednesday, November 08, 2006
China's currency reserves pass $1 trillion and likely to double to $2 trillion by 2010 / Economics / Strategic News
By: Nadeem_Walayat
China's currency reserves pass a record $1 trillion, and continue to grow at a rate of $20 billions per month. China's reserves have grown from 100billion in 1996 to $1 trillions today and are expected to double to $2 trillions by 2010. Now China accounts for almost 20% of the world's foreign exchange reserves, Japan being second with some $900 billions of reserves, also mostly in US dollars.
The reason for the growth in reserves is primarily due to the under valuation of the Yuan which in turn is contributing to the large trade deficit that the US is running.
Wednesday, November 01, 2006
The UK Housing Boom continues as Abbey relaxes lending rules to X5 to further inflate the housing bubble / Housing-Market / Strategic News
By: Sarah_Jones
The Abbey is to offer home buyers mortgages of up to five times their salary to help them cope with the booming housing market. The traditional limit has been 3.5 times salaries which has gradually been relaxed over recent years by many of the prime mortgage lenders and in some cases will lend as much as 7.5 times income depending on an individual's circumstances.
'With house prices rising and the market going that way, people are having to borrow more to be able to afford a home,' an Abbey spokesman said last night.
'What we are doing is offering people the opportunity to borrow up to five times their salary. This is all dependent on affordability, salary, credit rating and deposit. We do not want to bankrupt anybody by doing this, but the high earners out there, with healthy deposits behind them who want to buy these houses that are just slightly out of reach will now be able to do that.'
Read full article... Read full article...
Sunday, October 29, 2006
Metals and Mining Sector Consolidation likely as Russia's SUAL targets Anglo American / Companies / Strategic News
By: Shahla_Walayat
With rumours of Russia's metals giant seeking to takeover South Africa's Anglo American, this on the back of a merger between russian minerals giants RUSAL and SUAL, creating a $25-30 billion company supplying one-eighth of the world's aluminum and 16 percent of its alumna.
The new russian giant is headed by Brian Gilbertson, former chief executive of BHP Billiton who wants to create a similar diversified company to BHP Billinton, which he was instrumental in creating in 2001. It may end up being called Anglo American Russian. Brian Gilbertson, former chief executive of BHP Billiton, reportedly wants to cobble together the global mining company Anglo American with Russian Aluminum.
Read full article... Read full article...
Friday, October 20, 2006
India's takeover of British Steel as Corus backs Tata's takeover bid / Companies / Strategic News
By: Nadeem_Walayat
Reports say that Corus, UK based steel giant, has backed Tata's $9 billion take over bid. According to the Financial Times , the board of Corus, the Anglo-Dutch steel maker, has recommended 5.1 billion pound takeover bid to the shareholders.
And the report says that Corus will make a statement about this, possibly as soon as Friday. The move will end the chances of any potential counter-bidders for the world's eighth biggest steel maker. Novolipetsk and Severstal, two Russian steel companies, and CSN, a Brazilian steel maker, are thought by some steel industry observers to be interested in making a counter bid.
Read full article... Read full article...
Tuesday, October 17, 2006
Sharp fall in US Wholesale Inflation whilst Core inflation rises strongly / Economics / Strategic News
By: Sarah_Jones
US Wholesale inflation fell by the largest amount in more than three years in September 06, as a record drop in the cost of gasoline offset rising prices in a number of other areas. The U.S. Labour Department reported that wholesale prices overall fell 1.3 per cent last month, nearly double the decline that analysts had been expecting. Gasoline prices plummeted 22.2 per cent, the biggest one-month decrease on record. But at the same time core inflation rose strongly by 0.6%.
Read full article... Read full article...
Monday, October 02, 2006
Online Gambling Companies hit by Fundamentalist Law !!! / Companies / Strategic News
By: Sarah_Jones
Today online gambling stocks took a big tumble ! As the senate passed a law on Friday effectively banning online gambling sites. PartyGaming alone saw over £2 billion slashed from its market value as its shares more than halved, crashing 60p to 46p. It was by far the biggest faller in the FTSE 100 index. There were equally large losses in the rest of the sector. Sportingbet, which also said it has abandoned its planned merger with rival firm World Gaming, saw its shares collapse by 63%, from 118.25p to 68p. Shares in 888 tumbled by 34% to 97p. Read full article... Read full article...
Tuesday, February 07, 2006
Muslim Outrage at Danish Cartoons / Politics / Strategic News
By: Sarah_Jones
Worldwide protest prompted by cartoons of the Prophet Mohammed have spread to New Zealand and explosively, to Beirut, where the Danish Embassy was set ablaze. There, thousands of Lebanese troops and police used tear gas to quell riots and the country's Interior Minister has resigned. In Afghanistan, one protestor was shot dead and others were wounded. And in Turkey, a Catholic priest has been gunned down on the doors of his church in apparent retaliation. And, as Stephen McDonell reports, now the cartoons have been published in Australia, where debate continues over insensitive media comment versus freedom of speech.Read full article... Read full article...