| Friends Provident to hold on to F&C
Today is crunch time for embattled insurer Friends Provident. It is due to unveil a review of its business following the collapse of a nil-premium merger with Resolution Life last year. The company is expected to say its 52pc stake in fund manager F&C, worth about £700m, is up for sale. About 17pc of F&C stock is held by another asset manager -Dawnay Day - and the remainder is freely floated. In the past year, the share price has oscillated wildly as bid rumours came and went. But it is now trading flat compared to six months ago when Questor tipped it as a Sell. More recently, the price has been inflated by expectations that a bidder could emerge and one or two are tipped to be interested. Simultaneously, however, about 27m of the 45m F&C shares available on the stock market are being "shorted" by those expecting bad news.
Stocks Slip On Wall Street After Fed Cut, Europe's Markets Rebound
The Federal Reserve's surprise short-term interest rate cut today helped European markets rebound from steep Monday losses but sent Wall Street on a wild ride through negative territory. The Dow Jones industrial average opened the day down 465 points, managed to pull nearly even in midday trading, dove once again and tried to muster a rally that eventually fell short by the close of trading. The Dow finished down 128.11 points, or 1 percent. The Nasdaq composite index closed off 47.75, or 2 percent, and the Standard & Poor's 500 index was down 14.69, or 1 percent. In an attempt to head off a recession, the Fed cut the federal funds rate, the rate at which banks lend to each other, to 3.5 percent, from 4.25 percent. The last time it cut rates that much was in 1984.
Top Explosive Short-Squeeze Stocks
With the sharp stock market turnarounds we've had recently, especially the 600-point swing last Wednesday, there are plenty of opportunities to make money on potential short-squeeze plays. A short squeeze takes place when short-sellers scramble to buy in their short positions on a stock that has started to rise on good news. When they start covering their bearish bets, the stock price is driven even higher. The American Stock Exchange is considered to be a more volatile market than the New York Stock Exchange, and therefore the short squeezes in Amex stocks can be even more explosive. Stockpickr has reviewed the list of all the Amex stocks with market caps over $500 million and compiled the stocks with the highest short ratios, a measurement of how extensively shorted the stock is, in the Top Amex Short-Squeeze Stocks.
Alberta to miss climate talks
Interestingly favorable headlines.
Like many in BC, I have not always been a fan of Campbell's policies. But in this (and, I have to say, increasingly in other areas), he's helping to lead. I urge him and the other premiers to take brave leadership on this.
Another subtlety: dealing with the impacts of climate change. People tend to get distracted with the passion on how to fight it (which we should), but surely all sides can agree that we need to plan to mitigate the negative impact as much as possible? Good angle for the premiers to take.
Or are there still rational people who believe that climate change is not occurring?
B Posted 29/01/08 at 5:21 AM EST | Alert an Editor | Link to Comment .
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