Posts Tagged ‘Oil’
Market Musings 19/10/11
Since my last update, we have seen even more troubling economic newsflow. Japan cut its economic growth forecasts, chiefly due to concerns about the world economy. Portugal reports that its budget deficit is running at €3.4bn worse than expected. China’s economy grew 9.1% year-on-year in Q3, the slowest pace since 2009. Moody’s warned on its AAA rating for France. Belgian government bonds traded at a record discount to German debt – which prompted ascerbic Twitterer “Schaefdogschaef” to quip: “I still chuckle when I remember 7 days ago they said that taking 60% of Dexia’s balance sheet as a guarantee is no problem!“. UK inflation sky-rocketed – the RPI is at a 20 year high, CPI at a 3 year high. Which is precisely what you’d expect when your country’s central bank turns your country’s currency into toilet paper. The UK ‘misery’ index is now at a 19 year high, compared against the US which is at a 28 year high.
The disruptive effects of the internet continue to shine through – mall vacancies in the US stand at record levels. We all know what’s happened to music retailers, book shops, even some clothing companies. The structural trends have clear implications for commercial property and the retail industry.
(Disclaimer: I’m a shareholder in BP plc) Anadarko agreed to pay BP $4bn over the Macondo disaster. This is a clear positive for BP, and as I have noted before, settlements of this type can act as a catalyst for the share price.
Turning to Irish corporate newsflow, we saw a report in the FT that Etihad is considering a bid for the Irish government’s stake in Aer Lingus. I’m a little dubious about this story, and would echo a lot of the good points Joe Gill at Bloxham makes here. Elsewhere, the departure of Air France – KLM’s CEO should presumably knock speculation on the head that the carrier was considering a move for Aer Lingus. The intentions of IAG (British Airways and Iberia) remain unknown, but to me they seem like the most probable buyer of the government’s 25% stake (provided, one assumes, that Ryanair is willing to sell theirs too). Speaking of Ryanair’s attitude towards Aer Lingus, this morning it threatened to call an EGM and put forward a number of motions. One of those is that Aer Lingus pay a special dividend – it will be interesting to see how Ireland’s cash-strapped government votes if that goes ahead.
We also saw United Drug’s 50% UK home health jv partner Medco buy out the company’s shareholding. This is a shame as the jv has an enormous amount of potential given government drives for more people to be treated at home as opposed to in hospitals.
Elsewhere, C&C reported H1 results earlier today. The company has retained its full-year guidance despite a “tough second quarter”. Its CEO is also to step down, and be replaced by the CFO. I note that C&C’s H1 revenues were -7.2% yoy in constant currency terms (not a surprise given the weather and tough consumer backdrop), but good work on pricing (yes, this has some impact on revenues) saw operating margins rise by 3.1 percentage points.
I note the latest round of oil and gas exploration licences here failed to attract any bids from the supermajors. A lot of political “activists” and their cheerleaders in the media here like to claim that the Irish government is “giving away” our natural resources. If that is true (and I don’t for one second believe that it is), then why are the supermajors not interested?
Market Musings 26/6/11
Overall it’s been a quiet couple of days since my last recap of what’s going on in the business world, but I’ve still managed to pick up a couple of interesting nuggets of information.
The Dublin Airport Authority (DAA) released its 2010 annual report which revealed that net debt was €765 million at the end of last year versus €616 million at the end of 2009, while the pension deficit currently stands at €20m. By its own admission, the DAA’s “credit rating was reduced twice by S&P during the course of the year under review from a level of A-/Negative Outlook at the beginning of 2010 to BBB/CreditWatch Negative”. That is the lowest “investment grade” rating that an entity can have under S&P’s ratings system.
Stockbrokers NCB had an interesting footnote to the impending listing of Continental Farmers Group, a stock I’ve mentioned before. According to NCB’s number crunching, Origin Enterprises’ stake is worth just €9.3m based on the IPO price, which is less than half what it paid to acquire it. CFG lists on both the AIM and ESM markets on Tuesday.
The team in Fisher Investments have put together a really useful primer on the IEA’s release of 60m barrels of oil over 30 days that’s well worth a read. Those of you who are on Twitter would do well to follow them – they are always putting out useful briefing notes. Speaking of useful briefing notes, I had the pleasure of attending (and for the sake of full disclosure, I also helped organise) a great presentation by Cormac Lucey on the causes of Ireland’s economic misery. Cormac puts forward a very cogent argument, and I would encourage you to download his slides. Finally, another brilliant presentation that I encountered in recent days was IceCap Asset Management’s latest offering, “Hitting the Fan“.
(Disclaimer: I am a shareholder in Glanbia plc) From an Irish corporate perspective, I see that Merrion Stockbrokers are bullish on Glanbia. You can read my latest views on the company here.
This is an interesting article – 10 brands that will disappear in 2012.
Lastly, I got a good reaction both on Twitter and by email to yesterday’s article on this blog about the Irish stocks that I would consider buying when markets settle down. If you’ve any thoughts on them, or indeed alternative suggestions, then why not leave a comment on it?
Market Musings 25/5/11
I didn’t expect to have any time to blog on my travels through North and South America but with an hour to spare I thought I should scribble down a few observations. From a broad markets perspective, I wasn’t surprised to see that most of the leading share indices have declined in line with the prediction given in my last update, but I have to admit that I would have thought that the declines would have been more pronounced than they have been. We’ve seen a good bit of volatility in currency markets too. The “flight to safety” theme is well and truly in the ascendancy here with the Swiss franc rising to an all-time high against the euro. Concerns about peripheral Europe remain to the fore, but the EU elite appear hell-bent on pursuing measures that will worsen and prolong the crisis instead of doing the sensible thing and imposing haircuts on the unsustainable debts that Ireland, Portugal and Greece have.
One of the worst offenders when it comes to advocating policies to address the peripheral countries’ problems that make absolutely no sense is the French government. My heart sank when I saw that Christine Lagarde is the leading candidate to take over the IMF. Christine believes that Ireland should be raising taxes on business (translation: jobs) at a time of deep recession, which of course will serve only to heap further pain onto the Irish economy. It was staggering to see several Irish politicians enthusiastically support her candidacy, given her views about our economy. Something to remember for the next time a canvasser calls to your door.
Speaking of bad policy decisions, I note Tullow Oil’s subtle dig at the UK government in its announcement accompanying its acquisition of Nuon in the Dutch part of the North Sea. At a time where concerns about energy security are elevated it makes no sense that George Osborne raised taxes on E&P operators in his last budget.
The US debt ceiling talks continue to drag on. The reality that both the Democrats and the Republicans need to face up to is that America’s debt and deficit positions are completely unsustainable. The fiscal jaws need to close sooner rather than later, and I was pleased to see that Grover Norquist, who I’d the pleasure of meeting at a free-market conference in Brussels some years ago, is applying pressure on politicians to do the right thing and cut spending, instead of raising taxes.
Turning to the banks, I see that Moody’s has placed 14 UK banks, including Bank of Ireland’s UK subsidiary, on notice for a possible downgrade. Not a big surprise, but I do think that the UK government is trying to wean them off its support a little too early. I note an interesting suggestion by economist Ronan Lyons for a maximum LTV to be applied to future mortgages by the regulators in Ireland. That’s a sensible suggestion which I endorse, but I would go a step further and say that total borrowings should be taken into account as well – we all know imprudent folk who have built up a “portfolio of debt” that encompasses personal loans, car loans, credit card debt and mortgages. While my more libertarian-minded friends would say that individuals should be allowed do with their finances as they wish, the problem with that logic, as we’ve seen in Ireland, is that the taxpayer usually has to pick up the tab for financial messes created by other people.
Did you know that shale gas formations have the potential to double the world’s gas reserves? Staying on energy, here are some interesting perspectives on US gasoline consumption, via the good people at Morgan Stanley:
- Americans spend $500bn on gasoline a year (50% of total US oil demand).
- US households spend twice as much on gasoline and motor oil as they do on education.
- At $5/gallon (it’s at $3.85 now), assuming constant demand, US households would spend as much on gas & motor oil as they do on healthcare.
Finally, a commodity price update – Starbucks is raising the price of bagged coffee sold at its US stores by 17%. I like coffee as long-term investment given that the commodity has robust structural drivers – the demand boost that the more than 1bn “emerging middle class” people in Asia will give this over the coming years is going to be staggering to watch.
Market Musings 15/04/11
It’s been a case of “as you were” since my last blog earlier this week, with the same narrative running through to today. Despite the narrative being a bearish one, I view this as positive, as it’s reassuring to see the market play out just as you expect it to. We’ve seen more wobbles on the commodity side as Goldman Sachs continue to reiterate their negative call on commodity prices. We’ve also seen further concerning data from the BRICs which strengthens my conviction that those are not markets to play for now. I have taken some money off the table, selling one of my “core holdings”, but I don’t see a compelling reason to top up any of my “trading positions” just yet.
(Disclaimer: I am a shareholder in Ryanair) The sector that will benefit the most from a sliding oil price is of course the airline sector. West Texas Crude fell 4.1% between the start of the week and last night’s close, and this has had a corresponding benefit on the likes of Aer Lingus (+8.8% in the same period) and Ryanair (+2.1%). The negative noises around the oil price and the world economy give me confidence that Ireland’s two listed airlines will outperform over the coming months.
Anyone who reads the papers knows that the US economy is very sick. Forecasters are downgrading their expectations for the US economy, which in turn will lead to downgrades for earnings estimates for stocks. These downgrades could well see global markets retrench over the quiet summer months. In my last Business & Finance article I asked if this is going to be a year where the old adage – “Sell in May and go away” applies. I suspect it will be. The US budget deal was heralded by those lacking in intellectual curiosity as a “historic agreement”. But that’s just garbage. The amount of money the deal aims to save is $38.5bn. The US deficit over the past 12 months was $1.4trn. Complete drop in the ocean stuff. Citigroup takes up this narrative, warning on the prospects for the US dollar.
There was similar economic madness from the Irish authorities. The Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform, Brendan Howlin, said that the “stimulus” package his government is planning may be funded through higher taxes. In reality, the only thing that higher taxes will stimulate is higher unemployment.
The BRIC economies continue to cause concern for me. Especially China. I’ve previously banged the drum about the 64m empty apartments in the country, which makes Ireland’s property bubble look like “a modest overhang”. You can now add collapsing car sales and soaring inflation to the mix of things that make me bearish on China. Oh, and I almost forgot – to add to my narrative on the Chinese property market, Moody’s lowered its outlook for China’s property sector from “stable” to “negative”, saying that sales could fall as much as 30%.
Europe is still seeing severe problems, especially on the periphery. During the week the Greek 10 year bond yield went above 13% for the first time, with its spread over bunds at a Euro-era record. In an effort to address this lack of confidence, Greece plans to sell assets and cut spending, but will not restructure its debts.
The ratings agencies get little by way of enthusiasm here given their form for “closing the stable door after the horse has bolted”. However, Fitch’s decision to downgrade its ratings on Libya by three levels amused me given that Libya has no sovereign debt.
Bank of Ireland released full-year results, and while the absence of any detail on its capital raising means that many investors will wait on the sidelines until this is clarified, I was struck by the different trends it’s seeing relative to AIB. Firstly, BKIR’s deposits have been stable since November (AIB is still seeing outflows). Secondly, BKIR’s “challenged loans” were down sequentially in H2 2010, while AIB’s “criticised loans” were up sequentially in the same period. Thirdly, BKIR’s “impaired loans” stand at 9.2% (from 7.1% in H1), versus AIB’s, which are rising at a much faster rate – to 12.9% in H2 2010 (from 8.4% in H1).
Overall, very troubling macro developments. I suspect we’re in for a choppy few months in the markets.
Market Musings 12/04/11
Since my last installment we’ve seen further concerning news about the health of the UK economy, coupled with wobbles in the commodity market and further evidence that M&A activity is on the way back – in the more defensive sectors at least.
A series of updates from UK consumer oriented firms continued to support my caution around that market. Recruiter Michael Page said that market conditions “remain tough”, with public sector hiring demand “difficult”, while plant hire group Speedy Hire said that it remains cautious about the prospects for a short-term recovery. The BRC said that UK retail sales plunged by the most on record in March,
As I recently discussed in an article in Business & Finance magazine, one area that continues to benefit from positive commodity trends is agriculture. On this front, Carr’s Milling, a peer of Ireland’s Origin Enterprises, released an update which has a bullish read-across for Origin. Elsewhere, cocoa prices plunged after French special forces seized Laurent Gbagbo in the Ivory Coast, which should hopefully lead to a new chapter in that State’s troubled history. Hard commodities such as oil wobbled today after Goldmans cooled its view on them.
(Disclaimer: I am a shareholder in AIB plc). AIB released 2010 results earlier this morning, that showed the bank lost €10.2bn last year. The group says that: “business and market conditions remain challenging and the environment for operating income generation remains difficult”. While deposit outflows had been flagged last year, I still raised an eyebrow at the confirmation that customer deposits decreased by €22 billion in 2010 to €52 billion. The deposit outflow was most acute in capital markets (corporate deposits), where deposits were -65% vs -10% in AIB ROI & -24% in AIB UK. AIB’s LDR widened to 165% at end-2010 vs 123% at end-2009. In terms of the quality of the loan book, AIB’s “criticised loans” are now at 30.2% of total loans, while impaired loans are at 13.4% of total loans. On funding, at end-2010, AIB had ECB drawings of €25.2bn & another €11.4bn from Ireland’s central bank, a combined €36.6bn or 25% of the balance sheet. However, the Polish disposal and Anglo deposit acquisition will have cut that somewhat since the start of the year. All in all things look very grave for the bank, which is effectively on life support from the State for now.
On the M&A front, we had denials from both BHP Billiton and Woodside that they were in discussions over a $49bn deal, while Schneider Electric was rumoured to be planning a deal for Tyco (market cap $23bn) . There has been a lot of speculation about BP’s intentions for its troublesome TNK-BP operation, and I was interested in this article about it. In terms of deals that are going ahead, post AT&T/T-Mobile USA & Vivendi/SFR I had wondered if more telco M&A would come. Then Level 3 paid $3bn for Global Crossing. Elsewhere, Flowers Foods paid $165m for Tasty Baking, which continues the narrative of consolidation in the North American bakery market, a process which Ireland’s Aryzta has been very active in.
There was a bit of military newsflow that caught my eye this week. Firstly, data was released that show global military spending continues to rise, with the world’s biggest spender, the US, having raised its expenditure by 81% since 2001. The US Navy conducted its first test of a laser weapon at sea. Speaking of weapons, watch this video.
I do hope that I’m ultimately proven wrong, but the government here looks to be dithering every bit as much as its predecessor when it comes to pushing through reforms and fiscal consolidation. And reform is urgently needed. One example of this came in the shape of a recent Irish Times article which revealed that despite the failings in governance in many areas of the public sector in recent years, a mere 1 of the 300 external candidates for senior civil service positions in the past 3-and-a-half years was successful. Opening recruitment in the public sector to further outside competition can only be a positive in terms of incentivising better delivery of services. On the spending front, the government announced yet another “review” which simply wastes more time and thus will result in even more debt being loaded onto our battered economy. Speaking of our battered economy, Bank of Ireland became the latest forecaster to cut its estimates for GDP growth.
I’m rather sceptical on the BRIC economies at the moment, for reasons that deserve a blog all of its own. A couple of pieces of news caught my eye in this space which reinforced my suspicions. Firstly, George Soros said that inflation in China is “somewhat out of control“. This chart by Bloomberg economist Michael McDonough also tells a lot about the inflationary issues affecting these emerging markets. Finally, one of the biggest holders of US Treasurys is of course the People’s Bank of China, and I was interested in reading that a former PBOC official has described the US Treasury market as “a giant Ponzi scheme“. Elsewhere, Australian housing data looks to be turning negative – this is a trend worth keeping an eye on.
Market Musings 10/04/11
Since I last offered my thoughts on the markets on Thursday morning we’ve seen some interesting developments, especially where interest rates and commodity prices are concerned.
Thursday brought news that the Old Lady of Threadneedle Street – The Bank of England – was, as expected, keeping rates on hold for now. I wouldn’t be surprised to see a hike at the next meeting, assuming that the Q1 UK GDP reading on April 27 doesn’t throw up any surprises. One central bank that did hike was the ECB, which raised rates (by 0.25%) for the first time since July 2008. The market is bracing itself for further rate increases over the coming months, and we could well see the ECB base rate hit 2.00% by year-end. This is bad news for the 400,000 tracker mortgage holders in Ireland. As I’ve said before, Ireland has had an inappropriate monetary policy on the way up, and now we have an inappropriate policy on the way down too.
The main culprit behind these rate increases is, of course, inflation. We got a few reminders of how frothy commodity prices have gotten this week with silver breaking the $40 level for the first time since 1980, brent crude hitting a 32 month high and gold reaching another record level. Indeed, China reported its first quarterly trade deficit for 7 years this week, as soaring commodity prices have added massively to its import bill. With the Federal Reserve’s QE2 programme scheduled to end in June, it will be interesting to see what the consequences of this will be. Bloomberg economist Michael McDonough wrote an interesting piece showing a strong correlation between commodity prices and Fed Treasury purchases, which is worth a look.
Despite all of the talk of austerity here, I was surprised to see that subsidies for flights between Dublin and Galway will be maintained until the middle of the summer. The PSO has, in my view, had absolutely no justification for the past few years given the major investment by the State in both road and rail infrastructure between the two cities.
Speaking of austerity, some eye-popping numbers – the US incurred a budget deficit of $830bn in the first six months of fiscal year 2011, some $113bn than in the same period in the previous fiscal year. Figures like that really show up the “historic” $38bn US budget deal for what it is – a complete joke which barely makes a dent in the deficit. On that note, Peter Schiff, as always, tells it how it is here. If you are looking for more details on the US budget, read this thought-provoking piece by Peter Tchir.
In terms of sector calls, Davy turned negative on UK housebuilders, which for me wasn’t a huge surprise given the scary updates coming out of firms exposed to the UK consumer in recent times. I was interested to see some predators looking at European debt too – BlueBay is buying Irish government bonds while SVP is attracted by opportunities in distressed debt in Euroland. Fisher Investments, whose insights I’m a big admirer of, released its latest guidance for investors. It says that this year will be one where stock-picking skills are to the fore, a theme I’ve explored in my articles for Business & Finance magazine since the start of the year.
(Disclaimer: I am a shareholder in CRH plc and AIB plc) Turning to Corporate Ireland, the government confirmed that its stake in AIB is to rise to 92.8% – post the completion of this AIB will have 12.25bn shares in issue. Another plc that caught my eye was Fyffes. I was surprised to read that Fyffes (market cap €143m) paid its directors €2.7m last year, while Ireland’s biggest plc, CRH (market cap €12bn) paid its directors €8.0m in the same period.
In terms of the week ahead, I’ll be watching results from Punch and the IMS from Michael Page tomorrow to get more clues on the health of the UK consumer, while on Wednesday 3 Irish plcs – Tullow, Kerry and Fyffes – all go ex-div so watch out for some interesting price action there. All told my mood is bearish, I’m overweight defensives and see no reason to rebalance my portfolio.
Market Musings 07/04/11
Blogging has been non-existent of late as I headed to Cork for a few days both to avoid being disinherited (Mother’s Day!) and due to my guessing, correctly as it turned out, that the markets would be quiet before the expected ECB rate hike announcement.
So what have I learned the past while?
Firstly, I was aghast to read on Zero Hedge that the Federal Reserve has printed $2.5 trillion dollars to create 1,492,000 jobs from the recession trough. That’s $1.7m per job.
This article warns of the dangers in investing in penny stocks. If something appears too good to be true, it almost always is. I have never traded any stock that I’ve come across due to a recommendation from a ramper. A policy I’m not likely to change.
You can read about the world’s 10 strongest liquor brands here. Contrary to the stereotype only one was founded by an Irishman!
I’ve written before about how new media continues to gain market share from traditional media, and this statistic again illustrates the trend. How many Irish TV shows have a greater audience than Facebook on any given day in Ireland? Just one – The Late Late Toy Show.
(Disclaimer: I am a shareholder in Uniq plc). I’ve commented in the past about the need for consolidation among the UK food producers. Uniq, a company which recently completed a historic pension deficit-for-equity swap, announced that it has put itself up for sale. Potential suitors presumably include Ireland’s Greencore, given the product overlap between the two (hence plenty of synergies to squeeze out of a deal), Uniq’s strong relationship with M&S, a retailer that Greencore wants to get more exposure to, and Greencore is I imagine under pressure to cut a deal after being trumped by turkey mogul Ranjit Boparan in the battle to acquire Northern Foods.
I would classify my own investment style as being a mixture of contrarian and value, and the former side was very interested to hear of data compiled by Explorers of London that show that as of March 30th, the value of stocks on loan to short sellers was a paltry $273 bln, the lowest level in 5 yrs. Moreover, a survey by Investors Intelligence puts the Bulls at 57.3% (highest level since since mid-Dec 2010) and the Bears at 15.7% (the lowest level since Dec 2009). The difference of +41.6% is close to the 2007 high of +42.4%. Stats like that given the macro backdrop make me very nervous about market direction.
In my first blog post I noted the proposed $39bn AT&T-T Mobile USA deal. This has been followed by the $11bn acquisition of Vodafone’s stake in France’s SFR by Vivendi. Might these deals herald the start of a new wave of consolidation in the telecoms space?
Exchequer returns data for the first quarter of 2011 was released by the Department of Finance and it made for disappointing reading. While the spin put on it was that the numbers were “broadly in line“, the reality was that they were behind expectations. I was dismayed to read that total headline voted expenditure by the Irish government was +2% yoy in Q1 2011 – despite all of the hand-wringing about cutbacks – while even the political parties failed to lead by example, with State funding to them rising by a staggering 10% in Q1 relative to the same period last year. In addition, I note that Election 2011 cost the State some €13.9m.
Speaking of spendthrift governments, the US confirmed that it will hit its debt ceiling by May 16. Secretary Geithner’s letter to Congress is hair-raising stuff. The US’ current debt? $14.25trn. Another country with troubles, albeit well hidden ones, is China, where the Central Bank raised rates for the fourth time since October. They should have done that before 64m empty apartments were built there.
There was a touch of Groundhog Day about Tuesday, with HMV issuing yet another profit warning – its 3rd in 4 months, while oil, gold and silver all hit new highs. (Disclaimer: I am a shareholder in Ryanair plc) Oil has been messing around with a lot of brokers’ forecasts of late, and I was interested to see Goodbody slash its Ryanair forecasts, after factoring in $120 oil for the unhedged portion of its fuel requirements. That move sees FY13 EPS cut to 31.7c from 41.7c, while FY12 (where more of RYA’s needs are hedged) goes from 33.1c to 32.5c. Goodbody’s fair value on the stock has been cut by 6% to €4.70. Elsewhere within the sector British Airways raised fuel surcharges on return long-haul business class flights to up to £290, a 7 year high.
Those of you interested in gambling stocks might be interested in Davy’s observations from its recent sector conference.
The ECB is expected to raise interest rates in an hour or so, despite the well-documented pressures in Greece, Ireland and Portugal, which has become the third country to receive a bail-out. There’s a lot of confident talk about Spain dodging the need for a bailout, but I am unconvinced about that, given its horrific housing sector, Spain’s recent downgrading of its GDP forecasts and soaring unemployment.
Finally, Goodbody’s Dermot O’Leary has a great presentation from the Irish Debt Dynamics conference held yesterday in London. Amongst other things in it, here are some quotes from the European Commission, the IMF and the now Chancellor of the Exchequer from the good times to show how not even they saw the mess coming:
Ireland’s “budgetary position is sound & the budgetary strategy provides a good example of fiscal policies in compliance with SGP” – EC, 2006
Ireland’s “performance has been underpinned by outward-oriented policies, prudent fiscal policy, low taxes…” – IMF, 2007
Ireland is “a shining example of the art of the possible in long-term economic policymaking” – George Osborne, 2006
And we’re being advised by some of these people now?
Market Musings 21/03/2011
This was a day in which the main market focus was on a good news story – AT&T’s $39bn cash-and-shares bid for T-Mobile USA. A number of things caught my eye about that deal, the main ones being the whopping $1,147 per subscriber the bid values T-Mobile USA at and also the potential for regulatory issues to delay the transaction. Unsurprisingly, news of the deal saw European telcos rise today, but with Deutsche Telekom reportedly planning to use the proceeds to pay down debt as opposed to acquiring telcos in this part of the world it’s unlikely to spur further mobile phone consolidation in Europe.
I was interested to see that 2 Irish broadsheets – the Sunday Independent and Sunday Business Post – had published articles on Irish Continental Group over the weekend which mentioned the potential for another attempt at an MBO. I wonder if this press coverage is a mere coincidence or if it’s down to someone flying a kite. One to keep an eye on (Disclaimer: I am a shareholder in ICG).
The oil sector was quite busy today. Given the West is currently bombing Libya, I was interested to check out who the main oil producers are in that country – see here. How that conflict plays out may have consequences for some of those names. Elsewhere, some good news on the drilling front in both the North Sea and the Falkland Islands saw a raft of UK listed oil stocks in focus.
On the commodities front, silver is something that’s caught my eye of late. And I’m not alone. I was also interested to see earlier today that silver has gained 17% in the year to date while gold is up by less than 1%.
In the US Citigroup announced a share consolidation and the resumption of dividends, while housing data disappointed.
And finally, some humour. Nike prepared this ad before last weekend’s game in Dublin, clearly anticipating a different outcome!
Philip O'Sullivan's Market Musings 