TODAY’S FAYRE

TODAY’S FAYRE – Tuesday, 11th December 2012

‘Get all the gold and silver that you can,
Satisfy ambition, animate
The trivial days and ram them with the sun,
And yet upon these maxims meditate:
All women dote upon an idle man
Although their children need a rich estate;
No man has ever lived that had enough
Of children's gratitude or woman's love.
No longer in Lethean foliage caught
Begin the preparation for your death
And from the fortieth winter by that thought
Test every work of intellect or faith,
And everything that your own hands have wrought
And call those works extravagance of breath
That are not suited for such men as come
proud, open-eyed and laughing to the tomb.”

William Butler Yates – poet & – 1865-1939

“The day may dawn when fair play, love for one’s fellow men, respect for justice and freedom, will enable tormented generations to march forth triumphant from the hideous epoch in which we have to dwell. Meanwhile, never flinch, never weary and never despair!” – Sir Winston Churchill – statesman and Prime Minister – 1878-1965

2012 was probably the greatest sporting year in living memory.  This Sunday the BBC hosts Sports Personality of the Year.  There won’t be a footballer up for consideration, nor a cricketer – one has to feel sorry for Alistair Cook, who would probably have cake-walked it in a moderate year.  Rory McIlroy will only be mentioned honourably in despatches.  It will be all about the Olympics and the Paralympics and quite right.  Initially after week one I though Bradley Wiggins, who won not only the Tour de France but also an Olympic gold would cruise in with a bit to spare.  Now Jessica Ennis and Mo Farrow are equally strong candidates! Andy Murray is a 14/1 shot and how about this for a betting rag – Sir Chris Hoy at 125/1 with Paddy Power? 

The US debt charade gathered a bit of Christmas spirit or momentum as John Boehner cosied up with the President at the White House with no official communiqué being posted on the outcome.  Then the President went to Detroit and spoke to the car workers about the rich paying higher taxes in his silly ‘hill-Billy’ accent, much in the same manner as Tony Blair used to use his ridiculous Thames estuary accent to very poor effect when he was in Essex and Kent.  However President Obama did have a useful ally in Sir Mervyn King, the Governor of the Bank of England, who, when addressing the Economics Club in New York told his receptive audience that he was confident that the US would not fall off the Fiscal Cliff, even though for a while the US might be hanging on by its finger tips – guffaw, guffaw!!  So she we take that as a yes? – Mission accomplished and eventually agreed?

The Italian job occupied many people’s agenda as Mario Monti served notice to resign due to lack of support from Silvio Berlusconi’s party, though he insisted that his resignation would not leave a political vacuum.  He boldly suggested that Italy was now a greater force in EU politics than it had been a few years ago – I somehow doubt that.  However the net effect of Berlusconi’s intrusion back to the front line of the political fray, despite being 18 points behind in the polls was to see the Italian MIB close 2.1% lower, with banks very much under the cosh.  Also Italian bond yields, particularly the 10-year rallied by some 25 pips to 4.82%.  The Euro against the Greenback looked temporarily soft at $1.2950. Some ‘shrewdies’ think Monti could well be persuaded to stand again as PM at the February elections. 

Let’s deal with the New York State Department of Financial services’ fine of $1.9 billion levied on HSBC for money laundering for maybe as much as $7 billion from Mexico – presumably labelled as drug money and unspecified sums from some Middle-Eastern terrorist organisations.  HSBC pleaded guilty and stepped up to the plate.  The amount may be increased to $2.5 billion at a later date. HSBC’s share price took it on the chin and in HK the shares rose at tad by 0.25%.  The Compliance director has gone, but one wonders whether that leaves Lord Stephen Green and Michael Geogeghan, the erstwhile chairman and CEO, apart from hugely embarrassed.   In the case Standard Chartered Banks which yesterday was fined a further $327 million for money laundering from Iran on top of a similar amount, Peter Sands the CEO vigorously defended the bank’s position and only owned up to a $15m worth of transgressions.  Though Standard Chartered is well within its rights to do so, I wonder if its move was strategically smart or sensible.  Not that Standard Chartered is not involved in LIBOR transgressions, but this may well give the US authorities the excuse to vent its spleen on UK based banks, rather than bring all banks – including US banks, which also have allegedly transgressed – to book at the same time.  Time alone will tell.

Thyssen Krupp posted desperate numbers today with a loss of €4.7 billion, which included write-downs for its 2 US operations, whose value has dropped from €13 billion to €9 billion.  There will be no dividend this time.

Whitbread posted an encouraging trading statement suggesting that the company was on track for its year end forecast.  In the 3^rd quarter Whitbread sales were up 14.4%, thanks to the Olympics and like for like sales in the last 13 weeks were up by 3.3%. Premier Inns and Costa Coffee are 2 brands the consumer wants to know. ASOS saw sales up in the 1^st quarter by 24% and in the US they were up by a whopping 57%. Yesterday the FTSE, DAX and CAC made modest gains and on the Street of Dreams investors were bolstered by McDonald’s sales in November – better than expected and a few chosen tech stocks which shone through the watery winter sunshine – Cisco and Hewlett-Packard – the latter has come out fighting against Autonomy and its former CEO Mike Lynch. The DOW was up 0.1% and the S&P 500 and NASDAQ by 0.3%.

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