A brief look at last week and the week ahead, the Weekly Review from IG Index.
Weekly Trading Report 25 January 2010 - Last Week's Trading Highlights
While US banking giants reported more quarterly losses, $7.6 billion for Citigroup and $194 million for Bank of America respectively, President Obama announced a major shake-up of the banking sector on Thursday.
Plans included a ban on retail banks using their own money to bet on the stock market, alongside the potential break-up of some of the bigger banks.
The impact was felt immediately, with Goldman Sachs, BoA and JPMorgan's share prices falling between 4% and 6%.
Friday morning saw repercussions on the FTSE, with falls for Barclays (-3.9%), RBS (-2.2%) and HSBC (-0.2%), while inter-dealer broker ICAP plunged 6% to 400p a share.
Up until then the major story of the week had been the protracted takeover of Cadbury by US food giant Kraft.
Cadbury's board has advised shareholders to accept Kraft's revised offer of 840p per share, in a takeover move worth £11.5 billion.
It wasn't all good news for Kraft however, as its largest shareholder Warren Buffet expressed doubts over the move.
Elsewhere, US technology firms had a mixed week. Google saw Q4 revenues of $6.67 billion, up from $5.7 billion the year before.
Google's share price dropped on Thursday though, as the figures came in lower than expected. IBM also saw healthy Q4 results, making a profit of $4.8 billion, up 9% from the previous quarter.
Meanwhile the week's macroeconomic data revealed that UK unemployment dropped for the first time in 18 months.
The ONS report showed the total number fell by 7000 between September and November 2009, and now stands at to 2.46 million – the first drop since the recession began.
However, UK government borrowing figures showed that there is still work to be done, with a new record for the month of December of £15.7 billion, albeit less than expected, an indication of the biting impact of the recession on the government's purse strings.
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Weekly Trading Report 25 January 2010 - The Week Ahead
Indicators
In a quiet week for economic releases at home, the major standout is GDP data for the fourth quarter on Tuesday, which should confirm that the UK economy has returned to growth.
Across the Atlantic, Q4 GDP is released on Friday, while on Wednesday the FOMC will reveal if it is to keep US interest rates at their record low.
Company Results and Reports
It's another busy week on the US reporting roster, with a number of notable companies releasing quarterlies.
Among the names to look out for are Apple, who kick-start the week on Monday, internet giant Yahoo on Tuesday, followed by Microsoft and Amazon on Thursday.
At home meanwhile it's a quieter week, but BSkyB's half-year numbers will be closely watched on Thursday.
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For previous weeks see below.
Note - Spread Betting carries a high level of risk to your capital and you can lose more than your initial investment, it may not be suitable for all investors. Ensure you only speculate with money that you can afford to lose and that you fully understand the risks involved and seek independent financial advice where necessary.
'Financial Spread Betting 25 January 2010', Review by D. Jones, last update: 25-Jan-10
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