Alcoa misses estimates have analysts got Q1 wrong?
Alcoa the aluminum giant is also a bellwether stock as the first to report in the earnings season. Its results published after the bell yesterday missed analysts estimates. In past quarters they have always been…
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Tougher times for UAE banks to force a rethink on service levels
UAE banks have come through a tough couple of years since the global financial crisis but face further pressures on profit margins from ‘regulatory pressures to raise capital’ and ‘an inability to deliver high returns…
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Villas to lead Dubai property recovery
Prices of villas in upscale communities have stabilized over the first quarter, reported estate agent Cluttons, while apartment prices have dipped by up to nine per cent in Dubai.
Apartments are still over-priced because of…
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Investment banks take a big hit from regional unrest
The unrest, revolutions and civil war that have swept across the region in the past few months led to a 42 per cent slump in mergers and acquisitions to $4.9 billion, comparing the first quarter…
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39% surge in oil imports puts China in first trade deficit for seven years
The world’s second largest economy has posted a $1 billion trade deficit for the first quarter of 2011, China’s first trade deficit in seven years.
Soaring raw material costs are to blame with oil imports,…
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Low mortgages make some apartments cheaper to buy than rent in Dubai
The financial case for buying rather than renting in Dubai is currently tilting in favour of buying with mortgage interest rates down from eight per cent a year ago to around six per cent. But…
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Marc Faber on how to protect your savings against inflation
Marc Faber says that he asked an audience of Singapore fund managers last week whether they had more than five per cent of their own savings in gold, and nobody raised their hand. He says…
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Just the start of a long decline for Bahrain?
Bankers putting a brave face on the unrest and subsequent military clampdown of the past few months in Bahrain told The National newspaper that damage to the local economy is in the range of $2-3…
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Is Middle East and North Africa comparable to the fall of the Berlin Wall?
Goldman Sachs economist Jim O’Neill was one of the first to spot the emerging Bric countries, and coined that term for Brazil, Russia, India and China. Now he is saying the Middle East and North…
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Don’t sell your silver says Jim Rogers
Legendary commodities bull Jim Rogers says nobody should be selling their silver now, and that he will be buying more on any price weakness.
Mr Rogers also reveals that he was buying gold and silver…
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