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You are browsing the archive for 2014 February.

AIM oil and gas favourites languish near lows

Feb 14, 2014 at 7:11 am in AIM by contrarianuk · Leave a Comment »

It’s been a disappointing start to the year to say he least for investors in AIM oil and gas companies, with many favourites like Gulf Keystone Petroleum, Bowleven, Xcite Energy, Rockhopper Exploration at rock bottom.

African Barrick Gold – what a turnaround story!

Feb 13, 2014 at 11:03 am in General Trading by contrarianuk · Leave a Comment »

Last summer I had some fun and games trying to trade gold miner, African Barrick Gold (ABG), and most of it rather unsuccesfully as its shares fell off a cliff. In June 2013 they went down below £1 and right now they are £2.60, an incredible recovery as a new management team has put in place new cost cutting measures to offset a weak gold price to boost profitability.

Goldman Sachs tops up stake in Blinkx after Harvard Professor Ben Edelman casts doubt on company

Feb 12, 2014 at 6:42 am in General Trading by contrarianuk · 2 Comments »

At the end of January Harvard Professor Ben Edelman caused a storm when he published a blog post on internet video company Blinkx called The Darker Side of Blinkx which caused the internet video company’s shares to go into free fall.

New Fed Chair Janet Yellen meets Congress for the first time

Feb 11, 2014 at 3:30 pm in Market Commentary by contrarianuk · Leave a Comment »

New Federal Reserve Chairwoman Janet Yellen is meeting Congress for the first time today. Business as usual compared with the Ben Bernanke era by the look of it particularly as she is keen to maintain the era of ultra easy money for the foreseeable future.

Sunday Times articles cast doubt on Premier Oil commitment to Falkland Islands

at 6:42 am in AIM by contrarianuk · Leave a Comment »

The Falklands Islands oil campaign has always been controversial for all sorts of reasons. First there’s the agitation of the Argentinian government who argue that companies have no right to produce oil since sovereignty of the Falklands should be Argentine not British. Then there was all the drilling ups and downs with Desire Petroleum (now part of Falkland Oil and Gas), and Rockhopper Exploration.

Equity market correction appears to be over for now as investors dismiss poor US non-farm payroll data and pile back into markets

Feb 9, 2014 at 4:06 pm in Market Commentary by contrarianuk · Leave a Comment »

The first 5 weeks or so of 2014 proved to be the fertile correction territory that was so badly needed after the huge gains in global equity markets in 2013. With worries about emerging markets triggering a sell off in currencies, the VIX, the fear index, spiked last week to levels not seen since the 2008/2009 financial crisis.

January 2014 US non-farm payroll data comes in light

Feb 7, 2014 at 1:41 pm in Market Commentary by contrarianuk · Leave a Comment »

The US non-farms payroll data for January just came in. The data from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics was expected to show 180,000-190,000 workers were hired but the number came in light at just 113,000. The unemployment rate was expected to remain unchanged at 6.7% but came in at 6.6%, the lowest since October 2008.

Another earnings report, another profits warning for giant of old, Sony

Feb 6, 2014 at 1:26 pm in General Trading by contrarianuk · Leave a Comment »

Another disastrous announcement from consumer electronics giant Sony with the company’s ADS’s listed on the NYSE down 6% pre market open.

GCM resources goes through the roof on Bangladeshi coal policy rumours

at 12:01 pm in AIM by contrarianuk · Leave a Comment »

The huge rise in the GCM Resources share price caught my attention yesterday. The company used to be called Asia Energy and its main focus is the Phulbari open pit Coal Project in Bangladesh.

Twitter shares due for first earnings report after big hitting IPO

Feb 5, 2014 at 12:34 pm in General Trading by contrarianuk · Leave a Comment »

Twitter (TWTR) shares had their IPO on the NYSE on November 2013, with an IPO (Initial Public Offering) price of $26, valuing the company at $14.2 billion. On the first day of trading they closed at $44.90, up more than 72% on the day. Today they trade at $66 valuing the company at $36 billion.