A Brief Look At The Week Ahead

Ben Bernanke, the new chairman of the Federal Reserve, delivers his first semi-annual monetary policy report to the US congress on Wednesday. He is expected to paint a positive picture on growth in the world's largest economy. Also on Wednesday, BHP Billiton will publish numbers that analysts expect to be impressive. The miner is riding highs across the commodities sector, and Williams De Broexpects it to register $4.4bn in net Q1 earnings. Analysts, however, will be paying close attention to any guidance from the company on how long the commodity boom might last. The company will also be expected to show headway on its integration of WMC Resources, which it bought in June last year, and to explain what effect the American hurricanes have had on its petroleum business, which now accounts for a fifth of its turnover. Property companies British Land (Tuesday) and Liberty International (Wednesday) are set to reveal, Q3 and FY results respectively. Both are expected to produce strong returns after JP Morgan upgraded its price targets, sending each to 52-week highs on Friday. British Land hit 1,193.5p per share and Liberty 1,089.5p. Bradford & Bingley has predicted that it will beat market forecasts when it unveils its annual results on Thursday. Diageo publishes interim results on Thursday, and these should show reviving fortunes. A strong Christmas has left analysts feeling good about Diageo again. Teather & Greenwood is predicting a 1.2bn pre-tax profit, marking an improvement over the 1.16bn posted in the same period a year before. Key to its turnaround could be a less alcoholic version of Guinness which the company will test-run in some pubs in Limerick next month. Kingfisher, owner of B&Q, is primed for lacklustre Q4 results after the British Retail Consortium reported flat sales for January on the high street. Analysts are predicting a decline in same-store sales at B&Q, when the company produces its trading update on Thursday. Among others in the limelight in London this week will be Electric Word on Monday; Arc International and Heavitree Brewery on Wednesday and Reed Elsevier on Thursday. Plenty there to provide some fun! Good hunting! Greystone (Greystone is Alan English, City Editor at MoneyAM.)

Weekend guide

MKT report

Aus

Outlook

S/guide

good morning campers.

Good morning all.

Good Morning all

after spread betting for 2 weeks (is it really only 2 weeks?) I managed to increase the cash by 43 - not bad considering I only need 100 to open & operate the account.

I must be a little bit more careful - I must get into the habit now of placing larger bets. So I'm going back to my original rule of only to stocks! (Lets see how long that lasts ;-))

So this morning I am still Long BT.A and Short PSN.

I like the idea of having one long and one short, I think others have used it with stocks in the same sector.

LW - if you want to research it more, search for 'pairs trading'.

lw,43% increase on the account,that is some going,very well done.

Mega...

ps LW - agree with MB, that's a fabulous return.

Will you look after my account when I go on hols for a fortnight?

G

Very funny G

- I'm sure if I was playing with 100K it would be a different matter!

There are quite a few very good threads (all in the traders room) on "pairs" trading. It seems quite a few people have tried it but it seems not to work all the time. I suppose its like many things - not always "constant".... Hence the need to contastly consider changing stratergies

Does anyone in the investors room do anything like this?

End-of-day Market Summary