BETTER THAN EXPECTED US JOBS DATA PUSHING MARKETS HIGHER - Business sentiment around the world this morning is being driven by monthly employment statistics in the US released on Friday. The figures were better than expected. Buyers of export shares were in the driving seat, emboldened with confidence that the US will not slip in to a double dip recession after all.
James Forbes, chief equity strategist at Irish Life Investment Managers, says that a lot of relatively negative data had come out of the US last month and this was reflected in global markets. But on Friday sentiment changed with US jobs data showed that 54,000 jobs were lost in August, much better that the 100,000 feared lost. In reaction, markets around the world rallied, Mr Forbes said. He added that sentiment remains positive today.
Last week building materials group CRH issued a profit warning and Mr Forbes said that its fortunes in the US are very much tied up with US spending. He says that President Barack Obama is trying to keep the US recovery going, while at the same time keeping the US deficit under control. He says that jobs growth in the US private sector will ultimately be positive for CRH. On Anglo, the strategist says that the bonds market would really welcome some sort of roadmap on the bank's future.
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OIL PRICES NOT EXPECTED TO INCREASE MUCH IN THE SHORT TERM - The last three days of rotten weather does put a chill in the air and make you think about turning on the heating. Bord Gáis does a monthly energy index which looks at the costs of the raw materials that go into powering homes and industry.
Michael Kelleher, an energy trading analyst with Bord Gáis, says that oil prices have been driven by macro-economic conditions with a strong relationship between currency, equity markets and commodities recently. Oil prices fell from $78 to $74 a barrel in August and he predicts that oil prices will not see big rises in the near future due to the huge oil stockpiles in the US.
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MORNING BRIEFS - One of the ISEQ-listed companies has said it wants to change its name. Blackrock International Land, which was a spin-off from Fyffes, wants to be known as the rather posh sounding Balmoral International Land. The name change is not about snobbery though, it is to settle a legal dispute with a US entity called Blackrock Inc, the US based international asset management company.
*** Anglo Irish Bank's chief executive Mike Aynsley told the Sunday Business Post paper that the idea of splitting Anglo in to a good bank and a bad bank 'doesn't look like it's going to happen.' Today Brian Lenihan is in Brussels for talks about what to do with the chronically loss making former provider of property loans whose cost to the country so far is about €25 billion.
*** €1.4m is being made available by Government to train managers of small and medium enterprises. The fund is on foot of recommendations on improving productivity and skills in the SME sector, where there are 270,000 businesses operating, and will operate on a pilot basis initially.
*** Thirty Irish firms are in Russia today on the start of a trade trip. Half of those going are technology or service sector companies. Russia is Europe's largest emerging market and our exports there grew 66% in the first five months of the year.
*** Academics from University College Cork are off to China to recruit more Chinese students to come to Cork to study and try to develop research partnerships.
*** On the currency markets, the US is worth $1.2904 and 83.4 pence sterling.
