German Unemployment Rises, Alibaba Reports Tripling in Profits
August 28, 2014 7:35 am
The Dow closed up slightly at 0.09% while the S&P closed roughly level, consolidating recent gains which saw the S&P 500 breach the long-elusive 2000 mark for the first time. The Asian session was slightly gloomier, with the Hang Seng slipping as investors took advantage of recent rises to sell off stock, whilst the Nikkei was down with a lack of figures to look to – a whole range of Japanese figures are due to be released tonight, which should give a further indication as to how the Japanese economy has reacted in the wake of the recent significant rise in sales tax.
In Europe the DAX is down by around 0.75% after disappointing German unemployment figures released this morning showed a 1k rise in unemployment rather than the 5k decrease expected – a far cry from the 11k decrease clocked in July. The CAC is down by around 0.5%, feeling the roll-on effect from Germany as well as continuing to react to recent political developments; this week saw a cabinet reshuffle, with Economy Minister Arnaud Monteborg resigning partly due to disagreements over austerity measures. Tension in Eastern Europe is also playing its part, as reports (and a photo) of a Russian T-72BM tank sighted in Ukraine seems to provide further evidence of direct Russian involvement in Eastern Ukraine after serving Russian troops were captured in the region earlier this week. The Russian government has previously claimed that Russian tanks in the region were tanks seized from Ukrainian forces by pro-Russian militants. However, there are no reports of the T-72BM ever having been sold to other countries by Russia. The MICEX index is currently down by about 2%
Meanwhile in company news, reports have been released suggesting that Apple is due to release an iWatch together with the latest version of its iPhone on September 9th. Apple shares closed up by 1.23% yesterday as excitement mounts ahead of the expected launch date, which is less than two weeks away. Speaking of mounting excitement, Alibaba has reported a tripling in profits to almost $2 billion for the last quarter, ratcheting up anticipation ahead of the firm’s upcoming IPO on the NYSE, due in September. A stratospheric IPO for Alibaba would mean a major payday for Yahoo, which owns over 20% of the e-commerce company.
The Dow closed up slightly at 0.09% while the S&P closed roughly level, consolidating recent gains which saw the S&P 500 breach the long-elusive 2000 mark for the first time. The Asian session was slightly gloomier, with the Hang Seng slipping as investors took advantage of recent rises to sell off stock, whilst the Nikkei was down with a lack of figures to look to – a whole range of Japanese figures are due to be released tonight, which should give a further indication as to how the Japanese economy has reacted in the wake of the recent significant rise in sales tax.
In Europe the DAX is down by around 0.75% after disappointing German unemployment figures released this morning showed a 1k rise in unemployment rather than the 5k decrease expected – a far cry from the 11k decrease clocked in July. The CAC is down by around 0.5%, feeling the roll-on effect from Germany as well as continuing to react to recent political developments; this week saw a cabinet reshuffle, with Economy Minister Arnaud Monteborg resigning partly due to disagreements over austerity measures. Tension in Eastern Europe is also playing its part, as reports (and a photo) of a Russian T-72BM tank sighted in Ukraine seems to provide further evidence of direct Russian involvement in Eastern Ukraine after serving Russian troops were captured in the region earlier this week. The Russian government has previously claimed that Russian tanks in the region were tanks seized from Ukrainian forces by pro-Russian militants. However, there are no reports of the T-72BM ever having been sold to other countries by Russia. The MICEX index is currently down by about 2%
Meanwhile in company news, reports have been released suggesting that Apple is due to release an iWatch together with the latest version of its iPhone on September 9th. Apple shares closed up by 1.23% yesterday as excitement mounts ahead of the expected launch date, which is less than two weeks away. Speaking of mounting excitement, Alibaba has reported a tripling in profits to almost $2 billion for the last quarter, ratcheting up anticipation ahead of the firm’s upcoming IPO on the NYSE, due in September. A stratospheric IPO for Alibaba would mean a major payday for Yahoo, which owns over 20% of the e-commerce company.
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