But there were big and powerful players now almost consigned to history. Akroyd Smithers, Wedd Durlacher, Pinchin Denny and Bisgood Bishop were among the leading stock jobbers. Cazenove, Hoare & Co, Panmure Gordon, Rowe & Pitman, Greenwell and Joseph Sebag the dominant stockbrokers.
Statistics were a rare commodity, while newspapers engaged in a cat and mouse game to collect share prices. The Telegraph's market reporter masqueraded as a blue button, skipping along the trading floor, collecting prices for processing by a team of 10 boys before transmission.
There was no FTSE 100, 250 or other indicators to measure market performance, no hedge funds or sophisticated investment mechanisms capable of bringing markets down. The exception was an index for the top 30 companies.
The FT30, launched in 1935, was an attempt to "test the feel and changing moods of the equity market". It was devised by Maurice Green, a former editor of The Daily Telegraph, and Otto Clarke when they worked for the Financial News before it was absorbed by the Financial Times.
The 30 represented the cream of British business from Austin Motor to Rolls-Royce and Watney Combe & Reid. Dorman Long, Electrical & Musical Industries, International Tea Co Stores and London Brick were some of the other companies qualifying for membership. Each of the constituents was given equal weighting, unlike the market-capitalisation-based FTSE 100.
Only two of the original 30 remain in an index that can now claim to be one of the oldest in the world, while overshadowed by Big Brother footsie.
GKN and Tate & Lyle have stayed the course. Fine Spinners and Doublers, General Electric, Harrods, Bolsover Colliery, Pinchin Johnson & Associates and Vickers are among the casualties, while a revived Rolls-Royce and Imperial Tobacco are back in business in the FTSE indices.
But 85 other companies that were listed on the Stock Exchange and outside the FT30 when Queen Elizabeth ascended to the throne are still operating, starting with Calgary & Edmonton Railway in 1903 and ending with Barclays Bank in 1953.
They were all having to cope with a tough economic climate. Back in June 1952 The Daily Telegraph's City pages were taking the Chancellor to task for introducing an excess profits levy, although shares were showing signs of recovery. Sterling was "steady" at $2.78 while Wall Street was marking time with the Dow at 266.29.
The individual shareholder was still active and noisy. One elderly shareholder was reported to be winning his argument for higher dividends from three rubber companies, helped by having a large slice of the equity in each of them.
Indestructible Paint had a record year, Briggs Motor Bodies a "year of great achievement", while The Union-Castle Mail Steamship Company and P&O were worried about rising costs and a fall-off in passenger numbers.
But 1952 also saw the start of a strategic shift in institutional investment behaviour. George Ross-Goobey, manager of Imperial Tobacco's pension fund, led the way.
Mr Ross-Goobey made the first major investment in equities by a pension fund by taking advantage of the premium being offered by dividend payouts over gilt yields.
He gambled that selling long-dated government bonds at a loss to invest the portfolio entirely in equities would pay off. It did handsomely and Mr Ross-Goobey earned his place in pension fund history. There are parallels today with dividends again paying a premium over gilt yields but analysts see little prospect of a repeat because of increased pension fund regulation and other barriers.
The more dramatic change has been in the sheer volume of FT30 market activity. Back in 1952 the average weekly number of trades was running at just over 6,800. The latest figure is 100 times higher at 682,100.
Mr Winterflood smiles and chuckles as he draws comparisons between his starting point in 1953 in an almost primitive market to the electronic wizardry that processes today's business.
"We had 30 people probably doing 500 bargains a day," he says. "The run of business today is many, many thousands more."
He is nostalgic about his early days as a blue button, the messenger boys of the business, and his graduation through a loose and changing structure that opened the door for him to start his own business.
He recalls: "It was an absolutely inefficient trading system but a wonderful environment to work in. People worked hard and didn't bear grudges. It was like going into a club."
Before the electronic age the market structure had something of a feudal feeling. Stockjobbers held the ring, acting as market makers with all the shares traded going through their books. They had the role of intermediaries between stockbrokers who were barred from the world of market making.
It was all change in 1984 with "Big Bang" and the start of a revolution that still has some way to run.
But for Brian Winterflood some things don't change. He regards his business as "the last jobber in the market".
Activ Financial Expands Leadership Team - Yahoo Finance
NEW YORK--(BUSINESS WIRE)--
Activ Financial, a global provider of fully managed low-latency and enterprise market data solutions, has appointed Todd Albright to the position of Senior Vice President and Head of Sales & Marketing for the Americas. Albright, who is focused on scaling ACTIV’s sales organization and further expanding its leading global reputation, brings two decades of business strategy and operational experience working with high-growth firms within the financial services technology industry.
Albright’s addition to ACTIV’s senior management team is part of a broader expansion of ACTIV’s sales, client operations and product development organizations. The investment across each of ACTIV’s business units reflects the company’s momentum and intent to leverage its substantial enterprise content set, proven technology platform, and global distribution network to capture an increasing percentage of the $25B in annual global financial market data spend.
“We continue to expand our leadership and resources in line the company’s growth opportunity,” said Frank Piasecki, President of ACTIV. “Todd’s expertise scaling enterprise sales and marketing organizations at fast growing companies will be a critical element to our immediate and long-term success serving global institutions with mission critical services.”
Throughout his career, Albright has focused on enterprise sales, business development and operations, specializing in building and growing successful high-performance, consultative sales organizations in cloud computing, high-tech and financial services. Most recently, he served as Vice President & Head of Global Financial Services Accounts for IntraLinks (IL), where he was responsible for key contributions leading up to the company’s IPO in 2010.
Prior to IntraLinks, Albright was Senior Vice President of Sales & Major Accounts at Yext, which he joined following his tenure as Vice President of Sales at S1 Inc. (now ACI Worldwide). He started his career as a performance improvement consultant with CAP Gemini.
“I am excited to be joining ACTIV at a time of such great momentum and industry transition,” said Albright. “The company’s proven enterprise market data solutions and strong customer base will serve as the platform for rapidly growing our sales and marketing efforts, as we look to capitalize on the shifting market data landscape, and capture a larger share of the industry.”
Albright holds a Bachelor of Arts in Public Policy and German from Duke University.
For more information, visit www.activfinancial.com
About Activ Financial
Activ Financial is a global full-service market data provider specializing in the delivery of ultra low-latency, high-availability market data. ACTIV provides end-to-end solutions including direct-feed technologies, hardware acceleration data feeds, global consolidated data feeds, ticker plants, enterprise solutions and tick/news databases, all combined with a large-scale distribution and fan-out technologies. ACTIV is privately owned with offices in Chicago, New York, Tokyo, Singapore and London, serving over 400 customers worldwide, managing more than 120 feed handlers and nearly 20 data centers spread across five continents.
Stocks To Watch Monday - MJNA, IMGN, ARW - PR Inside
Medical Marijuana Inc. (Pink Sheets: MJNA) $0.042. Announced excerpts from an article by the Denver Post on Friday evening.
Led by its flagship line of THC-laced sparkling beverages, items also include chocolate truffles, crispy rice treats, fruit lozenges, capsules and droplets. The company's target market is registered medical-marijuana patients who prefer, for health or social reasons, to ingest their drug without smoking.
"If I needed to medicate, I would never consider lighting up in front of my 11-year-old daughter," said Dixie owner and managing director Tripp Keber. "A 70-year-old grandmother with glaucoma (might) never consider smoking but will put a couple of drops of elixir in her soup."
THC-infused edible products now constitute about 38 percent of total sales at dispensaries in
Colorado, compared with 12 percent two years ago, according to estimates from Keber that are based on conversations with retailers.Dixie sells products to 450 of Colorado's 593 medical-marijuana dispensaries.
Colorado law allows local manufacturers to distribute THC-infused items only within the state. But Dixie, already among the largest of Colorado's infused-product makers, is staking out a share of the national medical-marijuana market through a licensing deal that will enable its branded products to be made and sold in other states.
Publicly traded Medical Marijuana Inc. last month paid $1.45 million to acquire Dixie's intellectual property, formulas and recipes. The two companies have created a third, Red Dice Holdings, to license and market Dixie's brand and products in other states.The firm expects to be selling in Arizona, California and Washington, D.C., before the end of the year.
For a nascent industry that didn't exist 18 years ago and now is legal in only 16 states and the District of Columbia, rapid growth is forecast. Consulting firm See Change Strategy LLC said in a recent report that national medical-marijuana sales of $1.7 billion in 2011 could grow to $8.9 billion in five years. California and Colorado account for 92 percent of the current market. California leads the nation, with sales of $1.3 billion, according to the report.
What They Do: Medical Marijuana's mission is to be the premier cannabis and hemp industry innovators, leveraging its team of professionals to source, evaluate and purchase value-added companies and products, while allowing them to keep their integrity and entrepreneurial spirit.
ImmunoGen (Nasdaq: IMGN) $13.89, Today announced results from the trastuzumab emtansine Phase III EMILIA trial conducted by Roche. Trastuzumab emtansine comprises ImmunoGen's DM1 cancer cell-killing agent linked to the trastuzumab antibody developed by Genentech, a member of the Roche Group, using ImmunoGen’s method of attachment. It is in global development by Roche under an agreement between ImmunoGen and Genentech. Roche plans to apply this year for marketing approval of trastuzumab emtansine in the US and Europe using EMILIA data.
The EMILIA 991-patient trial compares trastuzumab emtansine, used alone, to lapatinib (Tykerb®) plus capecitabine (Xeloda®) for the treatment of HER2-positive metastatic breast cancer that has progressed after treatment with trastuzumab (Herceptin®) and a taxane in any setting (early or metastatic disease).The EMILIA data have been selected for presentation in a plenary session of the American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO) annual meeting this afternoon (Abstract #LBA1) and were also featured in the official ASCO press program.
“These results show that trastuzumab emtansine can make a notable difference for patients and their families,” commented Daniel Junius, President and CEO. “We developed our TAP technology to achieve markedly better anticancer therapies and believe these data validate our approach. We look forward to Roche applying for marketing approval of trastuzumab emtansine.”
In addition to EMILIA, trastuzumab emtansine is in Phase III testing for treatment of HER2-positive metastatic breast cancer in the MARIANNE and TH3RESA trials.
What They Do: ImmunoGen, Inc. develops targeted anticancer therapeutics using the Company's expertise in tumor biology, monoclonal antibodies, potent cancer-cell killing agents and engineered linkers.
Arrow Electronics (NYSE: ARW) $33.25. Announced Friday after market close the approval by the company’s Board of Directors of the repurchase of an additional $200 million of common stock through a share repurchase program. The company has spent approximately $700 million on share repurchases since 2006.
This action will permit the company to continue repurchasing shares of its common stock as market and business conditions warrant. The program can be terminated at any time. The company may enter into Rule 10b5-1 plans to facilitate repurchases under the program. A Rule 10b5-1 plan would generally permit the company to repurchase shares at times when it might otherwise be prevented from doing so under certain securities laws.
What They Do: Arrow Electronics is a global provider of products, services and solutions to industrial and commercial users of electronic components and enterprise computing solutions.
About SmallCapReview
Copyright SmallCapReview. SmallCapReview.com has been a leading site for information on Small Cap Stocks, Penny Stocks and Microcaps since 1999. SmallCapReview has been compensated three thousand five hundred dollars by a third party SmallCapVoice for its efforts with regards to Medical Marijuana. As with any stock, companies we select to profile involve a degree of investment risk and volatility, particularly small-caps. All investors are cautioned that they may lose all or a portion of their investment if they decide to make a purchase in any of our profiled companies.
Egypt Stocks Slump to Two-Month Low on Verdict, Global Economy - Businessweek
Egypt’s stocks tumbled to the lowest level in almost two months after the verdict in the trial of former President Hosni Mubarak sparked protests and on concern global economic growth is slowing.
Orascom Construction Industries (OCIC) declined to the lowest intraday level since April 22. Ezz Steel, the country’s biggest publicly traded manufacturer of the metal, lost 1.5 percent. The benchmark EGX30 Index (EGX30) dropped 1.9 percent to 4,599.13, the lowest intraday level since April 11, at 11:09 a.m. in Cairo.
A Cairo court handed life sentences to Mubarak and his interior minister Habib El-Adli for complicity in the deaths of demonstrators during last year’s apprising. It also acquitted six assistants of El-Adli of the charges related to the killings and Mubarak’s two sons of corruption charges. All decisions are subject to appeal. Thousands of demonstrators filled Cairo’s Tahrir Square within hours of the verdict to voice their discontent.
“Today’s market is definitely politically driven and the global scene is not helping make things better,” said Omar Darwish, equity sales trader at Cairo-based Commercial International Brokerage Co. “People are back in Tahrir demanding the fall of the regime as if nothing had happened over the past year and a half and this may result in the delay of the presidential election.”
EFG-Hermes Retreats
European stocks declined for the fourth week in five and U.S. shares tumbled, erasing the Dow Jones Industrial Average (INDU)’s 2012 gain. Oil dropped 3.8 percent in New York on June 1 after the Labor Department said American employers added the fewest workers in a year in May. The jobless rate in the euro region, which has been in the grips of a debt crisis for three years, reached a record high, of 11 percent in April and March.
Orascom Construction, the country’s biggest publicly traded builder, lost 1.3 percent to 254.5 pounds. Ezz Steel (ESRS) slipped to 6.55 Egyptian pounds, poised for the lowest close since April 11.
EFG-Hermes Holding SAE (HRHO) lost 0.6 percent after the biggest publicly traded Arab investment bank rejected a takeover bid from Planet IB Ltd. in favor of a joint-venture with Qatar’s QInvest LLC.
To contact the reporter on this story: Ahmed A Namatalla in Cairo at anamatalla@bloomberg.net
To contact the editor responsible for this story: Claudia Maedler at cmaedler@bloomberg.net
Stocks higher on housing but Europe worries linger - Yahoo Finance
NEW YORK (AP) -- Hopes that the U.S. housing market is starting to recover and the economy is on the mend sent stocks higher on Wall Street.
But the gains are being constricted from continuing worries that Greece's political deadlock could fracture the European Union and roil global markets.
The Dow Jones industrial average rose 75 points Wednesday to 12,707. The Standard & Poor's 500 added nine points to 1,340. The Nasdaq composite rose 15 points to 2,908.
Home builder stocks rose after the Commerce Department said builders started work on new homes at an annual pace of 717,000 last month, 2.6 percent more than in March. It was a heartening sign for the beleaguered housing market, which seems to be forming a bottom and starting to recover. Construction rose for both single-family homes and apartments.
Target Corp. rose after a strong earnings report. Target said revenue at stores opened at least a year rose 5.3 percent, the strongest performance in six years for that period. Target's results illustrate that Americans are beginning to spend cautiously as economic uncertainty persists. Though the job market is still shaky, falling gas prices have given shoppers hope.
As signs of a global economic slowdown persist, prices of commodities have come off highs. Oil prices continued their march downwards from $105 in the beginning of the month to $93. Crude oil prices were down $1 on Wednesday. Gold prices fell $18 to $1539, the lowest level since December.
In Europe, a potentially chaotic situation was developing in Greece, where power-sharing talks collapsed Tuesday and new elections were called for next month. There is already concern in other European countries about how a possible Greek exit from the euro would affect the rest of the continent.
On Wednesday, Spain's prime minister warned that the country, which is trembling under a 24.4 percent unemployment rate, could be locked out of international markets due to problems in the EU.
"Right now there is a serious risk that (investors) will not lend us money or they will do so at an astronomical rate," Mariano Rajoy told Spanish lawmakers.
Financial pressures extend well beyond Europe too. The Indian rupee hit a new all-time low against the dollar with investors increasingly seeking a safe place to put their money. The rupee sank to 54.44 against the dollar Wednesday, surpassing the prior low of 54.39 on December 15.
Among other stocks making big moves:
— JC Penney plunged 14 percent, the most in the S&P 500 index, after the retailer reported a bigger-than-expected first-quarter loss. Sales plummeted as shoppers are rejecting their new pricing plan.
— Abercrombie & Fitch fell 11 percent after reporting that its first-quarter net income shrank 88 percent because of higher costs and declining sales in established stores and in Europe.
— General Electric rose 3.6 percent, the most of the 30 stocks in the Dow, after the company said its finance unit will pay a special dividend of $4.5 billion to the parent company this year. It had suspended the payments in 2009 during a freeze in credit markets.
Money, Dedication Likely Why Bucs Went With Clark Over Winslow - The Ledger
But the move was more than just numbers. Clark's professionalism will go a long way in the locker room of the young Bucs.
Clark was signed as a free agent after being released by the Indianapolis Colts, who purged most of their team. Winslow was traded to the Seattle Seahawks for a conditional seventh-round pick.
If the team goes strictly by the numbers, the deal would never have been made. The two have basically the same numbers over their careers. Winslow is 28, 6-foot-4 and 240 pounds, while Clark is 32, 6-foot-3 and 252 pounds.
Winslow has 10 more catches, while Clark has 51 more receiving yards. Their average per catch is nearly identical (Clark 11.4 to Winslow's 11.1).
The major difference, strictly by the numbers, is in touchdown receptions, where Clark has a 2-to-1 edge over Winslow (46 to 23).
That alone could have made a difference although Winslow's fans could counter with the past three years.
During that span, Winslow did not miss a game and averaged 72 catches during that time.
Clark, who battled injuries, has averaged 11 games and 57 catches over the same time period.
While critics will likely point out Bucs special assistant Butch Davis had something to do with Winslow being traded (the duo were together in Cleveland), that likely did not play much of a role.
What likely played a role was Winslow's salary.
Winslow was scheduled to make $3.3 million, not including a little over $1 million in workout and roster bonuses.
Clark signed a one-year deal worth up to $2.7 million with just $1 million guaranteed.
"Certainly there's a business side of this game at this level," said Tampa Bay coach Greg Schiano, who wouldn't say much else about trading Winslow.
Although Clark has played a full season just once entering his 10th season, he has played 15 games four times.
"He's a proven player," Schiano said of Clark. "I know he's had some health issues of late, some issues that have kept him from playing at the level of football he played earlier in his career. I believe whole-heartedly he's going to return to form and play the way he's capable."
Clark is going to do everything he can to get back to his high standards.
"Once you stop proving yourself, you're out the door," he said. "You have to bring your A game every day. That's what makes guys special who stay in the league a long time. To do it day in and day out (and for years), finding those pros is special.
"I'm just trying to be consistent and just be a player that (Bucs quarterback Josh Freeman) and the offense can depend on," he said. "That's all I tried to be. You are never guaranteed 100 catches. You are never guaranteed 20 catches. You have to earn every one of them."
That determination and dedication is why Clark is now a Buc.
Money market fund assets rise to $2.572 trillion - Yahoo Finance
NEW YORK (AP) -- Total U.S. money market mutual fund assets rose by $7.87 billion to $2.572 trillion for the week that ended Wednesday, the Investment Company Institute said Thursday.
Assets of the nation's retail money market mutual funds fell by $4.27 billion to $887.46 billion, the Washington-based mutual fund trade group said. Assets of taxable money market funds in the retail category fell $2.93 billion to $701.97 billion. Tax-exempt retail fund assets fell $1.33 billion to $185.49 billion.
Meanwhile, assets of institutional money market funds rose $12.13 billion to $1.685 trillion. Among institutional funds, taxable money market fund assets rose $12.73 billion to $1.599 trillion; assets of tax-exempt funds fell $600 million to $86.37 billion.
The seven-day average yield on money market mutual funds was 0.03 percent in the week that ended Tuesday, unchanged from the previous week, said Money Fund Report, a service of iMoneyNet Inc. in Westborough, Mass.
The 30-day average yield was also unchanged from last week at 0.03 percent. The seven-day compounded yield was flat at 0.03 percent. The 30-day compounded yield was unchanged at 0.03 percent, Money Fund Report said.
The average maturity of portfolios held by money market mutual funds fell to 45 day from 46 days in the previous week.
The online service Bankrate.com said its survey of 100 leading commercial banks, savings and loan associations and savings banks in the nation's 10 largest markets showed the annual percentage yield available on money market accounts was unchanged from last week at 0.13 percent.
The North Palm Beach, Fla.-based unit of Bankrate Inc. said the annual percentage yield available on interest-bearing checking accounts was unchanged from the week before at 0.06 percent.
Bankrate.com said the annual percentage yield on six-month certificates of deposit was also unchanged at 21 percent from the previous week. The yield on one-year CDs was unchanged at 0.33 percent. It fell to 0.52 from 0.53 percent on two-and-a-half-year CDs. It was flat at 1.12 percent on five-year CDs.
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