With more gadgets using mobile technology, the rise of a banking portal for mobile phones seems likely. The question is whether Monitise, a UK company, will be behind that portal.
Since spinning off in June from Morse, a technology consultancy, it has signed partnerships with big banks and telecoms companies in the UK and US. It also claims to have achieved “scalability” – with much of the investment in system development done and the remaining challenge just rolling it out.
Since floating at 22p, Monitise shares have fallen to 12½p, giving it a market capitalisation of about £32m ($63m). So far, 110,000 customers have signed up, below Monitise’s own expectations. The company is not expected to be profitable until 2010 and its revenue model is still evolving.
In the UK, banks pay a fee per-user per-month, while in the US they must also pay a monthly licence fee. There are many competitors. Alastair Lukies, chief executive, thinks 30 companies offer similar technology.
In November, Qualcomm, a wireless technology company, bought Firethorn, a smaller US rival to Monitise, for $210m (£107m). That could mean Monitise is undervalued or overmatched, depending on your point of view.
http://www.ft.com/
Thursday, February 21, 2008
Gold Price Jumps as Banking Stocks Tumble; Platinum Gains Despite "No Actual Shortage"
Gold Prices shot higher early Tuesday to hit a one-week high of $918.90 per ounce – up more than $18 from yesterday's low – as European equities bounced from a sharp fall in banking stocks.
The value of Credit Suisse, the second largest Swiss banking group, sank nearly 10% at the opening in Zurich today after it trebled the size of write-downs on its debt investments.
Only last week banking analysts agreed that Credit Suisse had "weathered 2007 comparatively well" after it wrote down $1.4 billion for Oct. to Dec.
"This is a disaster, this could be the tip of the iceberg," says Peter Thorne, an analyst at institutional brokerage Helvea.
"According to the presentation Credit Suisse gave a week ago their exposures to residential mortgages were $7.9 billion and collateralized debt obligations were $2.4bn, and now they have just written down $2.85bn down."
Here in London – where Northern Rock has finally been nationalized after receiving more than $50 billion in tax-funded support – shares in Barclays lost 4.5% at one point today after the UK's third largest bank cut second-half profits by one fifth.
Again it blamed credit investment write-downs, as well as lost earnings from securitization. All told, the world's biggest financial institutions have now written down $145 billion since the US subprime collapse began in July 2007, according to Reuters data.
The Gold Price, in contrast, has risen by one-third or more since then against all major currencies.
"Additional buying [from Newcrest Mining] has certainly been a supporting factor for gold over the past few months," says today's note from Mitsui, the precious metals dealer, "but it has not been the only story and with the current consolidation continuing, the market looks set to test higher again soon."
Australian gold miner Newcrest today reported a net loss of A$8.1 million (US$7.4m), driven by the cost of buying back 3.4 million ounces of gold – previously sold forward during the two-decade bear market in gold ending 2001 – over the last six months.
"As of the 15th February," Mitsui adds, "Newcrest still holds 622,302 ozs on its hedge book."
Elsewhere in the precious metals market today, platinum futures jumped "limit up" in Tokyo today and rose to a new record high of $2,145 per ounce in London as South Africa's energy shortage continued to drive speculators into the white metal.
"The platinum market was already worried about supplies in South Africa and this power problem emerged to trigger more buying," says Hisaaki Tasaka, a precious metals analyst at Ace Koeki in Tokyo, Japan.
"But at the moment, we are not seeing an actual shortage in supplies," he notes, "because lease rates have not surged."
New mining supply outweighed physical platinum demand by 1,715 tonnes last year, according to Johnson Matthey, the world's No.1 platinum distributor. Enough to meet 26% of annual consumption, that excess supply in the platinum market has grown four times over since 2002.
Meantime on the currency markets this morning, the European single currency jumped almost one cent vs. the Dollar – capping the Gold Price in Euros below €623.50 per ounce – despite news that construction output in the 14-nation Eurozone shrank for the second month running in December.
Eurostat, the official data agency, also revised Nov.'s output further down, taking the total contraction so far to 1.6%. Inflation in the cost of living, on the other hand, surged to a 14-year high of 3.2% at the end of 2007, squeezing the European Central Bank's room for maneuver.
Copper futures today rose 1% in Shanghai on news that global stockpiles have shrunk to a five-month low.
Ahead of Wall Street's return after the long Presidents Day weekend, US crude oil futures rose for the second session running to hit a five-week high above $96.40 per barrel in London – more than 1% higher from Friday's close in New York.
"It's likely that Opec will make a cut [to output] as in their view the market is well supplied," said one Swiss analyst to Bloomberg earlier.
The Opec oil cartel – which pumps 40% of the world's daily supply – has cut its demand forecasts for April to June by 1.6 million barrels per day. Yesterday the Iranian oil minister said that "cutting production has been the normal process every year in March."
Prices of bauxite, the aluminum ore, continued to rise, taking the gain since the start of January above 30% – double the gains of 2007 as a whole – after Indonesia, which supplies more than two-thirds of China's bauxite demand, cracked down on illegal mining, restricting output.
Robusta coffee today gained 1.2% in London, taking its rise since New Year's Day to 22%, a "record start" according to Bloomberg data.
http://goldnews.bullionvault.com/
The value of Credit Suisse, the second largest Swiss banking group, sank nearly 10% at the opening in Zurich today after it trebled the size of write-downs on its debt investments.
Only last week banking analysts agreed that Credit Suisse had "weathered 2007 comparatively well" after it wrote down $1.4 billion for Oct. to Dec.
"This is a disaster, this could be the tip of the iceberg," says Peter Thorne, an analyst at institutional brokerage Helvea.
"According to the presentation Credit Suisse gave a week ago their exposures to residential mortgages were $7.9 billion and collateralized debt obligations were $2.4bn, and now they have just written down $2.85bn down."
Here in London – where Northern Rock has finally been nationalized after receiving more than $50 billion in tax-funded support – shares in Barclays lost 4.5% at one point today after the UK's third largest bank cut second-half profits by one fifth.
Again it blamed credit investment write-downs, as well as lost earnings from securitization. All told, the world's biggest financial institutions have now written down $145 billion since the US subprime collapse began in July 2007, according to Reuters data.
The Gold Price, in contrast, has risen by one-third or more since then against all major currencies.
"Additional buying [from Newcrest Mining] has certainly been a supporting factor for gold over the past few months," says today's note from Mitsui, the precious metals dealer, "but it has not been the only story and with the current consolidation continuing, the market looks set to test higher again soon."
Australian gold miner Newcrest today reported a net loss of A$8.1 million (US$7.4m), driven by the cost of buying back 3.4 million ounces of gold – previously sold forward during the two-decade bear market in gold ending 2001 – over the last six months.
"As of the 15th February," Mitsui adds, "Newcrest still holds 622,302 ozs on its hedge book."
Elsewhere in the precious metals market today, platinum futures jumped "limit up" in Tokyo today and rose to a new record high of $2,145 per ounce in London as South Africa's energy shortage continued to drive speculators into the white metal.
"The platinum market was already worried about supplies in South Africa and this power problem emerged to trigger more buying," says Hisaaki Tasaka, a precious metals analyst at Ace Koeki in Tokyo, Japan.
"But at the moment, we are not seeing an actual shortage in supplies," he notes, "because lease rates have not surged."
New mining supply outweighed physical platinum demand by 1,715 tonnes last year, according to Johnson Matthey, the world's No.1 platinum distributor. Enough to meet 26% of annual consumption, that excess supply in the platinum market has grown four times over since 2002.
Meantime on the currency markets this morning, the European single currency jumped almost one cent vs. the Dollar – capping the Gold Price in Euros below €623.50 per ounce – despite news that construction output in the 14-nation Eurozone shrank for the second month running in December.
Eurostat, the official data agency, also revised Nov.'s output further down, taking the total contraction so far to 1.6%. Inflation in the cost of living, on the other hand, surged to a 14-year high of 3.2% at the end of 2007, squeezing the European Central Bank's room for maneuver.
Copper futures today rose 1% in Shanghai on news that global stockpiles have shrunk to a five-month low.
Ahead of Wall Street's return after the long Presidents Day weekend, US crude oil futures rose for the second session running to hit a five-week high above $96.40 per barrel in London – more than 1% higher from Friday's close in New York.
"It's likely that Opec will make a cut [to output] as in their view the market is well supplied," said one Swiss analyst to Bloomberg earlier.
The Opec oil cartel – which pumps 40% of the world's daily supply – has cut its demand forecasts for April to June by 1.6 million barrels per day. Yesterday the Iranian oil minister said that "cutting production has been the normal process every year in March."
Prices of bauxite, the aluminum ore, continued to rise, taking the gain since the start of January above 30% – double the gains of 2007 as a whole – after Indonesia, which supplies more than two-thirds of China's bauxite demand, cracked down on illegal mining, restricting output.
Robusta coffee today gained 1.2% in London, taking its rise since New Year's Day to 22%, a "record start" according to Bloomberg data.
http://goldnews.bullionvault.com/
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