The markets are up today driven by hopes of Chinese stimulus

• The markets are up today, driven by hopes of Chinese stimulus. The FTSE has gained a quarter of a per cent at 5853, the CAC is up a third of a per cent at 3450 and the Wall Street Index is up 16 points at 13187. The odd one out here is the German DAX, which is down 0.3% at 6940.
• There are quite a few equity headlines this morning: the chief executive of Standard Chartered has fundamentally rejected accusations regarding its dealings with Iran and whether or not it laundered $250 billion for the Islamic Republic. The bank is up 3.8% today, which puts it in gold medal position on our biggest gainer’s board but remember they’re still down around 16% from before the news hit the proverbial fan.
• Standard Chartered are by no means out of the water yet and the politics still needs to be separated from the wrongdoing amidst news today that the bank may be looking to riposte with legal action against the US regulator.
• The silver medal goes to ITV today – up 3% on favourable analyst notes and the announcement of the new series of its flagship show – the X-factor.
• Bronze goes to BskyB, which is up 2.25% after the company won its long standing dispute over the price it can charge rivals for its sports content.
• Staying with the media theme, News Corp has registered a £1bn Q4 loss although its share price has stayed stable as investors await the anticipated corporate split between its publishing business and its film and television businesses.
• Media retailer HMV has stormed up 11% today as, despite losing over £16m this year, the company has announced a predicted return to profit of around 10m next year.
• Finally, for the football fans amongst you, Man Utd are floating on the New York Stock Exchange tomorrow with a market cap of nearly $3bn, which gives them a staggering price to earnings ratio of over 110 – let’s hope they don’t do a Facebook!

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