FTSE 100 INDEX (2002)
Here's a sample FTSE 100 chart showing some news events in 2002 and accompanying market shifts. Coincidence? You decide. (See also our Intermarket Review on page 92.)
1. Germany establishes new "voluntary code" for corporate governance. German index of business confidence reaches 11-month high.2. British Airways reports first loss since being privatized in 1987. Credit Suisse announces year-over-year profit losses of 74%.
3. Vodafone, the largest mobile-phone operator in the world, announces the largest annual loss ever for a British company: $19.3 billion.
4. France Telecom's credit rating downgraded to near-junk status. Eight banks in Austria discovered to be colluding on charges and rates.
5. Floods displace hundreds of thousands in Germany and the Czech Republic. The Financial Services Authority (FSA), Britain's financial services regulator, rules against short-selling restrictions on hedge funds.
6. Gerhard Schroder, the chancellor of the Federal Republic of Germany, narrowly wins reelection in a contest that strains US/German relations.
7. France pledges to resist European Union pressure to reduce its budget deficits in accordance with the EU's Growth and Stability Pact.
8. Allianz, the largest insurer in Germany, announces "catastrophic" third-quarter losses as Schroder's government announces new taxes on the sales of equities, property, and investment-fund holdings.
Originally published in the March 2003 issue of Technical Analysis of STOCKS & COMMODITIES magazine. All rights reserved. © Copyright 2003, Technical Analysis, Inc.