Thfire.com – iNews

I found an interesting  article on the concept for High Frequency trading . The credit for the post is deserved by blogs.reuters.com.

The explosion of interest in high-frequency trading has started to drag new faces to sometimes staid industry conferences. Traders who for years worked on algorithms and computer codes behind the scenes are stepping into the spotlight. They’re appearing on more and more panel discussions, feeling the need to defend their practice against the slings and arrows of politicians and regulators.

So far, they’ve managed to mix exasperation with good humor. The head of one high-frequency trading shop, speaking on a panel this week, said that if you believe everything you read in newspapers you might think the practice is “an unfair, highly profitable and socially useless trading strategy implemented by highly secretive and unregulated traders using superfast computers to compete with retail investors, manipulate markets and front run flash orders causing volatility in the financial markets and creating systemic risk.”

He argued that a more accurate definition of high-frequency trading would be, “a wide variety of highly competitive, low margin trading strategies implemented by professional market intermediaries who have invested heavily in technology that have the effect of making the markets more efficient by enhancing liquidity and transparent price discovery to the benefit of investors.”

The most  prominent guide for labour market of  UK ” The Markit” has came up with a new and hope giving Survey.

According to the Markit Survey conducted on UK employment hiring, the current level of  job hiring has increased to a great effect. To say , the new job posting in on a high after a dreadful  17 long months.

So is this the final path to recovery? Still the question is unanswered. Markit Survey fails to give the answer for this and has avoided itself by saying  “It is not a confirm message that Market is improving, but still the patches of improvement is visible throughout the market”

This is what the Sponsors have to say on the Survey–

“This is first time we have seen really positive news for the UK jobs market in 17 months,” said Bernard Brown from KPMG, co-sponsor of the survey.

“It seems that employers are becoming more confident in their hiring decisions,” said Kevin Green, chief executive of the Recruitment & Employment Confederation, the survey’s other co-sponsor.

The US retailers were already reeling from the new consumer frugality but in June, incessant rain and raising unemployment further dampened sales. Stores that had made strides in recent months reverted to double-digit declines.

Overall, the industry posted  a 6.7% decline in sales for the month, in contrast  to a 309% increase a year ago, according to  the Goldman Sachs retail composite Index. Wal-Mart, which has been a bright spot in the  retailing world and helped lift the overall industry number, is no longer  reporting Monthly sales. Retailers are also facing Challenging  year-over-years sales comparisons because this June  there were no tax rebate checks to help  bolster shopping.

Apparel  and department stores  were hurt most as chilly, soggy weather on the East Coast  did nothing to inspire summer clothes shopping. Sales fell at mall stores open at least a year, a measure of retail health, including Abercrombie and Fitch (down  32% compared with the period a year ago), Zumiez (down 19.3%), Children’s place and Limited Brands( both down 12%), Wet Seal (Down 11.1%), American Eagle Outfitters (down 11%) ,Gap (down 11%), and Hot topic (down 7.9%).

All the Various department Stores posted declines. In the specialty retail stores segment of Neiman Marcus, which includes Neiman Marcus and Bergdorf Goodman stores, sales fell 20.8 percent. Sales at Nordstorni declined 10%. Saks fared better than its high end competitors, posting a 4.4% decline that was in part the result of shifting a designer sale into June.

Tony Buccina, vice chairman and president for merchandising at Bon-Ton, said in a statement that while June started off robust, “the unusually cooler and rainy weather impacted sales of  our summer merchandise across all apparel categories”.

The most notable exceptions to the retail malaise were, as expected, Buckle and Aeropostale, the affordably priced niche teenage apparel chains. Aerospostale said it enjoyed record June sales , posting a 12% increase. Buckle’s sales rose to 9.6%. Yet these days even discount chains are struggling.

At-Costco, which was hurt by lower gasoline prices and foreign exchange rates, sales fell 6.5. BJ’s Wholesale club, also hurt by lower fuel prices, reported a 7.5% decline. Sales at Target fell 6.2%

Credit goes to NYT  NEWS Services