Fake Tweet and Intraday Data

A fake tweet from the hacked Twitter account of Associated Press caused a sharp drop in US markets in afternoon trading (on 23 April 2013). (BBC Business News – Fake terror tweet hits US markets)

You can see the effect on the market using Bloomberg Professional to chart intra day data for an index (S&P 500 below) or individual share.

Bloomberg Line Chart S&P 500 for 23 April 2013 (UK times) – (click to expand)

Bloomberg News also has a report “Associated Press Twitter Account Hacked in Market Moving Attack” (Bloomberg News April 24 05:01).

We should probably not consider it surprising that social media has the power to influence markets, nor that there is a tendency for traders to react first and they check the authenticity of information.

Bloomberg Professional has a function TWTR (Twitter Filter Builder) that allows users to build a twitter filter according to how they want to monitor the market – including seeing what is trending on Bloomberg Social Velocity (BSV).

Search for “Twitter” on Bloomberg DOCS and one document offered is “Chapter 3: Lessons Learned from Social Media” (Halloran and Thies, 2012).

References

Halloran, M. and Thies, C. (2012) “Chapter 3: Lessons Learned from Social Media” from The Social Media Handbook for Financial Advisors: How to Use LinkedIn, Facebook, and Twitter to Build and Grow Your Business.  Available at: Bloomberg Professional Service [online subscription service] (Accessed 24 April 2013).

Eureka! Innovation Challenge Event 2013

 

The wait is nearly over!

We asked you to send in your ideas or vision for an innovative new concept or design which will enhance the customer experience within The University of Manchester Library.

You responded in your hundreds and now the shortlisting is complete, invitations have been sent to our eight finalists and we’re counting down to Eureka! The Final!

Ortis Deley, best known as a presenter of The Gadget Show, will present the finalists to an impressive panel of judges on Thursday, 2 May in the Kanaris Lecture Theatre. Following an afternoon of pitches and presentations, a winner will be selected.

“We’ve had so many great ideas and we’ve been absolutely delighted by the quality, range, and diversity of entries”, said Nick Campbell, Eureka! organiser.

“Shortlisting has been tough but it’s now up to the judges to decide which one’s the winner!”

Meanwhile, proving that good ideas can be as  simple as they are innovative, some non-winning suggestions will also be taken up by the Library and put in place soon.

As Nick says, “As a leading university we’re always seeking improvements. Thankfully, we have some of the world’s leading students with great ideas too!”

Come and see the presentations and judging for yourself.

Book your FREE ticket now:

http://eurekathefinal.eventbrite.com/

Datastream searching for book to market

A query this morning uncovered a situation where some care is needed when searching in Thomson Reuters Datastream.

We were looking for the “book to market” value for a company. It turns out that Datastream does not have this datatype. It does have Market To Book Value (MTBV), but even this can be difficult to find.

• If you search for name contains “book” you get 618 results – rather a lot to scroll through
• If you search for name contains “market” you get 205 results – still a lot to scroll through
• If you search for name contains “book market” you get 0 (zero) results -
• Using both search boxes for name contains “book” AND name contains “market” will give you Market To Book Value (MTBV)

DS Navigator search (click to expand)

After finding Market To Book Value (MTBV) you can get “book to market”:

• the inverse – book to market = 1/MTBV
• use constituents and calculate – book to market = WC03501/MV (ordinary (common) equity / market value)
• use constituents and Datastream expression

Related tips:

Datastream, Worldscope and Units (August 2011, updated April 2013)

Worldscope accounting data – finding data tips (July 2011)

SCoRe (search company reports) website closing

The SCoRe (Search Company Reports) website closes on 21st March 2013. SCoRe is a catalogue of printed company reports held in UK libraries.

In the ten years since the SCoRe project ended in 2002, annual reports have become increasingly available online through company websites and commercial providers. Demand for the printed annual reports has declined as a result.

Going forwards, by the end of 2013, the British Library and Guildhall Library will hold the main collections of print and microfilm annual reports for UK companies, supplemented by the  planned digital archives at the London Business School and University of Manchester.

SCoRe Working Group (2012) Advance notice: Closure of SCoRe.  http://www.score.ac.uk/pdf/SCoRe_Closure_Notice_2012-12.pdf (accessed 20 March 2013)

The University of Manchester SCoRe archive includes over 80,000 annual reports. Over 60,000 of these are in MIRAC fiche format and therefore difficult to read, and the 20,000 in print are mostly from 1995 onwards and available online.

For databases giving online access to annual reports see:

Where can I find current and historical company annual reports?

The following – taken from the SCoRe web links page http://www.score.ac.uk/links.asp - are all free websites, except Companies House, which is included because of its key role in the collection of UK companies’ legal filings.

Business Archives Council
Exists to encourage the preservation of British business records, to advise on the administration and management of archives and current records and to promote the use of business records.

CAROL (Company Annual Reports On Line)
One-point access to web versions of company annual reports for a selection of companies in Europe, Asia and the US.

Companies House
Free access to brief information about UK companies. Order filed documents for a fee. Also includes information about the activities and strategic direction of Companies House.

Financial Times Annual Reports Service
The FT/World Investor Link service allows you to order printcopies of the most recent reports for companies listed in the share price service in the FT newspaper.

UK National Register of Archives
The NRA is maintained by the Historical Manuscripts Commission and contains information on the nature and location of manuscripts and historical records that relate to British history. You can search archives by corporate name.

U.S. Securities & Exchange Commission
The US equivalent of Companies House. The site gives electronic access to filed US company documents, including annual reports, via the EDGAR database. Documents from 1993 to the present.

Bloomberg training events, presented by specialists from Bloomberg

NEW Bloomberg training events, 20-21 March

Next week we are hosting new Bloomberg Professional training events, presented by specialists from Bloomberg.

1. 
   Technical Analysis: Basic Theory & Application in Bloomberg
   Wednesday 20th March 2pm-4pm
   MBS East B3
2. 
   Fixed Income & Interest Rate Derivatives
   Thursday 21st March 1.30pm-3pm
   MBS West 3.101

No booking necessary, open to all current students and members of staff.

Hope to see you there.

Our Business Data Services

Our Business Data Services

What business data services are available from The University of Manchester Library’s Research Services team?

This new illustration shows a summary.

• Research consultation sessions
  Drop-in sessions for business data queries
• Training sesions
  Regular programme and embedded
  Using business data sets, statistical packages, certification
• Data sourcing
  Experts in finding and accessing business data
• Online enquiry service
  Fast Answers: Manchester Business Answers 24/7
  This blog: Business Research Plus
• Finance Zone
• Bloomberg Suite

Download the ‘Business Data Services’ illustration (PDF)

UK loses AAA rating (sovereign debt ratings)

The decision of the credit rating agency Moody’s to downgrade the United Kingdom from AAA to Aa1 has been widely reported in the news recently.

• UK loses top AAA credit rating for the first time since 1978 (BBC News 23 Feb 2013)
• Rating Action: Moody’s downgrades UK’s government bond rating to Aa1 from Aaa (Moody’s 22 Feb 2013) – Moody’s ratings definitions
• UK Becomes Next Major Economy to have Credit Rating Downgraded (Euromonitor blog 25 Feb 2013)

Bankscope gives access to the current sovereign debt ratings from Moody’s, Standard and Poor’s (S&P) and  Fitch.

At the Bankscope home page, select Help and Country ratings list:

Bankscope country ratings (sovereign debt ratings) – (click to expand)

 Bloomberg Professional also has sovereign debt ratings – use function CSDR (Sovereign Ratings)

Selecting a country will launch CRPR (Credit Rating Profile) for more detail.
Selecting a rating will give the historical changes in a pop-up window.

Global Insight (from IHS) provides its own Sovereign Risk Ratings and how these compare with Fitch, S&P, and Moody’s.

For example on 27 Feb 2013:

• France is among the top rating “0 AAA Highest Quality” but given a “Higher Risk” by Fitch, S&P and Moody’s.
• Australia is among the rating “5 AA Very High Quality” but given a ”Lower Risk” by Fitch, S&P and Moody’s.

IHS Global Insight covers 204 countries including many that are not covered by Fitch, S&P and Moody’s. For example, Zimbabwe “85 C Poorest Quality” and Somalia “95 D Poorest Quality“.

News and deals (Dell and Virgin media)

There were two stories on the BBC Business News recently that provided a reminder of how deals generate news because they result from companies’ strategic decisions.

TOB Deals example (click to expand)

Dell computers to be bought back by founder Michael Dell

This news story covers a company going from Public to Private, and therefore delisting from a stock exchange, the reverse of an IPO (Initial Public Offering).

This illustrates why databases like Thomson One Banker and Bloomberg Professional track deals from when they are rumoured or announced (not just when they become effective). In Dell’s case there has been significant news coverage about the company’s strategic options now that PCs are seen to be in decline.

Liberty Global to buy Virgin Media for $23.3bn

This news story covers an acquisition. The surprise for me was that this is one US company taking over another. Although when I checked on Bloomberg Professional Virgin Media has 100% of its turnover in the UK, it has chosen to be a US company Virgin Media Inc, listed on the NASDAQ exchange.

Using the FAME database of UK companies you can check that Virgin Media Limited (registered no 02591237) is a subsidiary of Virgin Media Inc.

Bloomberg‘s Mergers & Acquistions (MA) function highlights the current largest deals – on 20 Feb 2013 these are HJ Heinz Co, Virgin Media Inc, and Dell Inc. Bloomberg Industries (BI) can be used to investigate industry trends including the expected impact of large deals, e.g. BI CATVE (Cable and Satellite Europe) has the Feb 05 news item “Liberty Fortifying in Europe May Boost Broadband, TV Competition” and a range of related industry data.

Related posts:

• How Business News can enhance your research (June 2011)
• Mergers and Acquisitions databases (Nov 2011)

HP acquisition of Autonomy and a $8.8billion write off

On 20 Nov 2012 Hewlett Packard (HP) announced that it was taking a write off of $8.8 billion of the $11.1 billion that it paid to acquire Autonomy in  October 2010. At the time Automony was a member of the FTSE 100 and seen as a UK technology success story.

There has been lots in the UK financial press since then as HP’s key argument is that they overpaid for Autonomy because of accounting manipulation. This is strongly denied by Automony founder Mike Lynch.

News stories:

• Hewlett-Packard accountants sued over Autonomy purchase (BBC 29 Nov 2012)
• US to probe Autonomy sale to Hewlett-Packard (BBC 27 Dec 2012)
• Autonomy’s Lynch defends record as HP confirms Federal probe (Reuters 28 Dec 2012)

Breaking down a 8.8$ million write off – from Musings on Markets blog (click to expand)

Aswath Damodaran’s Musings on Markets blog makes a strong case that even if HP is right this only accounts for $2.45 billion of the $8.8 billion write off – see HP’s Deal from Hell: The mark-it-up and write-it-down two-step.

The write off raises issues about the acquisition in terms of corporate strategy, leadership, corporate governance as well as the accuracy of Autonomy’s accounts.

Resources for more information:

Thomson One Banker - a deals module search will provide details of the deal: announced 18 Aug 2011, effective 3 Oct 2011, “UK – Hewlett-Packard Vision BV of the Netherlands, a unit of by Hewlett-Packard Co (HP),  completed the tender offer to acquire the entire share capital of Autonomy Corp PLC (Autonomy), a
Cambridge-based developer of infrastructure and information management software, for GBP 25.5 (USD 42.09)” [SDC deal number 2337968040]

Thomson Research - analysts reports - For example, on 23 Aug 2011 Marc Geall of Deutsche Bank published a report on Autonomy Corp plc. This reported a change of recommendation to sell, since the shares were GDP 24.86 almost fully valuing the HP offer, and substantially higher that Deutsche Bank’s fundamental target price of GBP 17.50.

Business Source Premier (EBSCO): - several trade journals with articles on the HP aquisition of Autonomy. For example,

Forbes.com (2012) ‘With Autonomy, H-P Bought An Old-Fashioned Accounting Scandal. Here’s How It Worked’ Forbes.Com, (November 20, 2012):p. 39, Business Source Premier, EBSCOhost, viewed 11 January 2013.

Manchester Business Answers 24/7 FAQ:

Where do I find info on Mergers and Acquisitions? and

mergers_and_aquistions tag.

2012 in review

Many thanks to everyone who contributed to the over 98,000 visits to Business Research Plus in 2012. For more details see the link to the WordPress.com generated report below.

For 2013 we plan more advice and tips on the themes that feature in our Top Posts: risk free rates, researching global companies, journals, database identifiers, referencing, index constituents etc.

Please leave comments whether you wish to suggest that an older post is worth revising and enhancing, or just to highlight something we have overlooked.

WordPress.com report

The WordPress.com stats helper monkeys prepared a 2012 annual report for this blog.

Here’s an excerpt:

19,000 people fit into the new Barclays Center to see Jay-Z perform. This blog was viewed about 98,000 times in 2012. If it were a concert at the Barclays Center, it would take about 5 sold-out performances for that many people to see it.

Click here to see the complete report.