Spain Pain Go Away!

We always knew that the PIIGS countries were in trouble. Perhaps, it is the headline hungry media that has now shifted its spotlight on Spain.

Spain is in a very bad situation. Bad, mainly because the unemployment rate is approaching 25%! Very bad because there is nearly 50% unemployment among the youth! Standard & Poor's two notch downgrade didn't help the situation either. Yeah, as usual, the rating agencies are late! It would be interesting to know that the Spanish Government is yet to implement its plans of hiking taxes and cutting Government spend.
In summary, Spain is going down a dangerous spiral. It will probably end up as another patient on life support.

In the meanwhile, the UK has quietly slipped into a technical recession! Remember all those gloomy predictions about double dip recessions? They have come true! But, what? No hue ... no cry?

I wonder how the world economy can get back on track.

Anyways, our markets are tightening up. Are we going to see a big move? Hmmm ... looks likely.
Again, I cannot say if it is going to be an up move or a down move, so you'll have to wait and watch. :)

On the other hand, the US Dollar has continued its climb against the Indian Rupee.
Let us wait on that one!


Till then,
Happy investing!  :)

Infosys sees iceberg ahead!

It has been 100 years since the Titanic sank.
The Ship of Dreams ran into an iceberg and sank in the North Atlantic Ocean on 15 April 1912.


To me, Infosys is like the Titanic of Indian software companies. A dream company for many aspiring college graduates, a dream stock for many shareholders and a great example of good management. And, going by Infy's guidance, you would believe that they are seeing an iceberg ahead!


This is how CEO and MD of Infosys, Shibulal, defended the weak guidance which was given as part of the Q4 results:

"We have seen unprecedented convergence of multiple events during the quarter. We saw contract delays, delays in some of the anticipated ramp-ups which we had planned and ramp downs in quite a few accounts, especially in financial services and in the US."

If this is an indication of things to come for the software services industry in India, it is scary!


Hearing of layoffs in companies like Infosys is unusual (although layoffs happen under cover). But the truth is that companies like Infosys carry a lot of excess baggage in the middle management - that can be shed when the ship is sinking.


Carrying on from the last discussion, the Dollar has indeed broken above the consolidation band and moved up. The uptrend does look like it is tiring into a horizontal trend. We'll have to wait and see if that is indeed the case.


(The chart is taken from Yahoo Finance)