Market Rumours

Bank likely to call time on QE: The Bank of England may have no secret deal with the Conservative Party to keep monetary policy loose, but interest rates look set to stay low for longer than many expect whoever wins the next election.With an election expected on May 6, the favourite-to-win Conservatives have pledged to work hand-in-hand with the independent central bank to keep interest rates down. The Bank had no comment and party officials explained all they meant was that monetary and fiscal policy should work together.

President Barack Obama vowed to "get much tougher" with China on trade rules, including currency rates, to ensure that U.S. goods do not face a competitive disadvantage. With U.S.-Chinese relations under pressure over a host of issues, including U.S. arms sales to Taiwan and Obama's planned meeting with Tibet's spiritual leader, the Dalai Lama, Obama said his administration was pushing China and other countries to enforce trade rules and open their markets. "The approach that we're taking is to try to get much tougher about enforcement of existing rules, putting constant pressure on China and other countries to open up their markets in reciprocal ways," Obama told a meeting with Senate Democrats on Wednesday."One of the challenges that we've got to address internationally is currency rates and how they match up to make sure that our goods are not artificially inflated in price and their goods are artificially deflated in price." But Obama insisted he would not take a protectionist stance toward China, the world's third-largest economy, warning that "to close ourselves off from that market would be a mistake".

Apple Inc and Amazon.com Inc will soon battle in the nascent but fast-growing market for electronic books, and Wall Street has ring-side seats.Apple, flush with cash and a less lofty valuation than Amazon, may be the wiser choice in the short term as consumers snap up its devices to enjoy all forms of digital media, some analysts and investors say.But for those with longer investment views, Amazon is showing stronger growth momentum coming out of the recession, as more traditional retail business moves online, others say. "Apple seems to be the better deal, just purely on valuation," said Erick Maronak, chief investment officer for the Victory Large Cap Growth Fund, who describes the company led by Chief Executive Steve Jobs as "one of the best-run companies out there." Shares of Apple, which has a market value of over $170 billion, are trading at 17 times estimated forward earnings, according to Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S. Amazon, which has a market cap of about $50 billion, is trading at 40 times."Apple is cheap. I know people find that hard to believe, but they are," said Maronak, whose fund has owned Apple shares since 2004 and got into Amazon only last year.