Those Travis Perkins rumours

There was an interesting in line in the Daily Mail stock market report today about Wolseley merging with Travis Perkins. In case you haven's seen it, here is the link:

http://www.thisismoney.co.uk/money/markets/article-3534700/MARKET-REPORT-Fears-property-slump-hurt-housebuilders-Berkeley-Taylor-Wimpey-Persimmon-Barratt-taking-hit.html

Confirmations, confirmations and confirmations for, er, little old Betaville

I see Watkin Jones has this morning issued a statement about its listing on AIM, which saw the Welsh property developer raise £131 million.

Here is a link to today's statement:

Village gossip - a new City diary on the way

City diary columns have been on the wane during the current tough times for British newspapers, with some business sections getting rid of the column altogether.

Why? Well, it's a column that can often cause major legal (and possibly expensive) headaches for business editors, especially if the diary writer is good at his job. But a good diary writer can liven up a section with his/her mischief making and often stumbles across some incredible scoops for the front of the business section.

Geoff Foster goes big!

I see Geoff Foster has gone big on New Year's eve.

The veteran market reporter at The Daily Mail reveals in his final column of the year that Vodafone and US cable giant Liberty Global are likely to pursue a £140 billion merger in 2016 after talks were rekindled in the last few weeks.

What's up with Evotec?

I have been hearing some pretty interesting things recently about a German drug developer called Evotec AG.

To be honest, it's not clear to me exactly what is going on with this stock.