The IC Insiders forecast for the quarter finals winners is spot on so far. With only two matches to go the IC Insider’s forecast have been panned out exactly as set out in our report prepared after the preliminary rounds were completed. The closeness of the quarter finals suggest that matches in the semis should be very close once more. Data suggest that the three top teams likely to land the cup are Columbia, Netherlands and France. All three appears to be very close but with Columbia having a very small edge. Brazil is a some what off from the three leading teams.
Ranking| IC Insider ranked the teams in the quarter finals and make its forecast based on the preliminary round performance of the teams. The report that was posted indicated that Brazil the number 4 ranked team should have the better of the number 10 team, Chile with the latter scoring 5 goals and conceding 3 versus Brazil with an 8 to 2 superior record. Holland with 10 goals for and 3 against should have the better of Mexico with a 4 for 1 record, but this is not expected to be a walk over as the Mexicans demonstrated in the preliminary rounds that they don’t intend to quit easily. Columbia’s 9 goals for and 2 against should, on paper place them ahead of Uruguay the number 13 ranked team with 4 and 4 but the latter performance in their last two matches suggests that it could go either way. Costa Rica looks as if they will progress to the next round over Greece who only won one match and have a negative goal difference with only two goals being scored by them. Costa Rica 4 goals and one against was achieved in one of the toughest groups. 
France the IC insider’s number 3 team should be too good for the number 15 team, Nigeria, the same is true for Germany IC Insider ranked number 5 team who should do away with Algeria the number 12 team. Argentina the number 6 team should blow away the Swiss team who are ranked at 11 with 7 goals for and 6 against compared to 6 to 3 for Argentina. Belgium on paper should have the better of the USA having had a superior goal difference and what a appears a more solid defense but the USA team seems to have a better goal hungry approach, if the latter can do better in defense than their last two encounters they look as if they are in with a good chance of winning.
Columbia, Netherlands or France world cup winner?
J$ crosses $112 mark for first time
Dealers sold US$24,262,138 on Thursday at a record high of J$112.03 to US$1 as the selling rate rose by 4 cents compared to the closing rate on Wednesday. The Canadian dollar also gained against the local currency but the Jamaican dollar gained against the British Pound. Inflows and outflows were almost even, with the equivalent of US$27,672,890 purchased, to US$27,581,379 sold compared to the equivalent of US$29,420,890 bought and $30,842,690 sold on the previous trading day. In US dollar trading, dealers bought US$23,556,430 compared to US$24,714,017 on Wednesday as the buying rate for the US dollar slipped by a cent to $111.43 and sold US$24,262,138 versus US$27,513,720 on Wednesday with the rate closing up 4 cents at $112.03.
The Canadian dollar buying rate increased by $1.51 to $103.95 with dealers buying C$2,340,981 and selling C$2,655,428 as the rate rose by 39 cents to end at $104.89.
The Pound closed at $188.04, for the purchase of £1,066,780, the rate fell back $1.01, while £460,546 was sold, with the rate easing by 18 cents to $190.50. Other currencies bought, amounted to the equivalent of US$132,656 while selling accounted for the equivalent of just US$49,931.
Highs & Lows| The highest rate for buying the US dollar rose 10 cents to $112.60, the lowest buying rate of $91.02, the highest selling rate at $116.63 and the lowest rate of $90.81 were all unchanged at the end of Thursday’s trading.
The highest buying rate for the Canadian dollar rose 28 cents to $104.98, in the meantime the lowest buying rate remained unchanged at $82.50, the highest selling rate rose by $1.21 to $107.57 and lowest selling rate rose 10 cents to $99.50.
The highest buying rate for the Pound increased 5 cents to $191 while the lowest buying rate fell back by $7.32 to $151.89. The highest selling rate rose by $2.63 to $195.86 and the lowest selling rate was up 5 cents to $183.05.
FIFA incredible ranking system left wanting
The world cup finals are making a mockery out of FIFA ranking system for its members. For years FIFA has been using a system of moving nations up and down the ranking ladder based on results of games played. Unless there are regular interchange of teams globally so that there is a good comparison that can be done internationally, the ranking system is likely to be flawed which is exactly what the June rankings and the world cup outcomes indicate. Commentators have been caught out as well as they have in many cases limited information to compare one team with another. The results many have been confounded by the results of world cup 2014.
FIFA number 1 team Spain won just one match but only after they were eliminated from this year’s world cup finals, the number 10 team England never even won a match, their no 9 ranked team managed just one win and bowed out of the tournament at the end of the preliminary round. The number 4th ranked team Portugal is in with a chance of staying in the top 16 but may well not make it.
The 28th team Costa Rica won all their matches against the 7th, 9th and 10th ranked teams, the team that was ranked at 44 is in the top 16. Korea Republic that was ranked at 57 did better than many ranked above them and so is the case with Iran that was ranked at 43, Ghana was ranked at 37 and is close to being in the top 16.
Something must be terrible wrong with a system that gets the ranking so wrong. FIFA needs to revisit this system if it to have credibility as the present system has little. But this is not the only thing that FIFA a body of mostly well aged men control. Cricket has moved to let technology help in determining the accuracy of developments during a cricket match, tennis has done so for years but FIFA has refused to move into the modern era except belated for goal post technology. The present series and past ones have had so many bad calls that the time has long gone for football to move fully into the modern world and let technology assists the referees on the field.
WI closing in on with a win
the West Indies now need to take 2 more wickets to claim victory in the second test against New Zealand in Port of Spain, Trinidad. New Zealand trail by 18 runs with 8 second innings wicket down. Scores in the match New Zealand 221 and 221 for 8 in their second innings and WI 460 all out in their first innings. New Zealand lead the series 1 nil at this stage.
Croatia 4-0 as Cameroon players fight
Croatia the better playing team in the world cup match. demolished a Cameroon team that fell apart as one of its player effectively gave himself a red card and departed play, minutes before the end of the first half. At the end of an entertaining world cup match, the Cameroon team not only lost but will be heading home as they are without a point, with only one game to play. Things deteriorated for the Cameroon team when two players were virtually in a fight close to the end of play.
Croatia has a chance to move forward to the next round but would need to beat Mexico or if they draw they would have to rely on Cameroon pulling off an unlikely win against Brazil when they play next week.
T-bill rates drop sharply
The average rate for the 90 day Treasury bill instrument came out at 7.66 percent at today’s auction, down sharply from the May auction which came out at an average of 8.2 percent as Government sought to raise $400 million for this time frame but the auction saw $851 million chasing after the amount available. The 180 day instrument which averaged 8.932 percent in May plummeted to 8.365 percent as $877 million chased after the $400 million available.
Also on offer was a 30 day instrument to raise $400 million which provided an average rate of 6.797 percent as $534,303,700 chased after the $400 million that was available. The previous 30 day Treasury bill issued cleared at an average rate of 6.99 percent, in May this year.
Chile boots Spanish from new world
Chile boots the Spanish from South America with a 2-0 ousting, indicating that Chile first victory against Australia was not a fluke performance. The match again showed the Spaniards failed to shine in this world cup tournament.
Inflation jumps 1% in May
Inflation jumps 1 percent in May, the Statistical Institute of Jamaica (Statin) stated in a release today, compared to the index for April. An increase of 0.7 percent in ‘Food and Non-Alcoholic Beverages’ and 3.6 percent increase in the index for the division ’Housing, Water, Electricity, Gas and other Fuels’ were the major reasons for the sharp climb. The movement in the index for May 2014 resulted in a calendar year-to-date inflation rate of 2.4 percent. Inflation declined in April by 0.7 percent compared to March this year.
According to Statin, the division ‘Food and Non-Alcoholic Beverages’ was impacted by increases of 1.9 percent and 1.6 percent in ‘Bread and Cereals’ and ‘Milk, Cheese and Eggs’ respectively. There were declines of 0.4 percent and 0.3 percent for the classes ‘Fruit’ and ‘Vegetables and Starchy Foods’ respectively. Within the division ‘Housing Water, Electricity, Gas and Other Fuels’ the advance in the index for ‘Electricity, Gas and Other Fuels’ of 7.3 percent was moderated by the fall of 3.4 percent in the index for ‘Water Supply and Miscellaneous Services Related to Dwelling’
The other divisions that recorded increases in the All Jamaica ‘All Divisions’ index were: ‘Alcoholic Beverages and Tobacco’ 0.5 percent, ‘Clothing and Footwear’ 0.2 percent, ‘Furnishings, Household Equipment and Routine Household Maintenance’ 0.5 percent, ‘Health’ 0.2 percent, ‘Transport’ 0.4 percent, ‘Recreation and Culture’ 0.1 percent, ‘Restaurants and Accommodation Services’ 0.5 percent, and ‘Miscellaneous Goods and Services’ 0.5 percent.
Carreras up $1,NCB up $1top movers
Carreras was up $1 to $34.50 while trading 28,057 shares, NCB gained $1 to $18 with 4,140 units trading and Sagicor Group with 958,732 units and Scotia Group with 1,597,476 units trading were the top stocks with 15 minutes of trading to go in Mondays trading on the Jamaican Stock Exchange.
Germany 4, Portugal nil
Germany started the scoring in their group match against Portugal with a goal from a penalty kick in early play and added another following a corner kick. Seconds from the close of the first half the Germans struck again from an error by the Portugal defense in the penalty area.
Unless Portugal make serious changes in the second half with only 10 men they face a daunting task to avoid a solid whipping, similar to or greater than the one Spain got from Holland, last week. the Germans just scored another to make the score 4-0 shortly after the Portuguese should have had a penalty for a fowl in the Germans penalty area.