Last month new banking scandals came to the forefront. JP Morgan announced first-half trading losses of $5.8 billion amidst intensifying fraud investigations, while Barclays was engulfed in a rigging scandal regarding the London Interbank Offered Rate, which saw heads roll — including that of CEO Bob Diamond — with investigations potentially expanding to nearly two dozen banks. The European sovereign debt crisis is still heated, with Spain approving yet another austerity package — its fourth in seven months — and receiving a 100 billion euro bank bailout. For investment recommendations, Executive sits again with Khaled Zeidan, general manager of MedSecurities, a BankMed subsidiary and Ammar Bakheet, head of asset management at Bank Audi. Khaled Zeidan General market thoughts? Zeidan is somewhat bullish and expects stock indices to end the year on a positive note. “Maybe up between 9 to 12 percent but in the meantime it could be choppy,” he
