Crude oil prices finally on the up after slumping to two-year low October 1, 2014 BRENT crude oil futures stabilised yesterday, rising by $1 after falling to a two-year low earlier in the week. Brent, the international benchmark, fell to $94.67 (£58.52) per barrel on Tuesday. The drop marked a 16 per cent loss for the quarter, the biggest in two years. US crude also fell to a two-year low. Analysts [...]
City Moves for 2 October 2014 | Who’s switching jobs October 1, 2014 Gibson Dunn & Crutcher The law firm has announced two appointments to its London office. Charlie Geffen (pictured) joins as a partner and chair of its London corporate practice from Ashurst, where he was senior partner. Mark Sperotto also joins as a partner from Ashurst. EY Phil Dunne has been appointed partner to lead the [...]
Best of the Brokers for 02 October 2014 October 1, 2014 To appear in Best of the Brokers, email your research to notes@cityam.com ROYAL MAIL UBS has upgraded to “neutral” from “sell”, but cut the target price to 400p from 450p. The broker believes Royal Mail is no longer significantly overvalued now, with near-term earnings estimates more realistic, but cautioned on modernising challenges and tough trading [...]
Supermarkets sweep to the bottom of FTSE – London Report October 1, 2014 BRITAIN’S top equity index fell yesterday to its lowest closing level in nearly six months, as a new slump in the shares of supermarket retailers hit the market. The sentiment was also hit by news that Britain’s manufacturing grew at the slowest rate in 17 months in September as demand weakened at home and in [...]
Wall St tanks on Hong Kong, and Ebola fears – New York Report October 1, 2014 US SHARES yesterday kicked off the first day of the fourth quarter on a sour note, as the first diagnosis of Ebola in a patient in the US spooked investors, and the Russell 2000 index of small caps ended in correction territory. Fears over the civil unrest in Hong Kong added to the poor performance. [...]
Twitter is investing $10m in MIT partnership to make sense of social data with a new Lab for Social Machines October 1, 2014 Twitter is investing $10m in a partnership with US university MIT, renowned for its tech credentials, to make sense of the huge amount of social data shared by people across the world. The Lab for Social Machines (LSM) will focus on “the development of new technologies to make sense of semantic and social patterns across [...]
ARM is betting on the Internet of Things with new mbed OS October 1, 2014 ARM, the uk chipmaker which makes processors for most of the world’s smartphones and tablets, is creating a new operating system for Internet of Things (IoT) devices. The mbed OS is designed to use as little battery and memory as possible and will work in devices which use its own chips in a bid to [...]
Rocket IPO: Shares priced at €42.50 with €1.6bn valuataion October 1, 2014 Rocket Internet has priced shares for its initial public offering at the top of its range at €42.50. The German internet firm will debut on the Frankfurt Stock Exchange on the 2 October, joining fellow German tech startup Zalando which went public a day earlier. The float of just over 20 per cent of the [...]
Adidas: Real Madrid did not sell 345,000 Rodriguez shirts in 48 hours October 1, 2014 Adidas has refuted reports that Real Madrid sold 345,000 James Rodriguez replica shirts within 48 hours of his official unveiling at the Bernabeu. After Los Blancos made the Colombian their latest "galactico" for a fee of £63m, it was widely reported that the club had sold an unprecedented number of shirts bearing the player’s [...]
EU hearings: Lord Hill failed to convince Brussels he can be Europe’s next finance commisioner October 1, 2014 Lord Jonathan Hill, the candidate to become Europe’s chief finance man, has failed to convince EU committee members in Brussels of his suitability for the job. Hill will now face another hearing in front of MEPs next week after a three hour grilling in Brussels today. Hill, whose candidacy as financial services commissioner is backed [...]