US growth falls off a cliff again January 30, 2013 THE US economy shrank unexpectedly in the final three months of 2012, official figures showed yesterday, taking markets and analysts by surprise. Ben Bernanke at the Federal Reserve responded by holding interest rates at record lows and continuing to print $85bn (£53.8bn) a month to buy government bonds and mortgage backed securities. Stocks dipped on [...]
Ex-Barclays pay boss attacks Diamond’s reward for failure January 30, 2013 FORMER Barclays chief executive Bob Diamond did not deserve a bonus in 2011 because the bank gave poor returns for shareholders, former director and remuneration committee head Alison Carnwath said yesterday. The ex-non-executive said she worked to pull down investment bank bonuses by 30 per cent, but could not rein in Diamond who, she said, [...]
Mobile lifts Facebook to record sales January 30, 2013 FACEBOOK’S revenues hit new heights at the end of last year, as the social network cashed in on more people using it on smartphones. Turnover during the final three months of 2012 hit $1.59bn (£1bn), a 26 per cent rise on the previous quarter, and 40 per cent up year-on-year, the company said yesterday. Facebook [...]
New lending scheme fails to boost small businesses January 30, 2013 EFFECTIVE interest rates on new deposits have dived from 3.01 per cent in August, when the Funding for Lending Scheme (FLS) started to provide banks with cheap funds, to just 2.11 per cent in December, the Bank of England revealed. But the cheaper funds have started to divert cash back into the mortgage market, the [...]
What the other papers say this morning January 30, 2013 FINANCIAL TIMES Nestlé liable over spying on NGO Nestlé, whose clashes with activists over sales of baby milk formula in Africa led to widespread boycotts in the 1980s, has been found liable in a civil case over the secret infiltration of a non-governmental organisation. A Swiss court last week ordered Nestlé and the Swiss security [...]
Nuclear power expansion hit by Cumbria vote January 30, 2013 PLANS to build more nuclear power stations in the UK suffered a blow yesterday as Cumbria county council voted against proposals to build a £12bn underground radioactive waste dump on the edge of the Lake District. The government wants nuclear power to help meet the UK’s future energy needs but it must first find a [...]
FSA set to probe annuity prices January 30, 2013 The Financial Services Authority will today kick off a thematic review into annuity prices in a bid to make sure customers are getting a fair deal on prices when they come to retire. The probe, which began earlier this month but is officially unveiled by the City watchdog today, will conduct a pricing survey of [...]
FIFA game publisher sales drop January 30, 2013 Computer game publisher Electronic Arts, the company behind the FIFA series, last night announced lower revenues for the third quarter as the industry continued to struggle with flagging sales as the public waits for the next-generation of consoles. For the last three months of 2012 the company posted net revenue of $922m (£583m), compared with [...]
STMicroelectronics posts loss January 30, 2013 STMicroelectronics posted a quarterly loss last night, hurt by troubles at its mobile chip unit, and forecast a decline in revenue for the next three months. The Geneva-headquartered company, which makes chips for cars, computers and mobile phones, recorded a fourth-quarter net loss of $428m (£271m), compared with a loss of $11m for the same [...]
Mothercare UK boss to exit in team reshuffle January 30, 2013 MOTHERCARE’S UK boss is to leave the baby products retailer as part of a management shake-up to stem falling sales at its troubled UK arm. The retailer said yesterday that Mike Logue, who moved to Mothercare from Asda in late 2011, is to step down next month after the role was made redundant. The restructure [...]