Nick Clegg snaps at heels of Tory victor April 29, 2010 DAVID Cameron might have emerged as the clear winner of last night’s election debate, but the Liberal Democrat leader is still too close for comfort. A instant poll from Populus even put Clegg and Cameron neck-and-neck on 38 per cent each, with the Prime Minister trailing in last place with just 25 per cent of votes. Cameron’s [...]
Sterling crisis fears spread April 29, 2010 STERLING is teetering on the verge of collapse as Spain’s downgrade focuses the spotlight firmly on the UK’s public finances and the political uncertainty ahead of next week’s general election, a top French bank warned yesterday. BNP Paribas’ senior currency strategist Ian Stannard said that the pound faced a no-win situation after the election regardless of [...]
Demagogic debate gives no answers April 29, 2010 HOW unedifying, how disappointing, how distressing. Last night’s “debate” on the economy was the worst yet. It was littered with errors, lies and incorrect claims – from all three leaders. The assumptions were astonishingly retrograde; it felt at times as if we were back in the 1970s, such were the collectivist, class war and protectionist [...]
WHAT THE OTHER PAPERS SAY THIS MORNING April 29, 2010 FINANCIAL TIMES STEEL INDUSTRY SET FOR A ‘NEW VOLATILITY’ Lakshmi Mittal warned yesterday that the impending large rise in the costs of iron ore would lead to “new volatility” in the steel industry by pushing up prices of the metal in a development that could harm the competitiveness of some of ArcelorMittal’s European plants. The [...]
Viacom first quarter profits up April 29, 2010 Viacom’s first quarter profit topped Wall Street expectations, aided by a recovery in advertising sales and hit shows such as “Jersey Shore” on MTV. Advertising sales rose three per cent worldwide and one per cent in the United States, signaling a rebound in a market dogged by one of its worst stretches in decades. The [...]
Australia says yes to gas buyers April 29, 2010 Australia has given foreign-investment approval for Royal Dutch Shell and PetroChina to buy coal-seam gas firm Arrow Energy for $3.2bn (£2.1m), Arrow said yesterday. The approval clears a major regulatory hurdle and comes after Australia’s competition regulator said it would not oppose the deal, but the transaction still requires regulatory approval from Chinese authorities and [...]
Greece agrees €24bn cuts April 29, 2010 GREECE has agreed a draft €24bn (£21bn) austerity package, including a three-year wage freeze for public sector workers, in return for a multibillion-euro loan from the Eurozone and the International Monetary Fund. The measures, aimed at slashing Greece’s deficit by 10-11 percentage points of GDP over three years, pave the way for Greece to access [...]
Euro bailout cost could hit €600bn April 29, 2010 ONE of the City’s most respected economists yesterday warned that the Eurozone and the IMF may have to stump up as much as €600bn (£518bn) to bail out Greece and its debt-stricken neighbours if the current contagion spreads. David Mackie, the chief European economist at JP Morgan Chase in London, stressed that such a large [...]
History looks bleak for Eurozone debt crisis April 29, 2010 HEDGE fund GLG Partners yesterday issued a stark warning to the Eurozone as it reiterated the historic trend for global debt crises to follow hot on the heels of banking crashes. GLG pointed out that the banking turmoil of the late 1920s and early 1930s was followed a few years later by a global debt [...]
Italy auction calms bond market fears April 29, 2010 ITALY yesterday went some way towards soothing concerns over contagion of Greece’s debt woes, successfully completing a key auction of two of its bonds. The auctions of €6.5bn (£5.64bn) of Italian three-year and ten-year notes were both covered about 1.5 times, signalling strong investor demand for the debt despite the escalating crisis in Greece and [...]