CITY VIEWS: ARE YOU WORRIED ABOUT A SPRING OF STRIKES? March 29, 2010 ROSS D’AURIGNY | AURIGNY COMMODITIES “I think its become inevitable that we will see a spring of strikes and rail workers are next. The strikers have lost all semblance of reality about what it all started over. The trade unions don’t realise they are costing Gordon Brown the election. We are in for a torrid [...]
Inflation higher than predicted March 29, 2010 Inflation has fallen less in response to slack in the economy than central banks’ theoretical models would have predicted, Bank of England chief economist Spencer Dale said yesterday. Dale said that inflation dynamics in economies where inflation expectations were anchored around a central bank target were not very well understood, posing challenges for monetary policymakers.
US consumer spending slows March 29, 2010 US consumer spending rose in February at its slowest pace since last September, providing further evidence of a fragile economic recovery. Consumer spending rose 0.3 per cent, following revised growth of 0.4 per cent in January, the US Commerce Department said.
Carphone Warehouse splits in two March 29, 2010 TalkTalk and Carphone Warehouse (CPW), the electronics retailer, both saw a positive reaction to their first day operating as separate entities. Carphone Warehouse added 7.3 per cent after it spun off its TalkTalk broadband supplier. Its shares began trading at 144p and closed at 155p. TalkTalk added 4.4 per cent on its maiden day trading, [...]
TalkTalk walks the walk March 29, 2010 SOMETIMES the sum of the parts is worth more than the whole. The demerger of Carphone Warehouse and TalkTalk is the logical step for a company whose level of growth and evolution had started to trip itself up. TalkTalk fared well in trading today. The UK’s number one residential broadband provider, supplying over 4m homes, [...]
Carphone Warehouse March 29, 2010 Carphone Warehouse now owns 50 per cent of the retail arm of the business, including The Phone House, Best Buy Europe and Best Buy Mobile. It shares the outlets with its American partner Best Buy. It also owns 100 per cent of CPW Property, which owns and maintains the firm’s property portfolio. In addition it [...]
Talk Talk March 29, 2010 TalkTalk boasts being the UK’s biggest consumer broadband provider, supplying 4.2m homes. It also provides stand-alone fixed line services. It uses BT’s existing copper connections for its regular broadband. It also provides BT’s bundled superfast fibre connections on a wholesale basis, albeit with greatly reduced margins. It is looking at ways to roll out its [...]
Four Rio Tinto iron ore staff jailed in China March 29, 2010 RIO Tinto was scrambling to rebuild its relationship with China yesterday after four employees were convicted of stealing commercial secrets and taking bribes by a Shanghai court. Stern Hu, the mining giant’s former head of iron ore sales in China, and three colleagues were sentenced to between seven and 14 years in jail. All four [...]
LSE says it may fire compliance staff to cut costs March 29, 2010 THE London Stock Exchange (LSE) may start firing its own compliance staff to force down costs in line with rivals unless regulators create a level playing field, it said yesterday. LSE chief executive Xavier Rolet said the London bourse and rival Chi-X Europe were roughly level in terms of market share in equities trading of [...]
Share prices plummet as Falklands oil exploration reveals poor results March 29, 2010 DESIRE Petroleum, a UK oil exploration company, spooked investors by revealing poor drilling results in the Falklands yesterday. The firm’s share price fell 50 per cent after logging operations at its Liz well showed oil may be present in thin intervals but the overall reservoir quality is poor. It closed down 49p at 50p. The [...]