Apple posted second quarter results on May 1 but have smartphone sales peaked and what impact will this have on iPhone X? April 24, 2018 | City Talk Apple releases its latest set of quarterly results next Tuesday and Wall Street is fretting about the figures. People are hanging onto their smartphones for longer, prompting concerns about growth. Second-quarter results from US technology major Apple, which will be released on Tuesday 1 May, are arguably one of the most important set of results [...]
US bond yields continue to creep up suggesting there will be 4, rather than the 3 as suggested by Jerome Powell, interest rates hikes this year April 24, 2018 Could the US Federal Reserve raise interest rates four times this year after all? After new Federal Reserve chairman Jerome Powell’s first press conference last month, the issue appeared to have been all but put to bed. Interest rates were going to rise as markets had originally expected, he suggested. That implied three interest rate [...]
Lloyd’s of London launches Brussels hiring spree as new EU base takes shape April 24, 2018 Lloyd’s of London today kicked off a search for new staff in Brussels as it prepares for Britain’s exit from the EU. The iconic London insurance market rolled out plans last year to established a new European headquarters in Belgium to mitigate the fall-out from Brexit. Lloyd’s is advertising vacancies for frontline underwriters as well [...]
Brexit regulatory equivalence is “pragmatic solution” says EU financial services boss April 24, 2018 Regulatory equivalence between the UK and the EU after credit is a “pragmatic solution” which could work after Brexit, according to the EU’s top financial services boss. EU financial services commissioner Valdis Dombrovskis said that while “equivalence is not perfect” but that it offered a way forward. “We should not let perfect be the enemy [...]
TSB online banking down as customers complain about not being able to access their accounts for a fifth day April 24, 2018 Some TSB customers have complained that troubles with mobile and online banking have continued into a fifth day after an IT upgrade over the weekend. TSB transferred 1.3bn customer records from the Lloyds platform over to a new platform built by Spanish bank Bacno Sabadell, which acquired TSB in 2015. But customers have been complaining [...]
Ministers can learn from Capita’s candid chief executive Jon Lewis April 24, 2018 Turnaround specialists need to be straight-shooters and Capita boss Jon Lewis is no exception. Lewis yesterday delivered a refreshingly candid assessment of the company’s current standing and the difficulties it faces. According to Lewis, the firm’s top brass had never looked further than a year ahead. In his own words, they had no strategy. For [...]
Hot stuff: How to trade on good weather without getting burnt April 24, 2018 Using data on 13.82m cab rides from January to October 2009 in New York City, combined with statistics on hourly levels of solar radiation, a recent study entitled “Taxicab tipping and sunlight” found a significant positive relationship between sunlight and tipping. The study, by Srikant Devaraj and Pankaj Patel from the Miller College of Business [...]
Bouncing into a customs union would be a betrayal of Brexit April 24, 2018 News over the weekend that Theresa May might be considering a customs union with the EU post-Brexit was baffling to life-long Eurosceptics. For years before the referendum, would-be Brexiteers painted two economic pictures of life outside the EU. The first was a Thatcherite Britain – one seeking to reverse swathes of EU regulation and immigration [...]
DEBATE: Is it necessarily a bad thing if the UK becomes a nation of cradle-to-grave renters? April 24, 2018 Is it necessarily a bad thing if the UK becomes a nation of cradle-to-grave renters? Alison McGovern, Labour MP for Wirral South and former shadow city minister, says YES. It is easy to see the problem in a housing market that prioritises ownership above all other types of housing tenure. House prices have radically worsened [...]
London law firms say Brexit will have no significant impact on profitability or employment levels April 24, 2018 More than 90 per cent of London’s 100 largest law firms think that Brexit will have no significant impact on their profitability or staffing levels. Research by real estate business CBRE showed that 98 per cent of firms thought that Brexit would have no significant effect on employment levels while 95 per cent of firms [...]