The government is looking into whether companies are using share buybacks to inflate bosses’ pay January 28, 2018 The government could crack down on share buybacks, as it has hired researchers to determine whether they are being used by companies to artificially inflate their executives’ pay. Share buybacks, where a company purchases some of its own shares to reduce the number available in the market and often raise their price, can increase a [...]
UK profit warnings soar to two-year high with support services firms hit the hardest January 28, 2018 The number of FTSE companies issuing profit warnings flew to a two-year high in the fourth quarter of 2017 as consumers were squeezed by cost pressures and contract uncertainties were exposed. UK-listed companies issued 81 profit warnings in the three months to December, the highest quarterly total since the fourth quarter of 2015, according to [...]
Coincheck theft: Customers will be refunded after a massive hack of NEM (XEM) January 28, 2018 A bitcoin exchange which suffered a massive hack, thought to be the biggest in the world, has promised to refund customers. Coincheck, a Japan-based exchange for buying and selling bitcoin and other cryptocurrency, has said it will reimburse anyone who lost digital cash as the result of the $534m (£380m) theft. Read more: The FCA’s [...]
The FCA’s issued a fresh warning on bitcoin, cryptocurrency and binary option scams as fraudsters move online January 28, 2018 The UK’s financial regulator is issuing a fresh warning to consumers over bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies that are luring people into scams online. The Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) has said investors are now being targeted by fraudsters on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter, more than they are over the phone, tempting people to put cash into [...]
LatteCoin? Starbucks chairman Howard Schultz denies planning a cryptocurrency launch but says there’s “potential” in blockchain January 27, 2018 There is already a whoppercoin for Russian Burger King, a KodakCoin for image rights, and even a cryptocurrency based on Theresa May. But could caffeine fiends soon be using blockchain to pay for their Venti non-fat latte with caramel drizzle at Starbucks? Not just yet, according to the company’s president and former CEO Howard Schultz. [...]
Ministers Philip Hammond, Greg Clark and David Davis promise agreement with EU for Brexit transition period by end of March January 27, 2018 Three top ministers have written an open letter to businesses, promising to finalise a Brexit transition agreement by the end of March. Chancellor of the Exchequer Philip Hammond, business secretary Greg Clark and Brexit secretary David Davis co-signed the letter to business leaders yesterday evening. They wrote that both the British government and the EU [...]
House of Lords warns no deal will result in financial instability January 27, 2018 The markets could be destabilised if the UK and EU cannot reach a Brexit deal, members of the House of Lords have warned. The EU financial affairs sub-committee in the upper house said that the government needs to clarify its goals for the second phase of transitions, otherwise firms could uproot their UK businesses. Financial [...]
Markets roundup: Pound sterling rally hasn’t stopped the FTSE 100 from closing up January 26, 2018 London’s blue-chip index closed higher today despite a rally in the pound. The FTSE 100 index closed 0.6 per cent higher at 7,660.92 points. Meanwhile, the pound, which hit post-Brexit record highs week, got an extra boost against the dollar after UK GDP figures came in above expectations. The UK’s economy grew 0.5 per cent [...]
Bitcoin price (BTC): More than half of people say bitcoin will drop or collapse in six months January 26, 2018 Public confidence in bitcoin is quickly slipping away as new research suggests a majority of people think the cryptocurrency’s value will fall or collapse in the next six months. About 61 per cent of people surveyed by market research firm D-CYFOR said bitcoin would either decrease in value over the next six months (33 per [...]
Awkward: USD GDP growth comes in below expectations January 26, 2018 Donald Trump’s speech at Davos may have sung the praises of the US economy, but as he spoke, official figures suggested growth in the US economy was weaker than expected. Growth hit 2.6 per cent in the fourth quarter of the year, figures from the Bureau of Economic Analysis (BEA) showed, below economists’ expectations of [...]