London’s housing shortage is cramming young families into shared homes February 6, 2014 The number of families living in shared houses ballooned by 70 per cent in the decade up to the last census, as typically young families are increasingly locked out of a the UK’s harsh housing market. The Office for National Statistics has broken down some census data on the number of concealed families in England [...]
ABP establishes global headquarters in Newham February 6, 2014 The bosses of Advanced Business Park, the Chinese developer that wants to overhaul London’s Royal Albert Docks, unpacked their bags and moved into Newham today after a striking a deal to open new global headquarters there. At a formal signing ceremony this morning between ABP Chairman Xu Weiping and Mayor of Newham Sir Robin Wales [...]
What you need to know before the US open – 06/02 February 6, 2014 US stocks are expected to open up today, as futures advanced ahead of the European Central Bank’s decision to hold interest rates. Attention is now on Draghi as he delivers a press conference following the announcement. So far, the president's said a worsening of the medium-term outlook for inflation could lead to action. The S&P 500 [...]
Carney tightens grammar at Bank of England February 6, 2014 Mark Carney unexpectedly tightened up the Bank of England’s grammar in today’s interest rate announcement. The monetary policy committee’s statement on interest rates and quantitative easing was suddenly flipped into reverse. Today’s statement said the Bank will “maintain the stock of purchased assets” – whereas last month the MPC decided to “maintain the stock of [...]
Apple sticks the boot into Bitcoin with Blockchain removal February 6, 2014 Apple has removed the last Bitcoin wallet from its iOS app stores. The tech giant offered no explanation for the removal of UK-based Blockchain other than it was due to an "unresolved issue." The application had been available on the iOS app store for over two years and was downloaded over 120,000 times. Blockchain responded [...]
European Central Bank holds rates: But here’s what it needs to do February 6, 2014 Today's third central bank decision. Expected to be a bit more interesting than the last two – the European Central Bank disappointed. While consensus was for no change, a few market watchers suggested we'd see a small cut, something in the region of 0.1 to 0.15 percentage points. Societe Generale's Sebastien Galy say that the [...]
Ghana hikes interest rates to 18pc February 6, 2014 Another emerging markets hike. The Bank of Ghana has raised its benchmark rate by two percentage points to 18 per cent. The country has been struggling with a depreciating currency, and the hike is intended to shore that slide up somewhat. That follows rate hikes from India, Turkey, and South Africa in recent weeks. At [...]
Bank holds rates: Here’s why Carney isn’t budging February 6, 2014 The monetary policy committee has been twiddling its thumbs. Bank of England policymakers have held tight on policy (as widely expected). There's no change to interest rates or asset purchases. They'll be sitting on their hands until next week, when the Inflation Report should clarify how the Bank seeks to address its credibility problem. As [...]
SocGen’s Albert Edwards thinks it’s 1997 all over again for emerging markets February 6, 2014 Societe Generale's uber-bear is at it again. After the turmoil in emerging markets over the past few weeks, Albert Edwards thinks the unravelling has been "the final tweet of the canary in the coal mine". He thinks the warnings are being ignored, and that the ongoing "debacle will be less contained than sub-prime ultimately proved [...]
Here’s why UBS has cut Twitter to sell February 6, 2014 UBS has cut its rating on Twitter to ‘sell’ following the social media firm’s fourth quarter results last night. Despite revenues more than doubling, Twitter saw a slowdown in the growth of new users and this is the main reason for the downgrade. Following the results, shares fell as much as 18 per cent. Engagement [...]