Suffering department stores temper retail sales growth in November December 19, 2013 Consumers' appetites for spending increased slightly in November as the UK high street saw growth again. Retail sales picked up 0.3 per cent in November, in line with expectations and following October's disappointing 0.9 per cent drop. Figures released by the Office for National Statistics showed that, year-on-year, sales were up two per cent from [...]
Here’s why gold has fallen below $1,200 for the first time since June December 19, 2013 Gold has fallen to its lowest price since June at $1,200/oz. Gold fell sharply in the wake of the Federal Reserve's announcement that it will begin the process of tapering its asset purchasing programme by $10bn (£6.1bn) in January. The decline in the price of the gold was hardly a surprise and continues the downward [...]
The taper that wasn’t a taper is seeing European stocks rally. Here’s why December 19, 2013 It's a taper, but not as we know it. Ishaq Siddiqi, market strategist at ETX Capital, says that the decision has removed much of the volatility that we've been seeing in the final quarter of this year, and gears us up "for a delayed but eagerly anticipated “Santa Rally” to finish this year in a [...]
Insurance broker JLT Specialty whacked with £1.8m fine from FCA December 19, 2013 City regulator the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) has said this morning that it's fined JLT Specialty (JLTSL) over £1.8m for an "unacceptable" approach to bribery and corruption risks from overseas payments. The regulator said the insurance broker and risk management company failed "to have in place appropriate checks and controls to guard against the risk of [...]
AstraZeneca grows diabetes market share with Bristol-Myers acquisition December 19, 2013 Pharmaceutical giant AstraZeneca has announced it will acquire the entirety of Bristol-Myers Squibb's interests in the companies' diabetes alliance for an initial consideration of $2.7bn (£1.6bn) on completion and and up to $1.4bn (£850m) in regulatory, launch and sales related payments. The deal will see AstraZeneca take ownership of the intellectual property and global rights [...]
Investment star Neil Woodford decamps to Oakley December 19, 2013 Neil Woodford, the UK's most powerful fund manager, is heading for a new job at Oakley Capital, reports The Times. Woodford, who left Invesco Perpetual two months ago after a 25-year stint, said that he'd be starting a new fund management firm in the new year. Oakley, best known as part owner of Time [...]
Serco raises cost estimate of tagging probe December 19, 2013 Another blow for embattled outsourcing company Serco. The group is currently the subject of an investigation into whether it overcharged the government for its electronic tagging of prisoners, and it's now upped its estimate of how much the review will cost it – from £12m to £17m, with accounting and other one-off costs increasing from [...]
Are the boom times back as competition heats up for top traders? December 19, 2013 European investment banks are set to increase the hiring of stock traders in 2014 on the back of a rallying stock market and stable Eurozone, according to the head of Barclays European equities. Jonathan Beebe said in an interview: Most of the restructuring in equities has happened. Revenue growth this year is around 10 percent [...]
What you need to know before the open – 19/12 December 19, 2013 So the Fed is going to start tapering its $85bn asset purchase programme. From January, it'll buy $75bn of mortgage and Treasury bonds each month – a modest cut, but one that caught markets off-guard last night, with many calling it wrong. Equity markets saw an immediate sharp sell-off, although that quickly reversed on the [...]