Direct Line shares rise on positive results November 1, 2013 Direct Line Insurance Group has reported third quarter profit before tax of £124.2m, up from £82.4m for the same period last year. Shares climbed on the news. (Release) For the first nine months of the year, profit was £333.0m compared with £188.9m like-for-like. Operating profit of £417.8m for the first nine months of the year [...]
What you need to know before the open – 01/11 November 1, 2013 US markets rounded off October markedly higher, despite yesterday's negative finish. Data from Europe does continue to worsen, thought, with anticipation of a potential European Central Bank rate cut next week pushing the euro down. Chinese manufacturing PMI, coming in overnight, has eased worries over a softness in recent Chinese economic activity. On the official [...]
RBS sheds over three per cent on £38bn bad bank announcement and sliding profits November 1, 2013 The Royal Bank of Scotland was one of the FTSE's biggest faller this morning as it announced that it is to create an internal "bad bank" to manage £38bn of its riskiest assets by the end of this year, meaning it'll avoid addressing demands for a full split. (Release) The lender also posted a third [...]
Press regulator given approval by the Queen November 1, 2013 THE QUEEN last night approved a royal charter that paves the way for state oversight of the media, in a move that risks ending centuries of press freedom. All three leading political parties backed the regulatory framework, which was given the go-ahead by a meeting of the privy council at Buckingham Palace. The charter sets [...]
Bayer lowers sales forecasts October 31, 2013 Bayer, Germany’s largest drugmaker, tempered its full-year sales outlook yesterday, saying unfavourable exchange rates were blunting the impact of robust sales of new drugs in the US, Latin America and Japan. The inventor of aspirin and maker of birth-control pill Yasmin said it now forecast full-year sales of about €40bn (£33.8bn), against a previous target [...]
More horse meat – this time in Home Bargains’ Romanian-manufactured tinned beef October 31, 2013 A batch of canned sliced beef has been found to contain horse DNA, the Food Standards Agency has said today. The beef was manufactured in Romania in January of this year and supplied to Home Bargains, the discount high street store, and Quality Save stores. The product is labelled 'Food Hall Sliced Beef in Rich Gravy'. [...]
Consumer lending in September was more than double what was reported October 31, 2013 A correction to Bank of England data has shown that unsecured lending in September was over double what was reported. Consumers borrowed money at the fastest rate since early 2008 in the three months to September, revised data from the Bank of England showed today. The news intensifies concerns that the UK's recovery is reliant [...]
End to jobs backlog shows weaker US labour market October 31, 2013 The backlog from an upgrade to systems in California has finally been cleared, and the numbers aren't strong as had been hoped. Jobless claims fell by just 10,000 to 340,000 in the week to Oct 26, while economists had hoped for a fall of 11,000. Continuing jobless claims are now higher at 2.881m from 2.874m. [...]
Proper running and regulation will ensure fracking public health risk remains low October 31, 2013 A new report into the public health risks associated with fracking has found that the chances of exposure to shale gas emissions are low if operations are run and regulated properly. Public Health England (PHE) says that risks identified in other countries are "typically due to operational failure." PHE's Dr John Harrison, says "good on-site [...]
London and Yorkshire lead the way in private sector employment growth October 31, 2013 Private sector employment in the capital was up 1.7 percentage points in the second quarter of this year (April – June) – taking it to 61.3 per cent. This underpinned an increase for the Greater South East of 1.4 percentage points, to 62.2 per cent. The private sector employment indicator for England was at its [...]