Italian services see moderated decline in July August 5, 2013 The decline in the Italian services sector has moderated slightly in July. Markit/ADACI's purchasing manager's index (PMI) has risen from 45.8 to 48.7. Analysts had forecast a much smaller rise to 46.5. Phil Smith, economist at Markit and author of the Italy services PMI said: The downturn in Italy’s service sector lost momentum in July, [...]
Serco confirms US health services contract worth up to $1.25bn August 5, 2013 Services company Serco Group has confirmed the award of a contract worth up to $1.25bn (£820m) to support the US’s Medicare and Medicaid services. Under the contract, which has a one-year base period valued at around $115m with another four one-year options, Serco will provide processing support for the country’s health benefit exchanges designed to [...]
Spanish service sector sees weakest fall in activity in two years August 5, 2013 The Spanish services sector is looking better, with a rise from 47.8 to 48.5. That's slightly ahead of forecasts, with analysts predicting a rise to 48.2. While still below 50, the sector can still be seen as contracting, but the pace of that contraction has slowed down a little. This is the slightest fall in [...]
The Swedish services sector just smashed expectations August 5, 2013 Sometimes analyst get it wrong. Their prediction for the Swedish services number this morning was really, really wrong. Rather than a purchasing manager's index of 46.7, the index rose from 44.9 to a whopping 56.6 in July, a massive rise of 11.7 points. While the krona performed well on the news, it has now retraced [...]
Before the open – 05/08 August 5, 2013 We're expecting European markets to open slightly higher. There's been muted activity in Asian markets after a weaker than expected US jobs report on Friday. Indian services PMI fell to its lowest level since 2009 of 47.9, dropping below the crucial 50 level for the first time since that date, implying that the sector is [...]
SocGen sees gold prices rising to $1,400 August 2, 2013 Societe Generale predicts that gold prices will reach $1,400 per ounce in 2013 friom $1,308.29, before falling to $1,150 in 2014. The same note suggests silver will climb to $22 this year from $19.58 before dropping back to $20 in the next. Societe Generale's Robin Bhar: Our latest study of the global gold hedge book, [...]
IMF: A quarter of Spaniards will still be out of work in 2018 August 2, 2013 The International Monetary Fund has warned Spanish unemployment could be stuck above 25 per cent for another five years as it calls for decisive reforms to generate jobs and growth (release). Existing reforms have not been enough to address labour market rigidities, the IMF says, and the businesses need greater internal flexibility. Meanwhile, private sector [...]
US factory orders choke in June August 2, 2013 US factory orders have grown by just 1.5 per cent in June, behind analyst estimates of a 2.3 per cent increase. Last month saw orders up 3.0 per cent (revised up from 2.1 per cent) so there's still some good news in the latest data. Regardless, while economists had been hoping for an acceleration from [...]
Dell founder agrees last minute $25bn deal and postpones record date and vote August 2, 2013 Michael Dell and private equity firm Silver Lake have sweetened their Dell buyout deal even further (despite saying their last offer would be best and final), keeping the price at $13.75 (£9.08) per share but offering a 13-cent-per-share special dividend. In exchange Michael Dell and Silver Lake would receive the voting modifications they asked for, [...]
HSBC shakes up auditors for first time in over two decades replacing KPMG with PwC August 2, 2013 HSBC has announced that it will be switching its current auditor KPMG for PricewaterhouseCoopers for the year ended 31 December 2015 (release). The change will be recommended to shareholders at HSBC's 2015 AGM. KPMG will continue to undertake the audit of the bank's consolidated accounts for the year ended 31 December 2013, and subject to [...]