How awful would the market for cars be if we treated them like houses? July 30, 2013 The market for housing in the UK is perverse. By comparing it with the market for cars, Duncan Stott, affordable housing campaigner for PricedOut, shows just how mad our system is: Imagine if every car that got made had to get planning permission to be manufactured, with the aim of protecting the environment and avoiding [...]
Initial reactions to Barclays results and capital shortfall plan July 30, 2013 Source: Yahoo Following the drop in Barclays's share price after it announced a drop in profits and plans to fill a bigger-than-expected £12.8bn capital hole, analysts have been mulling what this means for the bank. Mark Kimsey, a senior trader at Accendo Markets, says investors are getting fed up with Barclays and moving into state-owned [...]
Watch: The UK doesn’t need an online sales tax July 30, 2013 Spiralling UK business rates are crippling high street shops. But City A.M. editor Allister Heath explains why an online sales tax is not the answer. We need lower rates, not yet another tax that would cost consumers and hit the poor hardest.
Huge jump in UK confidence boosts European Union numbers July 30, 2013 European Union confidence is up – and we have the non-Euro area UK to thank. While the EU rise in confidence was in-line with expectations, the UK saw a terrific jump in July. On a country basis, the main reason for the sharper plus was markedly improving confidence in the largest non-euro area EU economy, [...]
Eurozone economic sentiment hits 15-month high July 30, 2013 Economic sentiment in the Eurozone rose to 92.5 in July from 91.3 the month before. This is the third consecutive month of increases and puts the index at a 15-month high. However, forecasts of 92.6 were just slightly too optimistic (release). Growth was driven by confidence boosts in industry (up 0.6 to -10.6) services (beating [...]
Hedge fund manager pushes Sony to ditch entertainment division July 30, 2013 Activist investor Dan Loeb has stepped up his campaign to force Sony into spinning off its entertainment group in an investor letter. Loeb’s hedge fund Third Point owns around seven per cent of Sony. While he says the company as a whole is “significantly undervalued”, the entertainment division is “poorly managed, with a famously bloated [...]
Rate of Spanish decline begins to moderate as prime minister approaches corruption hearing July 30, 2013 The Spanish economy has been contracting for two years now, according to GDP data released this morning. Compared to the first quarter of the year, second quarter GDP fell by 0.1 per cent, and by 1.7 per cent relative to the same period the year before (release). However, the rate of decline is moderating, pointing [...]
BP profits fall on lower oil prices July 30, 2013 BP has reported it made an underlying pre-tax profit of $2.7bn in the second quarter of the year, down 45 per cent from the first quarter and 25 per cent from the same period the year before. Shares are down nearly three per cent. The fall was driven primarily by lower oil prices, an unusually [...]
ITV shares open up three per cent on better than expected profits July 30, 2013 ITV has reported a better-than-expected 16 per cent rise in first half adjusted pre-tax profits to £270m, with adjusted earnings per share up 15 per cent to 5.3p (release). Shares opened up over three per cent on the news. This came despite an expected fall in advertising revenues, as significant growth in online, pay & [...]
Barclays shares drop as it reports a fall in profits and plans to fill £12.8bn capital hole July 30, 2013 Barclays has reported a 17 per cent fall in half year adjusted profits to £3.591bn as it was hit by the cost of a group-wide restructure in the wake of the Libor rate-rigging scandal. The bank also reported that its capital hole was much larger than thought at £12.8bn and announced a £5.8bn capital-raising rights [...]