Rishi Sunak and Jeremy Hunt to shun tax cuts in March budget despite £11bn energy windfall January 23, 2023 Jeremy Hunt and Rishi Sunak will hold fire on tax cuts at the 15 March budget despite being handed an around £11bn windfall from international energy prices falling to pre-Russia-Ukraine war levels, according to top economists’ predictions gathered by City A.M. Brits will have to wait until the run up to the next general election, [...]
Bankers switching firms trouser more than 20 per cent pay bump January 23, 2023 City bankers, brokers and insurers switching to a rival firm trousered a more than 20 per cent pay bump last year, new research out today shows. The Square Mile’s best and brightest are switching companies in a bid to capitalise on rapid wage inflation in the financial services sector. According to recruiter Morgan McKinley, the [...]
Week ahead: Recession signals to flare up in fresh PMI and government borrowing to hit £18bn January 22, 2023 Investors this week will be eyeing fresh surveys for more clues on whether the UK economy has slipped into recession. London’s premier FTSE 100 index’s strong start to 2023 came off the boil slightly last week, shedding nearly one per cent to close at 7,770.59 points, while its mid-cap domestically-focused peer the FTSE 250 dropped [...]
Davos round-up: Optimism, the dangers of forecasting and subsidy competition January 20, 2023 Optimism As Davos draws to a close, participants will likely leave feeling more optimistic than when they arrived. There was a mood of gentle optimism throughout, stoked by China’s reopening, rising hopes Europe can avoid a recession and continuing signs US inflation has passed its peak. IMF managing director Kristilina Georgieva cautiously joined the chorus [...]
Markets Wrap January 20, 2023 | City Talk Another eventful week of trading comes to a close, and we end the week quite differently to how we started it. Last week we saw solid upside in stocks with no real fundamental driver, as banks kicked off the Q4 earnings season and the US posted a relatively strong Michigan consumer sentiment figure. The theme [...]
Recession risks return as Brits brace for cost of living crisis to make 2023 a ‘bumpy ride’ January 20, 2023 UK consumer confidence dipped for the first time in two months in January, raising the risk the economy will slip into recession after all despite a string of better than expected data recently, a closely watched survey out today reveals. A credit card debt hangover from the Christmas spending splurge and energy bills looming has [...]
FTSE 100 close: Persimmon and Taylor Wimpey pull index away from record high January 19, 2023 London’s FTSE 100 index registered one of its worst days since the turn of the year, pulling it away from its record high. The capital’s premier index shed 1.07 per cent to drop to 7,747.28 points, while the domestically-focused mid-cap FTSE 250 index, which is more aligned with the health of the UK economy, fell [...]
Andrew Bailey hints Bank of England is close to ending interest rate hike cycle January 19, 2023 Andrew Bailey has hinted that the Bank of England will stop hiking interest rates soon in an interview today. Speaking to Business Live, the governor of the Bank suggested market expectations of rates peaking at around 4.5 per cent is more in line with the central bank’s own thinking. Though Bailey, 63, said he is [...]
House price sentiment at its weakest in 13 years, as fears of recession blight market January 19, 2023 House prices continued to fall towards the end of 2022, according to the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors (Rics). The Rics house price balance fell to -42 in December compared to -26 in November, and meant that 42 per cent of surveyors who took part in the survey noted a fall rather than a rise [...]
Microsoft confirms it will cut 10,000 jobs January 18, 2023 Microsoft will be making 10,000 job cuts by the end of the third quarter of this year, the company said today confirming earlier reports. As incomes at Big Tech firms continue to decline, Microsoft has joined giants like Google and Twitter in laying off staff. Earlier today, Microsoft issued a statement, saying that the staff [...]