Standard Life UK Smaller Companies Trust beats index August 24, 2018 Standard Life UK Smaller Companies Trust said today it beat its reference index in the last financial year. Its total return for the year to the end of June was 24.8 per cent, compared to the Numis Smaller Companies Plus AIM Excluding Investment Companies Index which had a return of eight per cent. Read more: [...]
DEBATE: Following news that Monzo is set to be valued at $1bn later this year, is the company overhyped? August 24, 2018 Following news that Monzo is set to be valued at $1bn later this year, is the company overhyped? YES, says Danny Bluestone, founder and chief executive of Cyber-Duck. Monzo has only been able to grow its cult following of tech savvy millennials because it allows them to get things done at the tap of a [...]
America’s record bull market: five charts that tell the story August 24, 2018 | City Talk The US stock market is on its longest bull-run in history. It began on 9 March 2009 and, so far, has lasted nine years, five months and 13 days. As of today, it beats the great equities performance of the 1990s. A bull market is broadly defined as one that rises over time without falling [...]
Looming US sanctions on Iran push oil prices higher August 24, 2018 Oil prices climbed this morning amid fears that incoming US sanctions on Iran are likely to reduce crude volumes significantly. Brent crude oil futures were at $75.19 (£58.59) per barrel earlier today, rising 0.6 per cent from their last close, while US West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude futures were up 0.7 per cent. Brent is [...]
US-China trade war: China promises to ‘keep retaliating’ against Trump’s tariffs August 24, 2018 China will continue to retaliate against US trade tariffs, finance minister Liu Kun said today, after talks in Washington between the superpowers fizzled out without resolving their escalating trade war. US markets fell at the end of trading last night, while the Dow closed 0.3 per cent lower, with Boeing and Caterpillar dragging the index [...]
Trump predicts stock market crash if he were to be impeached August 23, 2018 US President Donald Trump today suggested his impeachment would cause the stock market to crash. In an interview with Fox & Friends, Trump warned against any attempts to remove him from power. "If I ever got impeached, I think the market would crash. I think everybody would be very poor," he told Fox News this [...]
Motty lends his voice to Football Index’s advertising push August 23, 2018 Match of the Day’s legendary commentator John Motson is lending his voice to a new trading platform dedicated to football. Motson, who has commentated on some of the Premier League and FA Cup’s biggest matches since the late 1960s, will be the face and voice of fresh fintech venture Football Index’s TV and radio adverts. [...]
US-China trade war: Markets feel the strain as new tariffs take hold August 23, 2018 Fresh tariffs were accompanied by a war of words between Washington and Beijing today as the superpowers' trade war threatened to escalate. Previously announced tariffs of 25 per cent applying to $16bn (£12.5bn) worth of Chinese goods came into force today, met with equivalent retaliatory measures. China has introduced duties on 333 American products, including coal, steel products [...]
World Bank issues first blockchain bond in £56m innovation push August 23, 2018 The World Bank is to settle its very first public blockchain bond next week. The instruction will see the bank use blockchain technology to carry out the entire issuance process, removing any manual involvement. Priced at AU$100m (£56.65m), the so-called Bondi (standing for Blockchain Operated New Debt Instrument) security will be managed by the Commonwealth of Australia Bank. The [...]
Why Elon Musk is far from alone with his stock market dilemma August 23, 2018 | City Talk Elon Musk, the divisive entrepreneur, has recently made headlines with the following tweet. In a subsequent blog post, Musk made clear his reasons for wanting to take his electric vehicle company, Tesla, away from the stock market. He expressed his frustration at the distraction caused by wild swings in the Tesla share price and perceives [...]