Fed chair willing to hike rates faster if necessary February 28, 2018 | City Talk On Tuesday, US Federal Reserve chairman Jerome Powell’s prepared comments to Congress were released ahead of his appearance before the House Financial Services committee. In them he downplayed concerns over recent stock market volatility, claiming dramatic swings do not weigh heavily on his outlook for the economy and maintaining his expectation for further gradual increases [...]
RBS’s return to profit welcome but will taxpayers ever see their £45bn? February 27, 2018 | City Talk On Friday, Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS) reported its first annual profit in a decade. The profit was seen as a “really symbolic moment” by the bank’s chief executive, Ross McEwan, and it is significant as the bank is still 72 per cent owned by the taxpayer. RBS reported a pre-tax profit of £752m for [...]
Who needs Thorpe Park when you have Brexit? February 26, 2018 | City Talk Up one minute, hands in the air, down the next, faces distorted by politico-economic G-force. Who needs Thorpe Park when you've got Brexit? The roller-coaster ride continued apace last week, with news that the economy grew less than previously thought in the fourth quarter of 2017 delivering the latest stomach-churning dip. In a definite curveball [...]
Focus on quality and value will take care of itself: What matters more than a firm’s valuation February 22, 2018 Recent market volatility may have some investors concerned by falling valuations, but it’s important to focus on the quality of a business, according to one of Britain’s top fund managers. Mark Slater co-founded the specialist UK equity fund management business Slater Investments in 1994. He’s ranked third out of 186 UK equity fund managers over [...]
France says bitcoin and other cryptocurrency derivatives come under Mifid II regulation February 22, 2018 Authorities in France are cracking down on cryptocurrencies after deciding cryptocurrency derivatives" fall under EU financial regulation. The French financial markets authority Autorite des Marches Financiers (AMF) said financial products based on bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies such as futures, binary options and contracts for difference, should fall under the European Union's MIFID 2 derivatives regulation. [...]
Berlusconi’s ghost haunts Italy’s general election – and reveals the polarisation of its politics February 22, 2018 | City Talk Liberal commentators regularly liken President Trump to the former Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi. The huge personal fortune, the unabashed anti-immigration, tax-cutting populism, even the perma-tanned complexion – the comparisons are irresistible. Yet having previously served three terms as Prime Minister, Mr Berlusconi is no insurgent outsider in Italian politics. With barely two weeks to [...]
Wall Street’s identity crisis – bull or bear? February 21, 2018 | City Talk US equities markets may have been closed on Monday for President’s Day, but that didn’t stop two of Wall Street’s biggest beasts issuing analyst notes for traders to chew over. First came Goldman Sachs, with a warning that US Federal spending was moving into “uncharted territory”. It cited Federal spending, rising yields and surging debt [...]
Cryptocurrency founder has a wise head on young shoulders February 20, 2018 | City Talk As sales pitches go, it’s an unconventional one. In fact it’s more warning than advert, but you can’t argue with the logic behind it. The tweet was as stark as it was short: “Cryptocurrencies are still a new and hyper-volatile asset class, and could drop to near-zero at any time.” So wrote Vitalik Buterin, the [...]
Retail sales figures reveal the depth of Britain’s economic uncertainty February 19, 2018 | City Talk A debate which appeared all but settled at the tail end of 2017 is steadily reopening. The question of whether Britain’s economy will expand more this year than it did last year is looking increasingly finely balanced. Just a few months ago, the Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR) cut its annual economic growth forecasts for [...]
Europe’s economy is booming but its politics risk boiling over February 15, 2018 | City Talk Could European political instability derail its economic recovery? It’s a question plenty of people in the markets are asking themselves at the moment. Germany remains without a functioning government. Martin Schultz, leader of the Social Democratic Party (SDP) resigned on Tuesday despite – or because of – reaching agreement with Angela Merkel to enter a [...]