Eurozone industrial production suffers sharpest fall in almost three years led by Germany’s slowdown January 14, 2019 Eurozone industrial production suffered its sharpest fall in almost three years in November led by Germany’s economic slowdown, as the single currency bloc’s woes continued. Euro area production fell 1.7 per cent in November compared with the previous month, the EU’s statistical office Eurostat said, the sharpest monthly drop since February 2016. Read more: Eurozone sentiment [...]
Stock markets slide as Chinese data reveals impact of US-China trade war January 14, 2019 European stock markets have tumbled after weak Chinese trade data laid bare the impact of the US-China trade war. China’s export and import figures fell dramatically in December, going against analysts’ predictions of a rise. Read more: Markets lift as US-China talks reach conclusion Negotiations between the two nations concluded last week without a resolution, although [...]
How the FTSE 100 returned 94 per cent without moving January 14, 2019 | City Talk On New Year’s Eve 1999, the FTSE 100 closed at a then-record high of 6930. Few could have envisaged then that, 19 years on, the index would be lower. It stood at 6845 as at 14 December 2018. A negative return for investors over that long a period can be concerning, but it doesn’t tell [...]
Euronext launches formal €625m cash tender offer for Norwegian stock exchange Oslo Bors January 14, 2019 Stock market operator Euronext today said it has launched its €625m (£559m) cash offer for Oslo Bors after the Norwegian exchange called for more generous bids. Euronext has confirmed its offer of 145 Norwegian krona per share, which was originally revealed last month. It said the bid is a 32 per cent premium on Oslo Bors’s [...]
World’s largest brewer AB InBev considers public listing of Asian operations January 12, 2019 Brewing giant Anheuser-Busch InBev is eyeing up a partial flotation of its Asian business in a move that could raise billions of dollars. The brewer behind major beer brands including Budweiser and Stella Artois is in discussions with bankers about a potential initial public offering (IPO) in Hong Kong that could help to reduce its [...]
US inflation falls for first time since March as petrol prices drop January 11, 2019 Cheaper prices at the pumps pushed down US inflation for the first time in nine months in December. Statistics released today show the country’s consumer price index (CPI) dropped 0.1 percentage points last month to 1.9 per cent, making December’s fall the first since March. However, when stripping out changes to the price of food [...]
FTSE risers and fallers: Housebuilders climb on reports of Brexit delay January 11, 2019 Brexit sensitive housebuilders were the biggest risers in the FTSE 100 today after it was reported that the deadline for the UK’s departure from the European Union could be extended. Taylor Wimpey, Persimmon and Barrett Development took the top spots in the FTSE 100 today after it was revealed that a backlog of six essential bills, [...]
Retail round up: What’s happening on the high street? January 11, 2019 | City Talk Not as bad as it could have been. That’s the general feeling about high street performance over Christmas after major retailers and the supermarkets published their festive figures this week. The British Retail Consortium says that 2018 was the worst Christmas for retails for 10 years but, as ever, the figures show there are winners [...]
UK economy posts slowest growth in six months but beats lower expectations January 11, 2019 The UK economy grew at its slower rate in six months between September and November, data released today shows, but still managed to beat lower expectations. GDP grew by 0.2 per cent in November compared to the month before, and by 0.3 per cent in the 12 weeks to the end of the month, the [...]
The key to improving our dismal productivity? Reignite the UK’s competitive instincts January 11, 2019 The dismal productivity results out this week should cause alarm for anyone who cares about UK prosperity. And we need to talk about it. Productivity – the cumulative output of our workers per hour – is the critical indicator of how competitive we are as a nation, and the surest way of delivering sustained wage growth. [...]