Foreign exchange trading flops as London loses market share, according to the Bank for International Settlements September 1, 2016 Foreign exchange trading around the world has fallen over the course of three years, with London in particular losing market share. Global foreign exchange trading averaged $5.1 trillion (£3.8 trillion) a day in April, down from $5.4 trillion for the same month in 2013. It is the first time a fall has been recorded by the Bank for International Settlement's [...]
Dollar falls as US manufacturing sector shows surprise contraction in August September 1, 2016 We've missed the hat trick: after this morning's purchasing managers' indexes (PMIs) for manufacturing in the Eurozone and UK both beat expectations, this afternoon's US equivalent was a rather damper squib, with the country's factories sector posting a surprise contraction in August. The Institute of Supply Managers' PMI for economic activity in the manufacturing sector fell to [...]
Before the bell: What you need to know before the US market open September 1, 2016 The pound has leapt against the dollar after the UK's manufacturing sector smashed expectations and China's manufacturing sector has also bounced back. Here's what you need to know before the US market open at 2:30pm London time. Pre-market futures are looking mixed ahead of the open. The S&P is off by 0.1 per cent, while the Nasdaq is [...]
Weathering the Brexit storm? Pound jumps almost one per cent after UK manufacturing PMI smashed expectations September 1, 2016 Growth in the UK's manufacturing sector smashed expectations in August – suggesting the manufacturers are weathering the Brexit storm. Markit's purchasing managers index (PMI) for the sector jumped to 53.3 in August, figures published today showed. That's not only the highest in 10 months, but way above expectations of 49 (N.B. any figure above 50 denotes growth). It's also a [...]
Back of the Nets: This Nordic fintech company is planning a £626m IPO September 1, 2016 You might not have heard of Nets, but if you've been to Scandinavia recently, chances are you've used its digital payment services. Today the Nordic payments company unveiled plans to launch an IPO on Nasdaq Copenhagen, aka the Copenhagen Stock Exchange. Read more: These are the seven fintech startups being backed by Mastercard In a statement this morning, it [...]
Taptica shares soar on rising mobile advertising spend August 31, 2016 Mobile ad firm Taptica shares have rocketed after the firm posted what it called a “record” year. Shares in the company closed up 19 per cent yesterday as revenue leapt by 53 per cent to $51.8m (£39.4m) in the first half. Gross profit almost doubled to $17.8m, up from $9m in the same period last year. [...]
Crisis, what crisis? You can see Brexit everywhere but in the economic statistics August 31, 2016 The American Nobel Laureate economist, Robert Solow, famously said that “you can see the computer age everywhere but in the productivity statistics”. We might want to update that quote to, “you can see Brexit everywhere but in the statistics.” UK broad money supply M4ex rose by 6.9 per cent (year-on-year) in July, up from 6.0 [...]
Before the bell: What you need to know before the US market open August 31, 2016 Global economic headwinds are increasing and Eurozone inflation data has proven a disappointment. Here's what you need to know before the US market open at 2:30pm London time. US market futures are more-or-less flat ahead of the open. The S&P is down by 0.02 per cent, the Nasdaq is flat, and the Dow is 0.04 per [...]
Banks lead the FTSE 100, with some lenders setting new monthly highs August 31, 2016 Banks are helping to bolster a reasonably flat FTSE 100 today. Banking mainstays Barclays and HSBC are both among the five greatest risers this morning, while shares in Lloyds, RBS and Standard Chartered are up as well. Barclays is currently up 2.4 per cent at 173.25p, HSBC is up 1.8 per cent at 567.7p, Lloyds is up 1.5 per [...]
Ouch: Eurozone inflation misses expectations as unemployment sticks at five-year low August 31, 2016 We're not angry, we're just disappointed. Eurozone inflation stayed decidedly flat in August, rising just 0.2 per cent during the month – missing expectations of a rise to 0.3 per cent. It's a mark of quite how quiet the City is that it had almost no effect on the euro, which held steady at $1.1147 [...]