More pain for homes August 1, 2008 The clouds gathering over the housing market darkened yesterday when Britain’s biggest building society reported the biggest annual drop in house prices since records began. Mortgage lender Nationwide said property values were now 8.1 per cent less than last year ago, almost a £15,000 decrease. The average cost of a home in Britain is now [...]
It is still not the time to be buying into retail stocks July 31, 2008 The European General Retail sector has fallen by about 25 per cent so far this year. But does this sharp decline in price make retail shares a good buy? We think that there are a variety of reasons to remain wary. The first reason is a depressed outlook for consumer demand. With continued worries about [...]
Wii to win war of the consoles July 31, 2008 Video games veteran Nintendo, which makes the immensely popular Wii console, looks set to replace Sony as the king of the video game world, posting a 31.5 per cent increase in first quarter profits. Sales of the Wii console, which has a motion-sensing controller that can be swung like a bat, rose by 51 per [...]
Fed comes to rescue July 31, 2008 The Federal Reserve extended its emergency lending program yesterday in an effort to settle turbulent money markets, as the European Central Bank and Swiss National Bank followed suit. The Fed said that the length of the program, under which investment institutions can turn to the central bank for cash, would be extended until January 30. [...]
Trade talks end with no agreement July 30, 2008 World Trade talks in Doha collapsed yesterday, after the US, China and India failed to agree a compromise on the kind of import tariffs poorer countries could raise on farm products. According to a spokesman for European trade commissioner Peter Mandleson, the failure of the talks was a “massive blow to confidence in the global [...]
UK recession looms July 30, 2008 The UK is drifting into a recession, leading economists warned yesterday, as approvals for British home loans in June hit their lowest level since records began and retail sales fell at their fastest pace in at least a quarter of a century. Home mortgage approvals, loans that are agreed but not yet made, fell in [...]
BAE in deal to buy UK rival for £531m July 29, 2008 BAE Systems, Europe’s largest defence firm, unveiled an agreed £531m deal to buy British rival Detica yesterday, to boost its presence in the US security market. BAE chief operating officer Ian King, who takes over from Mike Turner as chief executive later this summer, said the purchase “will provide a platform for us to apply [...]
KKR seeks new talent ahead of float July 29, 2008 Top executives at KKR, the US private equity group which is to merge with one of its funds and list in New York, said yesterday it would set aside a stake in the business to attract “new talent”. KKR will hold 79 per cent of the new quoted company, but will allocate 20 per cent [...]
Ryanair cuts ticket prices while earnings plummet July 29, 2008 Shares in low cost airline Ryanair sank 22 per cent yesterday after the company warned it may make a €60m (£47.4m) loss this year, as high oil prices eat into margins. It said it had made profit after tax in the first quarter of €21m- a drop of 85 per cent- but the carrier yesterday [...]
Housing market boost July 29, 2008 Britain’s battered housing market received a boost yesterday after an influential report predicted that house prices would rise 25 per cent by 2013. The data, published yesterday by the National Housing Federation, said that the average price of a home in Britain would increase by a quarter over the next five years to £274,700, with [...]