Pound on course for best week since Christmas 2020 May 21, 2022 The pound was on course for its best week against the dollar since December 2020 driven by investors betting on the Bank of England having to keep raising interest rates to get on top of a historic inflation crunch. Markets are baking in a fifth successive rate hike at the Bank’s next meeting in June [...]
Wall Street tips into bear market territory on recession fears May 21, 2022 Intensifying concerns about the health of the global economy has tipped Wall Street into bear market territory. The US’s top index, the S&P 500, at one point yesterday lost two per cent, ratcheting up its losses since its peak in January to more than 20 per cent, breaching the threshold for a bear market. The [...]
Saturday Special: Why the London Stock Exchange and Euronext are moving their datacentres around May 21, 2022 Datacentre exchange colocation is on the mind of many key players in the City and beyond at the moment. The idea appeals to a wide group of capital markets participants, and for various reasons. For example, with Euronext migrating from Basildon in Essex to the Aruba Global datacentre IT3 in Bergamo this year and the London Stock Exchange Group [...]
Ay caramba! UK kicks off negotiations with Mexico for £4bn post-Brexit trade deal May 20, 2022 International Trade Secretary Anne-Marie Trevelyan is set to fire the starting gun on free trade talks between the UK and Mexico during the visit of her Mexican counterpart, Tatiana Clouthier to London this afternoon. Officials said UK negotiators would be looking to go “further and deeper” in terms of integrating ties in a relationship already [...]
Bank of England hints further interest rates are coming soon to bring down highest inflation in four decades May 20, 2022 As the British economy is hit by high levels of inflation, the Bank of England’s chief economist said today interest rates might need to rise further in the near future. Huw Pill said the 9 per cent inflation rate – the highest in 40 years – is a “very uncomfortable situation” for decision-makers at the [...]
Over 60? Supermarket giant Iceland to fight cost-of-living crisis by giving older shoppers 10 per cent discount May 20, 2022 Frozen food chain Iceland is set to introduce a discount for seniors as Britons struggle with soaring prices. The supermarket chain has announced that, from May 24, customers aged over 60 will receive a 10 per cent discount on their groceries every Tuesday with no minimum spend. In order to redeem the discount, senior shoppers [...]
Food as a weapon: Russia accused of withholding grain for millions to ‘break the spirit of Ukraine’ May 20, 2022 Russia has been accused of ‘weaponising’ food and holding grain for millions of people around the world hostage to “break the spirit of the Ukrainian people”. US Secretary of State Antony Blinken told a UN Security Council meeting called by the United States that the war has halted maritime trade in large areas of the [...]
Brits’ optimism tumbles to new depths, below financial crisis and Covid-19 lockdowns May 20, 2022 Rampant inflation, tax hikes, swelling food and energy bills and the Russia-Ukraine war has sent Brits’ optimism to its lowest level ever, reveals a closely watched survey published today. UK households are now even more pessimistic than they were when the world was in the teeth of the global financial crisis in 2008 and during [...]
London ensnared by global market turmoil as recession jitters spread May 19, 2022 The City was ensnared by a global market sell off today driven by investors ditching stocks over fears soaring inflation will tip major economies into recession. Britain’s biggest companies shed around £40bn today. London’s premier FTSE 100 index tumbled just under two per cent, taking its total losses for the year so far to nearly [...]
Exclusive: Tech exits surge as unicorns are ‘out’ and recurring revenue is the new valuation for venture capital May 19, 2022 European technology exit values and counts have skyrocketed in the past year, reaching $133.4 billion in value, a 400 per cent year-over-year increase, across 1,247 exits. In 2021, there were approximately 186 public listings, including names such as UiPath, Wise, GitLab, OVH, and SUSE. In addition, M&As reached an all-time high with 687 European companies being acquired. The deep pool of [...]