UK economy: Experts cut forecast as coronavirus cases surge October 29, 2020 Analysts have become significantly more pessimistic about the UK economy, saying the surge in coronavirus cases and new restrictions will weigh on the recovery as the year runs into 2021. Economists say chancellor Rishi Sunak’s more generous employment support scheme will help limit some damage in the jobs market. But they warn that new lockdowns [...]
Has Jack Ma made IPOs a weapon of corporate warfare? October 29, 2020 Ant Group is not a household name. An affiliate of Chinese tech wizard Jack Ma’s Alibaba, it operates the digital payment platform Alipay, which serves more than a billion users and is China’s largest such enterprise. This week, Ant Group announced the pricing of its listing on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange and Shanghai’s Star [...]
US stocks tumble and oil drops after disastrous FTSE 100 day October 28, 2020 The FTSE 100 plunged to its lowest level since April and US and European stocks tumbled as surging coronavirus cases and a lack of US stimulus sent shockwaves through markets. London’s blue-chip index dropped three per cent in afternoon trading, its third fall in as many days, to just 5,556 points. Read more: How close [...]
Who’s afraid of Jerome Powell? October 28, 2020 | City Talk I see charts of central bank balance sheets everywhere. Maybe it’s because I am so adamant that quantitative easing (QE) isn’t going to create inflation that I notice them so much. But then again, there is a reason these charts pop up time and again. After all, the US Federal Reserve has increased its balance sheet by $2.8 trillion, [...]
Rush to beat stamp duty rise sees UK house prices jump again October 28, 2020 The stamp duty holiday and pent-up demand have led to a stampede into the housing market, with 140,000 more buyers currently waiting to complete their property transactions than a year earlier, according to a new report. The high demand saw UK house prices jump again in September by three per cent year on year, the [...]
Forget the polls endorsing lockdowns and look at how people actually behave October 28, 2020 Economics is at long last storming the bastions of the Scientific Advisory Group for Emergencies (SAGE). This citadel of epidemiologists and health professionals has for many months resisted the lessons which the so-called gloomy science can bring. In the context of Covid-19, economics is in fact a beacon of hope. This week, news broke of [...]
FTSE 100 falls and US stocks mixed as coronavirus cases rise October 27, 2020 The FTSE 100 fell in afternoon trading after a choppy morning session, while US stocks were mixed amid rising coronavirus cases and some worrying economic data. London’s main stock index was last down 0.8 per cent at 5,745 points, having also fallen yesterday. Read more:HSBC to overhaul business model and accelerate plan to slash costs [...]
Retail sales fall sharply as new restrictions dampen economic recovery October 27, 2020 Retail sales fell sharply this month as new coronavirus restrictions dampened the UK’s economic recovery, according to the latest research. In the year to October retail sales dropped to a balance of minus 23 per cent, from growth of 11 per cent last month, according to the CBI distributive trades survey. Retail sales have been [...]
St James’s Place net inflows slow amid ‘challenging’ environment October 27, 2020 Wealth manager St James’s Place (STJ) has recorded a rise in funds under management even as the pace of inflows slowed in the third quarter. As at 30 September, total funds under management increased to £118.7bn compared with £112.82bn in 2019. St James’s Place reported net inflows of £1.33bn in three months ended 30 September, [...]
Exclusive: City Hall and government urged to tackle capital’s ‘jobs crisis’ October 27, 2020 The government and City Hall must work together to tackle the jobs crisis that is set to see more than 130,000 Londoners fall into long-term unemployment in 2020/21, a new report shared exclusively with City A.M. has argued. The Learning and Work Institute’s (LWI) report said Londoners had been hit particularly hard by the coronavirus [...]