Petropavlovsk shareholders set for crunch vote after months of boardroom strife August 6, 2020 Shareholders at gold miner Petropavlovsk will on Monday vote to settle months of strife after a long-running tussle for control of the firm’s board. Voters will choose between rival proposals investors from Prosperity Capital Management and Everest Alliance over the future make-up of the board after seven directors, including chief executive Pavel Mavlovskiy, were ousted [...]
Markets live: US stocks dip on stimulus fears after miners pull FTSE 100 lower August 6, 2020 The FTSE 100 sank sharply today as traders appeared to react negatively to the Bank of England’s relatively upbeat assessment of the UK economy, amid fears of a lack of fresh US stimulus. The UK index dropped 1.32 per cent to 6,024 points by 4pm, after the Bank said the economy would fall less sharply [...]
BoE governor Andrew Bailey: Some parts of economy no longer ‘viable’ August 6, 2020 Bank of England governor Andrew Bailey has warned that “some parts of the economy” will not be “viable” after the coronavirus pandemic. He also backed the government’s move to end the furlough scheme in October. He said “we have to look forwards”. Bailey was speaking to broadcasters after the Bank kept interest rates on hold [...]
Weekly US jobless claims beat expectations and drop to 1.2m August 6, 2020 Slightly under 1.2m Americans made new jobless claims last week, a better-than-expected figure that will fuel hopes that the US economy’s recovery will not be derailed by coronavirus cases. Initial jobless claims came in at 1.19m last week, down from 1.44m a year earlier, the Labor Department said. The weekly total was much better than [...]
Economists question Bank of England’s ‘optimistic’ forecast August 6, 2020 The Bank of England today kept interest rates on hold and said the UK economy would not shrink as much as initially thought this year, but it said the recovery would take longer. But some economists have questioned the assumptions, arguing that high unemployment will damage the economy. The Bank said the UK economy was [...]
Bank of England: Downturn better than feared but UK faces longer recovery August 6, 2020 The Bank of England has significantly improved its prediction for the path of the UK economy this year, but said the recovery will take longer than initially expected. The Bank’s projection, released today, said the UK economy was likely to shrink by 9.5 per cent this year and then grow by nine per cent in [...]
BoE puts negative interest rates in its ‘toolbox’ for the first time August 6, 2020 The Bank of England has put negative interest rates in its “toolbox” of possible monetary policy measures for the first time, governor Andrew Bailey said today. However, Bailey cautioned that the Bank does not currently “have a plan to use them”. Read more: Bank of England says UK economy’s recovery will take longer than expected [...]
Glencore shares fall as miner cuts dividend amid growing debt August 6, 2020 Shares in miner Glencore fell 3.8 per cent this morning after the commodities giant said that it would scrap its $2.6bn dividend to concentrate on reducing debt. As a result of the coronavirus pandemic, which has lowered prices for the company’s minerals due to a slump in demand, Glencore said it had booked a total [...]
Bubble trouble: Lessons from three centuries of boom and bust August 6, 2020 While 2020 has seen its fair share of market turbulence, it has some way to go to match the volatility of 1720. This month marks the 300th anniversary of the peak of the South Sea Bubble — one of the first financial bubbles, and still one of history’s greatest. The bubble began when the South [...]
FTSE 100 ends higher and gold surges as investors bet on stimulus August 5, 2020 The FTSE 100 closed higher and US stocks rose as investors hoped Democrats and the White House would strike a new stimulus deal, while gold surged to a fresh all-time high. London’s blue-chip index ended the day one per cent higher at 6,098 points. The FTSE 250 of mid-cap firms jumped 1.7 per cent. Read [...]