Covid-19: the inescapable truths faced by investors May 22, 2020 | City Talk Investors will need to be more agile than ever as Covid-19 reinforces many of the trends driving the world economy prior to the outbreak. “At the beginning of the plague, when there was now no more hope but that the whole city would be visited; when all that had friends or estates in the country [...]
Why’s everyone talking about Italy (again)? May 22, 2020 | City Talk Italy went into this crisis in a more precarious situation than most. Here Senior European Economist and Strategist Azad Zangana explains why. This is going to be the deepest recession for the eurozone economy in modern times. Just as Italy has been one of the hardest hit nations in the Covid-19 crisis, there are fears [...]
Government borrowing hits record £62bn in April over coronavirus measures May 22, 2020 UK government borrowing rose by a record £62.1bn in April alone as the government paid people’s wages and loaned businesses cash to survive the coronavirus lockdown, statistics showed today. Coronavirus measures like the job retention scheme to pay people’s wages and coronavirus loans for businesses pushed UK borrowing to the all-time high last month. The [...]
Coronavirus: Is this the end for the North Sea oil industry? May 22, 2020 For the last couple of months, the headlines coming out of the North Sea oil fields have made for pretty grim reading. In the past decade or so, the industry, which employs around 150,000 people in the UK, has already been battered by two price implosions, in 2008 and 2013. However, the hit it has [...]
Time Out kicks off £49m placing and open offer to raise emergency cash for coronavirus shutdown May 22, 2020 Media and events company Time Out today said it was seeking to raise £49m via a share placing and open offer to bolster its balance sheet in the face of the coronavirus pandemic. The company has been hit by a closure of its food hall markets and the suspension of its print editions alongside a [...]
Coronavirus measures force UK borrowing up £62bn in April May 22, 2020 UK borrowing rose by £62.1bn in April alone as the government paid people’s wages and loaned businesses cash to survive the coronavirus lockdown, statistics showed today. Coronavirus measures like the job retention scheme to pay people’s wages, and coronavirus loans for businesses of all sizes, pushed UK borrowing to an all-time high last month. The [...]
Consumer confidence ‘battered and bruised’ by coronavirus crisis May 22, 2020 Consumer confidence has been “battered and bruised” by the coronavirus crisis, new research has found as optimism remained low despite the easing of lockdown restrictions. The latest data showed that confidence was at minus 34 as consumers were concerned about the economic impact of the pandemic, with unemployment claims rising amid warnings of a recession. [...]
Economists rule out ‘V-shaped’ recovery after weak survey data May 21, 2020 Survey data today showed that the UK economy remained mired in a deep downturn in May despite an improvement from a dire April. Many economists have said that any hopes of a swift ‘V-shaped’ recovery from the coronavirus crash have all but faded. At the beginning of the crisis, policymakers and analysts hoped that once [...]
Markets live: FTSE 100 goes green as US stocks shrug off China tensions May 21, 2020 The FTSE 100 turned from red to green as US markets opened higher today, despite the looming threat of escalating US-China tensions. Britain’s main stock index had fallen 0.78 per cent by 10.30am to 6,017 points. By 2.50pm it had risen 0.2 per cent to 6,078 points, however, as US markets shrugged off more jobless [...]
US sees 2.4m new jobless claims as total nears 40m amid coronavirus May 21, 2020 More than 2.4m Americans made new jobless claims last week, data has shown, as the world’s largest economy continues to shed jobs at a momentous pace during the coronavirus crisis. The latest figure means that roughly 39m new claims for unemployment insurance have been made in the US since March 21. Unemployment has soared to [...]