Plus500 chief executive Asaf Elimelech resigns with immediate effect April 20, 2020 Plus500 chief executive Asaf Elimelech has resigned from the company with immediate effect, after four years at the helm. The group’s chief operating officer, David Zruia, will assume the role of interim boss alongside his day to day responsibilities until a permanent replacement is found. Elimelech has a notice period of 12 months and will [...]
OECD boss: Coronavirus crash will not be as bad as Great Depression April 19, 2020 The coronavirus economic downturn will be “very bad”, but not as bad as the Great Depression despite fears to the contrary, according to the head of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD). Angel Gurria, secretary-general of the OECD, said today that the impending global economic crash will not last for four years like [...]
US stocks rise as investors hope for coronavirus breakthrough April 17, 2020 US stocks have risen in afternoon trading despite dire economic data from China as investors grow optimism about a possible coronavirus drug breakthrough. The Dow Jones was up 1.6 per cent in morning trading in the US. The S&P 500 was 1.5 per cent higher and the Nasdaq had risen 0.6 per cent. European shares [...]
Pessimism & reluctance April 17, 2020 | City Talk A moment of nostalgia for sterling and relief for the euro. Sterling was not unduly worried this week, having a surprisingly successful week. Over the eight-day week it strengthened by an average of 0.5%, losing out only to the puzzlingly mismatched Australian dollar and Japanese yen. It added one euro cent and one and one [...]
Netflix’s value hits record $196bn in coronavirus lockdown April 17, 2020 Netflix has become a more valuable company than both US oil giant Exxo Mobil and rival Disney as demand for home entertainment booms amid the coronavirus lockdown. Shares in the streaming company climbed five per cent on Thursday to a new record high of $448, taking its market value to $196bn. At the same time, [...]
Man Group funds slump $14bn on coronavirus market chaos April 17, 2020 Hedge fund manager Man Group said today that its funds under management fell 11.5 per cent to $104.2bn (£83.8bn) in the first quarter because of the slump in the markets caused by the coronavirus pandemic. Man Group said it lost $10.7bn on negative investment performance and $3.3bn on currency and other movements. Man’s computer-driven long-only [...]
China’s economy shrinks for first time in decades on coronavirus hit April 17, 2020 China’s economy shrank for the first time in nearly three decades of records in the first quarter as the coronavirus pandemic hit spending and production. Gross domestic product (GDP) fell 6.8 per cent in the quarter ended March compared to the same period the previous year, official data showed today, slightly larger than the 6.5 [...]
Compassionate capitalism can underpin our coronavirus recovery April 17, 2020 This Covid-19 coronavirus crisis could all be over by autumn. Or by this time next year. We simply do not know. What we do know, however, is that we will need to think carefully and radically about how this country is going to recover from the devastation left behind by the coronavirus pandemic. This pandemic [...]
Oil majors slash spending plans by a quarter as demand collapses April 16, 2020 The world’s biggest oil firms have cut their capital spending programmes by a combined 26 per cent for 2020 due to the collapse in oil prices caused by the coronavirus outbreak. In total, Reuters data shows that the combined sum of the cuts comes to $60.5bn (£48.2bn), as firms seek to conserve cash among an [...]
FTSE 100 stabilises after dire US jobless claims data April 16, 2020 The FTSE 100 stabilised today despite the news that another 5.2m US workers will become unemployed, taking the total number of jobless claims in the last month to over 22m. London’s blue chip index managed a 0.6 per cent rise, despite an earlier wobble, with traders sanguine despite the extraordinary figures. The gains, which left [...]