Sterling falls hard against dollar as UK prepares to extend lockdown April 16, 2020 The pound fell sharply against the dollar this afternoon as the UK looked set to extend its lockdown for a further three weeks despite signs that the peak of the coronavirus pandemic was nearing. The prospect of a further extension, which will keep the country under restrictive measures until early May at least, saw sterling [...]
Latest news: BEQUANT partners with MAINBLOQ April 16, 2020 | City Talk BEQUANT and MAINBLOQ are delighted to announce its partnership, making a serious commitment to building out the technology layer for the emerging digital asset space. As institutions have taken a closer look at the space, both organisations have been busy building the underlying technology including MAINBLOQ’s Smart Order Router and suite of algorithms and BEQUANT’s [...]
BEQUANT partners with BCB Group April 16, 2020 | City Talk BEQUANT has partnered with BCB Group – an FCA regulated business payments provider in the digital assets industry. BEQUANT will be using BCB Group’s multi-currency payment accounts as well as market liquidity in foreign exchange (FX) and cryptocurrency. BEQUANT has been actively developing a one stop solution for institutional clients including its multi-asset exchange, prime [...]
US stocks fall after dire jobless claims data April 16, 2020 US stocks have fallen in the wake of yet more shocking employment data and as states and the federal government debate lifting coronavirus measures. The Dow Jones index was down one per cent in early trading. The S&P 500 had dropped 0.5 per cent but the Nasdaq was 0.2 per cent higher. Stocks were volatile [...]
Coronavirus: More than 5m Americans made new jobless claims last week April 16, 2020 The number of Americans making new jobless claims topped 5.2m last week, official figures have shown, as the coronavirus crisis crashes the economy and sends unemployment skyrocketing. The figure compares to 6.6m new claims last week. It takes the number of people who have made new jobless claims in the last month to an astounding [...]
Shell unveils plan to become a net zero emissions firm by 2050 April 16, 2020 Oil giant Shell has become the latest supermajor to announce plans to become a net-zero energy emissions business by 2050. The firm’s announcement follows similar decisions by rivals like BP, but comes as the oil and gas sector faces its biggest challenge in decades due to the coronavirus-driven collapse of oil prices. The company said [...]
UK must beef up coronavirus economic response, says think tank April 16, 2020 The UK government must take “further radical policy steps” to tackle the economic fallout from coronavirus, a think tank has said, amid huge uncertainty over the length of the outbreak. The Resolution Foundation praised the government’s response so far, which includes £330bn of lending and a scheme to pay furloughed workers’ wages. Yet it said [...]
One in four UK firms temporarily closed due to coronavirus April 16, 2020 A quarter of UK firms have closed or paused trading as coronavirus ravages the economy, new figures have shown. For those businesses still open, on average more than 20 per cent of staff have been furloughed using the government’s job retention scheme, the Office for National Statistics (ONS) said. The figures, which cover the period [...]
Coronavirus: UK banks expect surge of business loan defaults April 16, 2020 The UK’s banks and building societies expect to see a surge of businesses defaulting on their loans in the coming months, survey data has shown, as coronavirus sends the economy into a deep recession. Small businesses are expected to be the worst hit, with expectations of defaults hitting their highest since the financial crisis for [...]
Coronavirus: Global stocks set to sink as economic reality bites April 16, 2020 Global stocks were set to fall today as “ugly” economic data and weak bank earnings suggest a recession is on the horizon. Asian stocks dropped today, with Japan’s Nikkei falling 1.2 per cent while Hong Kong’s Hang Seng index dropped 0.7 per cent. That came after Goldman Sachs, Bank of America and Citi all saw [...]