After the Nvidelity comes the Huangover. Jensen Huang joins long list who confused boardroom and bedroom
Oil price edges up on Opec production cuts hopes February 4, 2020 Oil prices showed signs of recovery this morning as officials from oil cartel Opec were set to meet in Vienna to discuss the rapid fall in prices due to China’s coronavirus outbreak. Brent crude clawed back 0.7 per cent to reach $54.92, whilst West Texas Intermediate, which on Monday breached the $50 mark, gained 1.5 [...]
Glencore shares rise as cobalt production offsets copper drop February 4, 2020 Shares in global miner Glencore rose five per cent this morning as the firm brushed off lower production volumes of metals such as copper, gold and silver. Production of the red metal slipped six per cent in 2019 to 1.37m tonnes, whilst gold production fell 15 per cent to 848,000 tonnes. The company has been [...]
UK PMI: Construction sector shows signs of life after election February 4, 2020 Output in the UK’s construction sector in January fell at its slowest pace since May of last year, survey data has shown, in a sign of green shoots for Britain’s builders amid lower political uncertainty. The IHS Markit/Cips gauge of construction output rose to 48.4 in January from 44.4 in December. The reading was still [...]
Just two women applied to be governor of the Bank of England February 4, 2020 Just two of the 23 people who applied to succeed Mark Carney as governor of the Bank of England were women, despite the Treasury enlisting a specialist headhunting firm in a bid to diversify the list of candidates. The government named Financial Conduct Authority boss Andrew Bailey, a former central banker, as the BoE’s next [...]
Asian stocks recover ground even as coronavirus spreads February 4, 2020 Asian stocks bounced overnight despite Hong Kong reporting its first death from coronavirus. The virus – which originated in Wuhan, China – had claimed 425 lives as of yesterday, from 20,400 cases. China’s Shanghai stock index climbed 1.3 per cent overnight after plunging 7.9 per cent yesterday, a fall which wiped around $400bn (£309bn) off [...]
Skills shortages continue to hit growth as UK employers struggle to find the right talent February 4, 2020 Skills shortages are continuing to impact economic growth, with almost three quarters of businesses reporting difficulties recruiting new talent at the end of last year, a new report found. While the UK’s labour market remained stable in the fourth quarter of 2019, with over half of firms attempting to recruit, 72 per cent of businesses [...]
Burford Capital issues warning on 2019 profit February 3, 2020 Burford Capital, the litigation funder locked in a stand-off with short-seller Muddy Waters, has warned 2019 profit will fall lower partly due to a fall in potential earnings from certain investments. The AIM-listed company said it finished the first half of its financial year with an “unusually high” amount of settlement, $173m, thanks to investment [...]
US manufacturing sector rebounds amid lower trade tensions February 3, 2020 The US manufacturing sector rebounded in January after shrinking for five straight months, survey data showed today, in a sign that the country’s factories are set for a better year than they had in 2019. The Institute for Supply Management’s (ISM) factory gauge rose to 50.9 last month, its highest point since July, up from [...]
Drax assessing coal plant options after legal challenge February 3, 2020 Drax will not bid for capacity market contracts for its proposed new gas power plant in North Yorkshire until the outcome of a legal challenge against the project is known. The National Grid uses capacity market contracts to ensure there will be sufficient energy on the grid to offset periods of stress caused by the [...]
Pound sinks as Boris Johnson warns of hard Brexit February 3, 2020 The pound has sunk in early trading today ahead of a Boris Johnson speech in which the Prime Minister is expected to demand a looser trade deal with the EU that could spell a hard Brexit. Sterling fell over one per cent against the dollar to $1.3069 ahead of the Prime Minister’s speech. Johnson is [...]