US inflation tepid ahead of Fed rates decision June 12, 2019 US consumer price inflation slowed in May, official data revealed today, in news that could add to pressure on the country’s central bank to cut interest rates. Read more: Trump attacks euro and repeats criticism of Fed The consumer price index (CPI) rose 1.8 per cent in May compared to a year earlier, down from [...]
Can Amazon really be a climate change champion? June 12, 2019 | City Talk Amazon is not a company normally associated with meaningful strides towards a low carbon future. Although e-commerce is typically better for the environment than heavily air-conditioned, high street stores, speedy deliveries carry a high carbon cost. Any Amazon shopper may feel a pang of guilt – as I have – at using the one day delivery [...]
Oil prices pushed down by US stockpile data June 12, 2019 Oil prices dropped nearly three per cent this morning as news emerged that US stockpiles rose last week. International standard Brent crude fell 2.6 per cent to $60.72 at around 11.15am today. Meanwhile, US standard was down 2.8 per cent to $51.79. Oil inventories in the States grew by 4.9m barrels last week. Analysts had [...]
ECB and IMF chiefs warn trade headwinds could damage European integration June 12, 2019 The president of the European Central Bank (ECB) and the head of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) have today warned that global trade “headwinds” could damage growth in Europe. Read more: Eurozone investors gloomy as trade war continues to rage They cautioned that the vulnerability of Europe’s emerging eastern economies to the current global slowdown [...]
Is gold making a comeback? June 12, 2019 | City Talk A rise in the price of gold has coincided with a renewed interest in the role of bullion as a monetary asset. Eclipsed since the early Seventies by paper assets and, occasionally, even cryptocurrencies, gold is once again heralded as a risk-free asset with three huge plus points. These are that it is universally acceptable, that it [...]
Trump attacks euro and repeats criticism of Fed June 11, 2019 US President Donald Trump has accused the Eurozone economies of devaluing the single currency to put the US at a disadvantage, and renewed his attack on his country’s central bank. Read more: Trump says tariffs on remaining Chinese goods set to come into force Trump said on Twitter: “The Euro and other currencies are devalued [...]
Mining stocks pull up FTSE 100 June 11, 2019 Mining giants helped push up the FTSE 100 this morning as China announced increased local government spending. The miners were also boosted by Chinese iron prices which jumped by nearly six per cent in today’s trade. Evraz, Antofagasta, Rio Tinto, Gencore and BHP rose between two and four per cent each. They were all among [...]
Eurozone investors gloomy as trade war continues to rage June 11, 2019 Investors’ confidence in the Eurozone economy fell much more sharply than expected in May as they weighed up the escalation of the US-China trade dispute, a survey showed today. Read more: Eurozone’s ‘modest’ growth reliant on service sector Sentix, the firm that gathers the survey data, said the Eurozone economy was “once again on the [...]
UK unemployment stays at record lows as jobs market shrugs off Brexit June 11, 2019 The UK unemployment rate stayed at its near-record low level of 3.8 per cent in the three months to April, according to official statistics released today, as the jobs market shrugged off Brexit uncertainty. Read more: UK economy shrinks by 0.4 per cent in April Record numbers in work helped push up wages, which rose [...]
Expected Credit Losses in Unexpected Times June 11, 2019 | City Talk A policy crafted to stop repeating past mistakes often misses the future challenges shaped by those very policies.