What you need to know before the open – 06/12 December 6, 2013 US markets finished lower for the fifth day in a row yesterday, as data came in ahead of expectations and investors await nonfarm payrolls later today. The surprise rise in US third quarter GDP, to 3.6 per cent, was well above forecasts. In Friday trading, Asian markets fell on the news. Better-than-expected data are fuelling [...]
Lloyds sells distressed Irish mortgages to US private equity affiliate December 6, 2013 Lloyds Banking Group announced on Friday that it will be selling a portfolio of non-performing Irish retail mortgages for £257m. The portfolio worth £610m, will be sold to Tanger Limited, an affiliate of US private equity company Apollo Global Management. The portfolio performed poorly last year generating losses of £33m for the year to 31 [...]
Nelson Mandela 1918 – 2013 December 5, 2013 SOUTH Africa’s first black President and the man who fought apartheid to lead the country to democracy died last night aged 95. “Our nation has lost its greatest son,” South African President Jacob Zuma said after announcing Nelson Mandela’s death. Mandela died at his Johannesburg home, where he had been receiving intensive medical care for [...]
Osborne: the UK is on the road to recovery December 5, 2013 CHANCELLOR George Osborne set out his plans for Britain’s economic future yesterday, offering cautious optimism about the state of the country’s finances. In his Autumn Statement speech, Osborne warned of the threat to recovery from those who would “squander the gains we’ve made”, adding: “Britain’s economic plan is working. But the job is not done.” [...]
Our at-a-glance guide to Osborne’s mini-budget December 5, 2013 Growth up, borrowing down, yet the debt is still rising. Another raid on the banks, but shops to gain from reduced business rates THE UK ECONOMIC OUTLOOK● The Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR) has revised up its forecast for economic growth and revised down its prediction for inflation. It expects unemployment to drop quickly next [...]
Mourning the father of a rainbow nation December 5, 2013 ONE OF my earliest memories is of a primary teacher encouraging my class to pray every day for the release of Nelson Mandela. “Your prayers will pile up like leaves, until their weight forces open his prison.” That would have been in the early 1980s, by which time Mandela had already spent two decades in [...]
Merck picks up AZ Electronic in £1.6bn purchase December 5, 2013 LONDON-listed chemicals company AZ Electronic Materials has agreed a £1.56bn takeover by German manufacturer Merck. AZ, a maker of chemicals for Apple’s iPad displays and memory chips, saw its share price rise over 50 per cent to 395p a share on news of the deal yesterday, just shy of the 403.5p per share that the [...]
Labour pressures Cable over RBS reports December 5, 2013 LAWRENCE Tomlinson, the entrepreneur who caused a storm around RBS by accusing it of harming small firms, is not an independent voice as he himself has a long running claim against the bank, Labour’s Chuka Umunna said yesterday. The shadow business secretary accused the business department’s entrepreneur in residence of bias against the bank because [...]
What the other papers say this morning – 6 December 2013 December 5, 2013 FINANCIAL TIMES Lew urges race to top on bank reform Jack Lew, the US treasury secretary, warned that US financial reforms aimed at ending the problem of banks that are “too big to fail” would fall short unless international regulators held global banks to the same high standards. The US Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation is [...]
Strong growth in the US proves Osborne wrong December 5, 2013 A MERE two hours after Osborne claimed the UK was the fastest growing Western economy, official figures from the US proved him wrong. The Commerce Department’s latest revision to its third quarter GDP figure showed that the US economy grew 0.9 per cent in the three months to the end of September compared to the [...]