How to spot the pension fund dogs October 22, 2013 A new report finds that £31bn is sat in poor performing funds WITH annual and lifetime allowances for attracting tax relief at £50,000 and £1.5m respectively (due to fall to £40,000 and £1.25m in 2014-2015), pensions are the most tax-efficient way to save for retirement. But with over £30bn of pension savings languishing in under-achieving [...]
Ongoing labour disputes may not hurt Royal Mail shares October 22, 2013 But the stock still faces serious risks after its initial rise in price The surge in the price of Royal Mail shares since trading began on 11 October has been as spectacular as it’s been controversial. After listing at 330p, Royal Mail shares rose almost 60 per cent to push beyond 530p on Monday, before [...]
Apple launches a barrage of new hardware products while offering a host of free software updates October 22, 2013 Tech giant Apple is launching a stream of new products and boasts that its users are taking to its recent releases. 64 per cent of customers are now using the latest operating system for mobile devices – iOS7 – and a new update to its desktop software OS X – OS X Mavericks – will [...]
M&S to open 150 new food stores creating over 5,000 new jobs October 22, 2013 Retailer Marks & Spencer has announced plans for 150 new franchise and owned UK Simply Food stores in the next three years in order "to further enhance its specialist food positioning and reduce drive times to access M&S Food". Roughly half of those stores will be of around 2,000 square feet and operated in convenience [...]
Awful jobs data sends US stocks to new records October 22, 2013 Markets are back to interpreting bad news as good, and good news as bad. With expectations that the Federal Reserve won't begin tapering pushed back until sometime in 2014, traders expect that poor economic news will keep Fed policy loose for longer – which is positive for equities. So really bad labour market data is [...]
One chart that shows how the federal shutdown hit the US economy October 22, 2013 Despite having avoided a US government default, the economic damage of the temporary October shutdown can't be so easily undone. We're beginning to see data releases for those weeks now, and they're beginning to reveal a grim economic picture. Betsey Stevenson of President Barack Obama's Council of Economic Advisers has pointed to this chart: We'll [...]
Co-op’s Len Wardle to quit as chairman of floundering lender October 22, 2013 Co-op's Len Wardle is to step down as chairman in May of next year, in the thick of a crisis which has seen the mutual lose majority ownership of its bank. (Release) The bank, which is set to be taken over by American hedge funds, saw Wardle quit the board last month. He has been [...]
Metrobank customer numbers surge as switching made easier October 22, 2013 Metrobank has reported record growth in its third-quarter financial statement. Customer account numbers have increased to 238,000, a rise of 75 per cent since the beginning of the year. The bank also saw total deposits have risen to £1.075bn, an increase of 24 per cent in the quarter, and an annual increase of 157 per [...]
US jobs number misses expectations but unlikely to affect Fed tapering decision October 22, 2013 We've finally seen a nonfarm payrolls (NFP) print after weeks of waiting. Delayed by the shutdown, the newest data shows weak job additions in September, with 148,000 jobs created. Consensus forecasts suggested that we'd see 180,000 jobs added. The unemployment rate falls from 7.3 to 7.2 per cent (the lowest since November 2008), with average [...]
Big six energy bosses called before MPs October 22, 2013 The chief executives of the big six energy firms have been called before the energy select committee on 29 October. Sir Robert Smith MP said in a statement that "the committee has today decided to call in the energy bosses in the context of the latest wave of price increases". MPs will grill bosses over [...]