Record £300bn wiped off UK bonds and gilts as investors flee in biggest market collapse in decades August 13, 2022 Just under £300bn has been wiped off the value of UK corporate bonds since the start of this year following a major sell-off in the bond market in what is considered the biggest collapse in two decades. In the first six months of this year, the total outstanding value of UK corporate bonds has fallen [...]
Law Society calls for ‘sustained investment’ in courts to cut worsening case backlog August 13, 2022 The Law Society has called on the government to make “sustained investment” in the UK’s court system after new data showed the case backlog has gotten worse over the previous quarter. The backlog of cases waiting to be heard in the England and Wales Crown Courts has increased from 58,540 in April to 58,973 in [...]
Five Chinese firms vow to delist from US markets amid long running audit dispute August 13, 2022 Five Chinese state-owned companies have said they will pull themselves off the New York stock exchange amid long-running clashes between Beijing and Washington over audit standards. The five Chinese firms have said they will delist from the Wall Street market after coming under scrutiny over US regulators claims they have failed to meet US audit [...]
Russian economy shrinks by four per cent due to impacts of Western sanctions August 13, 2022 The Russian is now four per cent smaller than it was a year ago, according to new figures from the country’s state statistics agency. Russia’s gross domestic product (GDP) for Q2 2022 equals a sum equivalent to 96 per cent the value of the country’s economy in Q2 2021, the preliminary Rosstat statistics show. The [...]
What the new interest rates mean for the City: ‘The UK fares worse than the EU and US’ August 13, 2022 The Bank of England’s decision to further raise interest rates from 1.25 per cent to 1.75 per cent and its two-year predictions means bad news for investors and UK residents alike. And the pain is far from over. A top City analyst expects this to further rise to 2.25 per cent in September. Other than [...]
UK’s trade deficit widens to record £27.9bn as business with Russia reaches historic low August 13, 2022 New data showed this morning that UK’s trade deficit in goods and services widens again in Q2 to a record £27.9bn. Moreover, monthly imports from Russia dropped to meagre £33m, the lowest since records began and down from over £1.8bn in both January and February of this year. Also during Q2, imports increased by £14.3bn [...]
Morrisons, Tesco and Sainsbury’s suspend sales of disposable barbecues amid heatwave August 12, 2022 Morrisons, Tesco and Sainsbury’s are among a slew of household names to halt sales of disposable barbecues owing to warm weather concerns. There have been warnings about potential fires due to high temperatures this summer, as large swathes of the country have been categorised as drought status. Morrisons said in a statement on Friday: “In [...]
Commuter numbers into City of London nearly double with Wednesdays and Thursdays busiest August 12, 2022 Commuter numbers into the City of London have nearly doubled since last year and the lifting of Covid-19 restrictions in England, according to new data from mobile operator O2. The network said the data – which it gathered based on connections to O2 mobile masts in major commuter, hospitality and retail hubs – had found [...]
Property buyers invest in full portfolios over single purchases August 12, 2022 Property buyers are seeking value for money as they spend an average of £1.2m to buy property in bulk rather than as a single investment. Such property packages come with an average of 6.4 bedrooms, at £196,000 per bedroom. This offers an average yield of 2.9% on these ready-made portfolios, research by specialist property lender Octane Capital, [...]
Johnson & Johnson to discontinue talc-based baby powder August 12, 2022 Consumer health giant Johnson & Johnson will stop selling talc-based baby powder next year, after thousands of lawsuits. The company discontinued sales of the product in the US and Canada in 2020, after demand dropped in the wake of a slew of lawsuits. Some 38,000 lawsuits against the company have alleged that such products caused [...]