Week ahead: City shapes up for possible double-digit inflation August 14, 2022 The City is bracing for a week brimming with big economic announcements that will shed more light on the health of the UK economy. London’s premier FTSE 100 index notched a decent performance last week, gaining nearly one per cent to close at a shade over 7,500 points. The mid-cap domestically-focused FTSE 250 index, which [...]
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 [...]
Truss backs Bank of England review to ensure ‘it is fit for purpose’ August 11, 2022 The biggest overhaul of the Bank of England in 25 years may be needed to ensure “it is fit for purpose,” Tory leadership front-runner Liz Truss’s campaign told City A.M. today. The comments represent an escalation in Truss’s drive to shake up the regime overseeing the Bank’s performance. She has promised to review Threadneedle Street’s [...]
US inflation shock may force Fed to launch one percentage point rate hike August 9, 2022 A scorching set of new US inflation numbers released tomorrow could force the Federal Reserve to hike interest rates by the steepest amount in recent history, Wall Street analysts are betting. Fed chief Jerome Powell and co have already had to hike the world’s most important interest rate by 225 basis points since March, the [...]
Don’t rule out even more rate rises, Bank of England’s Ramsden warns August 9, 2022 The Bank of England will have to build on the biggest rate rise in nearly 30 years to sweep inflation out of the UK, a senior official at the monetary authority said today. Dave Ramsden, deputy governor at the Bank, told Reuters “it’s more likely than not that we will have to raise Bank Rate [...]
Housing market holds up well despite Bank of England rate hikes August 8, 2022 The UK property market is still running hot despite the Bank of England’s rapid interest rate hike cycle, according to research by City A.M. House purchases dipped around four per cent in June compared to December when the Bank’s first rate rise landed, dropping to 95,420 from 99,560, according to HMRC data. Governor Andrew Bailey [...]
BoE’s Bailey and co are gloomiest central bank forecasters in history, according to Goldman Sachs August 8, 2022 “No central bank has ever published as negative an economic forecast” as the Bank of England did last week, according to a top Wall Street bank. Governor Andrew Bailey and co’s prediction that the UK will tip into the longest recession since the financial crisis at the end of this year is the gloomiest of [...]
Businesses scramble to hire workers despite looming UK recession August 8, 2022 Businesses are scrambling to fill vacancies at a rapid pace despite the UK staring down the barrel of the longest recession since the financial crisis, revealed new figures published yesterday. A shortage of workers partly driven by people dipping out of the jobs market due to Covid-19 related health issues and Brexit has intensified competition [...]
Steaming US jobs market raises risk of another jumbo Fed rate hike August 7, 2022 The US jobs market is still steaming despite the world’s biggest economy wobbling under the weight of soaring inflation and higher interest rates, figures published last week showed. America added 528,000 jobs in July, pushing the unemployment rate down to 3.5 per cent, below pre Covid-19 levels, according to data from the US Labor Department. [...]
Week ahead: City braces for soft economy data and US inflation figures August 7, 2022 Top of City traders’ minds this week will be whether fresh GDP figures reveal the UK is already in the early stages of the drawn out recession the Bank of England forecast last week. Despite the economic doom, London’s FTSE 100 was broadly stable, edging 0.16 per cent lower to close the week at 7,439.74 [...]