House prices continue on their ascent November 10, 2009 BRITISH house prices continued to storm higher with official data showing that the annual decline narrowed to 4.1 per cent in September after prices rose 1.2 per cent on August. Figures from the Department for Local Communities and Government (DCLG) revealed yesterday that UK house prices rose by 3.1 per cent in the quarter ending [...]
Widening in Britain’s trade deficit in September due to surging imports November 10, 2009 A SURGE in imports saw Britain’s trade deficit unexpectedly widen in September to £3.5bn from £2.2bn, raising the possibility that net trade probably contributed to the drop in GDP in the third quarter. The UK’s deficit on trade in goods was £7.2bn in September while the surplus on trade in services fell to £3.7bn from [...]
China restates its policy for stabilising the yuan November 10, 2009 CHINA yesterday reiterated its policy to maintain the stability of the yuan at a reasonable and balanced level. Beijing was responding to comments on Monday by US President Barack Obama, who said he would discuss the currency when he visits the country next week. Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Qin Gang said China would keep improving [...]
CITY VIEWS: DO YOU THINK THERE IS MORE STABILITY IN THE HOUSING MARKET? November 10, 2009 JOHN ATHOW UBS“I think that house prices will drop again. There’s a lot of false confidence around. House prices are still high in London because there’s a lot of demand and very little supply. Estate agents are pushing up the market. I doubt that as many houses are being sold as before the crunch.” TREVOR [...]
Luella stops trading after backer withdraws funds November 10, 2009 BRITISH fashion label Luella, whose fans include Cheryl Cole and Lily Allen, has ceased trading after its backers pulled out. Singapore-based retail group Club 21 pulled the plug on the brand yesterday following the collapse of one of designer Luella Bartley’s main producers in Italy last month. Bartley, who is best known for her party [...]
Pfizer closes research and development sites and cuts jobs after buying Wyeth November 10, 2009 PFIZER, the world’s biggest drugmaker, will close six research and development sites and cut jobs in both Britain and the US, following its acquisition of Wyeth. The company said it will reduce its global research and development square footage by 35 per cent. Pfizer will discontinue its R&D operations in Slough and Gosport, along with [...]
BoA chief defends his track record November 10, 2009 OUTGOING chief executive of Bank of America Ken Lewis yesterday defended his controversial tenure and said the bank is now primed to become a world-class company. “I am confident history will show that our actions … in building Bank of America positioned our company for future success,” Lewis told analysts at a Bank of America [...]
Thomson Reuters hit by EU probe into datafeeds November 10, 2009 THE European Union has launched a probe into financial data provider Thomson Reuters over fears that it is threatening competition by locking customers into its services. European Commission competition regulations said antitrust investigators would look at whether Thomson Reuters was abusing its market dominance by making it hard for customers to use third-party software to [...]
Eight indicted in card hack November 10, 2009 A US grand jury has indicted eight non-nationals on charges of hacking into a computer network used by credit card processing firm RBS WorldPay and stealing over $9m (£5.9m). The US Justice Department said yesterday that the group was accused of compromising the data encryption used by Atlanta-based RBS WorldPay, part of Royal Bank of [...]
Clubcard lifts Tesco’s share of customers November 10, 2009 SUPERMARKET giant Tesco is growing market share for the first time in two years as it fights back at its rivals, industry figures show. Tesco’s double Clubcard points promotion – which cost the group around £5m a week – helped its share of the grocery market climb to 30.7 per cent in the 12 weeks [...]
