New house prices tick down July 22, 2012 Prices in the new homes market slipped in June, as house-builders kept a tight hold on their costs, said SmartNewHomes today. The average price of a new home was at £232,292, down 1.2 per cent compared to May, but up 0.4 per cent on the first quarter. “The new homes market performed strongly in the [...]
Reporting of fraud collapses July 22, 2012 Reported fraud plummeted between the end of 2011 and May this year, according to accountancy firm BDO. While £920m was reported during the same period last year, just £424m was reported this year, driven largely by a 55 per cent fall in the average value of a fraudulent case. BDO suggests that firms are underreporting [...]
Italian parties back Monti July 22, 2012 Italy’s divided political parties restated their support for Prime Minister Mario Monti at the weekend, seeking to calm fears of instability that helped drive Rome’s borrowing costs to dangerous levels last week. Monti’s office dismissed an unsourced report in the Corriere della Sera newspaper that he was considering an early election in the autumn and [...]
Australian surplus questioned July 22, 2012 One of the only wealthy economies to be running a government budget surplus, Australia, may fall back into a deficit due to weaker tax revenue, according to a report from Deloitte Access released yesterday. The analysis said that mining, which has significantly boosted Australia’s economy during the global economic downturn, could start to dip, while [...]
CITY MOVES WHO’S SWITCHING JOBS July 22, 2012 Avocet Mining David Cather has been appointed chief executive of the West Africa-focused gold mining and exploration firm. He joined the board as chief operating officer in May 2012 from European Goldfields, where he was also chief operating officer, and replaces Brett Richards. Cather has previously held senior positions at Anglo American and De Beers. [...]
BEST of the BROKERS July 22, 2012 LUFTHANSA UBS rates the airline “buy” and has raised its target price by €1 to €14. The broker thinks Lufthansa’s second quarter results on 2 August will show a benefit from the falling value of the euro, offset by fuel and restructuring costs. UBS is forecasting a slight year-on-year fall in earnings before interest and [...]
LONDON REPORT July 22, 2012 A SERIES of heavyweight corporate results and significant economic data releases await markets this week, culminating with the limelight being poured upon controversy-struck Barclays once again. Barclays will release interim results for its second quarter on Friday, with the ongoing Libor scandal likely to overshadow the banks’ forecasted profits. Fellow British lender Lloyds will itself [...]
WALL ST THE WEEK AHEAD July 22, 2012 THE trend of better-than-expected earnings will be put to the test this week when investors hope Apple can exceed already high expectations and Facebook reports its first quarterly earnings. Apple accounts for a significant proportion of the overall earnings of Standard & Poor’s 500 components. S&P 500 earnings are expected to show a rise of [...]
Weak GDP figures won’t mean the economy is about to fall off a cliff July 22, 2012 A BIG health warning should be attached to the second quarter gross domestic product (GDP) figures, when they are released on Wednesday. GDP figures – the official estimates of UK growth – can be very misleading. They can be distorted by temporary one-off effects (including the weather). They are frequently revised, so the initial estimates [...]
Europeans need a Tea Party to reject crony capitalism July 22, 2012 MOST Eurozone news is almost unbearably predictable. Since 2010, politicians have endlessly talked about an “existential danger” to the euro, unless extraordinary measures are taken. We keep hearing from politicians who tell us that the only way to stave off catastrophe is to engineer another bailout – of a bank, of a nation, or of [...]
