Weak wages inflation holding back rate hike June 4, 2014 THE WEAKNESS of real wages and the generally muted inflation outlook are the major factors holding City A.M’s panel of economic experts from raising interest rates. For another month, many of the economists we asked for their recommendation on monetary policy noted that there is increasing pressure for an interest rate hike. Business surveys and [...]
Lithuania set for Eurozone June 4, 2014 LITHUANIA is set to be the next Eurozone state, following the European Commission’s expression of support for the country’s use of the euro yesterday. Economic and monetary commissioner Olli Rehn said that the country’s record of “prudent fiscal policies and economic reforms” had made it a suitable member of the currency union. EU heads of [...]
City Moves for 05 June 2014 | Who’s switching jobs June 4, 2014 Regis The property investment firm has hired James Futter as a senior associate in its acquisition team. He will primarily focus on freehold ground rent portfolio acquisitions in the UK. Futter joins from Barratt Developments, where he was a south region analyst. Jupiter The asset management company has announced the appointment of Ross Teverson as [...]
Best of the Brokers for 05 June 2014 June 4, 2014 To appear in Best of the Brokers, email your research to notes@cityam.com MONDI Jefferies keeps its “buy” rating and raises its target for the packaging and paper producer to 1,325p. The broker thinks Mondi has the greatest emerging market presence in the sector and enough capacity on its balance sheet to pursue acquisitions or return cash [...]
London Report: FTSE weighed down by poor Tesco numbers June 4, 2014 THE UK’S top equity index fell yesterday weighed down by Tesco after the supermarket retailer posted its biggest quarterly UK sales drop in 40 years. The blue-chip FTSE 100 closed down by 0.3 per cent, or 17.67 points, at 6,818.63 points. Tesco’s 1.4 per cent fall was one of the biggest setbacks for the FTSE, [...]
New York Report: S&P 500 hits new record on service growth June 4, 2014 US STOCKS edged up yesterday with the S&P 500 ending at a new record as investors brushed off weaker-than-expected labour market data and focused on an acceleration in services-sector growth. But trading volume continued to be light as investors took a wait-and-see approach ahead of the European Central Bank policy meeting today and the US [...]
Letters to the Editor – 05/06 – Total recall, Best of Twitter June 4, 2014 Total recall [Re: It is high time voters were given the right to recall their MPs, yesterday] I’ve always felt that the right to recall is a hammer to crack a walnut, and distracts from better reforms that should be implemented. There are really only a handful of MPs who might have been subject to [...]
How SMEs can boost growth with unified communications June 4, 2014 Total communications strategies can unleash productivity and boost collaboration Managing communications technology is no longer a matter of just maintaining and troubleshooting back-office systems. Powered by technological improvements, including the proliferation of laptops, smartphones, tablets and cloud computing, even small businesses today face a sprawling network of communication channels. And unifying these systems is increasingly [...]
On the front line: Adopting unified communications June 4, 2014 Richard Smith, owner and managing director of Aspen Concepts, talks to Liam Ward-Proud about how unified communications have helped link the different parts of his business, and increased employee productivity Handling several lines of communication is a challenge for most SMEs. But it’s especially tricky for businesses operating across multiple sites. Aspen Concepts, a retail [...]
The rise of 4G: How faster mobile communications could help smaller businesses drive growth June 4, 2014 TECHNOLOGICAL advances are transforming the modern workplace. But few developments have the potential to disrupt the way we work and behave as consumers as much as 4G. It may sound simple: a “fourth generation” of mobile communication, the next step in wireless broadband that looks set to speed up the 3G signal we’re all familiar [...]
