US new homes sales fall in June July 26, 2011 New US single-family home sales unexpectedly fell in June, but a sharp rise in prices and declining supply suggested the market for new houses was starting to stabilise, a government report showed. The Commerce Department said sales fell one per cent to a seasonally adjusted 312,000-unit annual rate as sales in the Northeast tumbled to [...]
Ford beats Wall Street expectations July 26, 2011 Ford’s quarterly profit beat Wall Street expectations, helped by higher prices and improved sales in North America. Ford, the only US carmaker that did not accept a government bailout, has posted a net profit for eight straight quarters. It had racked up net losses of $30bn(£18.3bn) from 2006 through 2008 when it cut jobs, sold [...]
Soros quits managing other people’s money July 26, 2011 Billionaire investor George Soros, whose stock-picking career has spanned nearly four decades, said he will manage money only for himself as new regulations threaten to crimp the hedge fund industry he made famous. The octogenarian fund manager, known as much for earning $1bn (£609.9m) on a nervy currency bet as for giving away millions to [...]
FTSE up but GDP data casts shadow July 26, 2011 Investors were apparently gaining in confidence that the US would break its deadlock over a debt deal as the FTSE 100 opened on the front foot today. The US is under pressure to rescue its Triple A credit rating by upping its debt ceiling – a controversial move which has driven a wedge between Republicans [...]
GDP growth slows to 0.2 per cent July 26, 2011 Growth in the UK economy stuttered in the three months to 30 June. Gross Domestic Product (GDP) grew by 0.2 per cent in the second quarter, according to the Office for National Statistics. That compared with 0.5 per cent in the previous three months, but contracted by 0.5 per cent in the last three months [...]
Deutsche Bank hit by lower trading volumes July 26, 2011 Deutsche Bank’s quarterly pre-tax profit missed expectations, hit by lower trading volumes just as the flagship lender named Anshu Jain and Juergen Fitschen co-chief executives. Germany’s biggest lender said that second-quarter pretax profit rose to 17 percent to 1.8bn euros (£890m), compared with a forecast for 1.97bn in a Reuters poll. While it said it [...]
BG earnings jump 27pc July 26, 2011 Gas and oil firm BG Group said profits jumped 27 per cent year-on-year in the second quarter on higher commodity prices and as production returned to growth after being hit by North African unrest. BG, which is undertaking major projects to develop oil and gas reserves in Brazil and Australia, posted underlying earnings of (£685.39M) [...]
BP reports $5.3bn profit for quarter July 26, 2011 BP made profits of $5.3bn (£3.2bn) in the three months to 30 June a sit seeks to recover form the Gulf of Mexico oil spill disaster. Higher oil prices offset lower production Bp said as it unveiled the results. The so-called replacement cost profit compares with a loss of $17.0bn in the same quarter of [...]
UBS to cut costs as it misses targets July 26, 2011 Swiss bank UBS said it would slash costs and admitted it would miss targets set in 2009 after reporting disappointing second quarter profits hurt by sluggish markets and a strong franc. The bank said it would cut costs by 1.5bn – 2bn Swiss francs (£890m – £1.2bn) in the next two to three years and [...]
Ireland sells €1.1bn stake in Bank of Ireland July 25, 2011 Ireland sold a €1.1bn stake in Bank of Ireland to a group of unidentified investors in a deal that will keep the country’s largest bank out of state control, the government said. The government had been widely expected to take control of Bank of Ireland, the last domestic lender outside of state ownership, after it [...]
