AIG profit fall triggered by natural disasters May 6, 2011 Insurance giant AIG has reported a fall in profits because of loan repayments and natural disasters. American International Group (AIG), was hit hard when it lost $1bn (£610m) from its ongoing operations in the last quarter of the year. The firm also losr $864m after the 11 March earthquake in Japan, according to Chartis, its [...]
Security and rescue services cleared over 7/7 deaths May 6, 2011 A coroner formally ruled on Friday that the 52 victims of the 2005 London suicide bombings were unlawfully killed, but cleared the security and rescue services of any responsibility for the deaths. Lady Justice Heather Hallett also ruled out any more inquests or inquiries into the worst-ever peacetime attacks on British soil. She said the [...]
Admiral revenues up 50pc in first-quarter May 6, 2011 Admiral Group revenues rose by more than 50 per cent in their first quarter. The car insurer, and owner of Confused.com, said year-on-year turnover also grew by 56 per cent to £539m in the first three months of the year. Shares were pushed to 4.4 per cent thanks to higher premiums and more customers, they [...]
John Lewis sales hit by wedding and easter May 6, 2011 Easter and a half-day closure for the royal wedding led to a sharp fall in weekly sales at Britain’s biggest department store chain John Lewis, it said. Sales dropped 9.2 per cent year-on-year to £48.7m in the week ended 30 April, and were down 10.7 percent excluding VAT sales tax. Employee-owned John Lewis, viewed as [...]
International Airlines Group narrows losses May 6, 2011 International Airlines Group has seen its losses narrow on rising revenues in the company’s first results since the British Airways-Iberia merger. The firm lost 47m euros ($68m; £42m) in the first quarter of the year, down from a 273m euro loss a year ago. Revenues jumped 15.4 per cent on the year as business volumes [...]
RBS posts loss as Irish crisis takes toll May 6, 2011 Royal Bank of Scotland announced a first quarter loss as its exposure to Ireland’s economic woes hit its earnings, and said it expected charges for bad debts from Ireland to remain high in the next quarter. RBS, 83-percent owned by the British government after it was bailed out during the credit crisis, made an overall [...]
US jobless claims hit 8-month high May 5, 2011 The number of Americans filing for jobless aid rose to an eight-month high last week and productivity growth slowed in the first quarter, clouding the outlook for an economy that is struggling to gain speed. While the surprise jump in initial claims for unemployment benefits was attributed to factors ranging from spring break layoffs to [...]
Trichet signals no ECB rate rise May 5, 2011 European Central Bank President Jean-Claude Trichet signaled that euro zone interest rates are unlikely to rise next month but left the door firmly open for an increase in July. Trichet did not use the phrase “strong vigilance” in his opening remarks at a news conference which followed the ECB’s decision to leave rates at 1.25 [...]
GM profit beats forecasts May 5, 2011 General Motors posted stronger-than-expected quarterly profit, driven by a recovery in the US market and strong sales in Asia. Quarterly net profit more than tripled from a year ago and its operating profit narrowly beat expectations. Even though total sales rose 15 per cent to $36.2bn (£22bn) against analyst expectations of $35.6bn, “all of this [...]
Interest rate held at record low 0.5pc May 5, 2011 UK interest rates have been kept at the record low of 0.5 per cent again by the Bank of England’s Monetary Policy Committee (MPC). The MPC did not reveal any new quantitative easing measures either. The Bank has faced a difficult choice – either keep interest rates low to try to aid the economic recovery, [...]
