Bank of England ups QE by £75bn October 6, 2011 The Bank of England has raised its quantitative easing fund by £75bn. A total of £200bn had originally been earmarked for the scheme, which aims to breathe new life into the economy. The decision to expand its asset purchase programme to a total of £275bn highlights the precarious state of Britain’s economy as global growth [...]
Halfords sales hit by petrol price hikes October 6, 2011 Rising petrol prices have hit Halfords after it said fewer people were using cars which had dented its sales. The retailer, which has 466 stores, said like-for-like sales declined 2.8 per cent in the 13 weeks to 30 September, compared to a 1.1 per cent decline in the previous three months. Sales of car maintenance [...]
House prices down in September October 6, 2011 House prices unexpectedly fell 0.5 per cent in September and were 2.3 per cent lower in the three months to September compared with a year ago, a survey by mortgage lender Halifax showed. Analysts had expected a rise of 0.2 per cent on the month, for a three-month annual fall of 2.1 per cent. September’s [...]
Ted Baker bucks high street gloom October 6, 2011 Designer clothing brand Ted Baker posted strong first-half results led by growth in its overseas and online businesses, and raised the interim dividend 13.5 per cent. The fashion retailer, which began as a menswear brand in Glasgow in 1987, said it remained cautious of the second half given the uncertain macroeconomic environment. “Whilst we have [...]
Greggs reports sales rise October 6, 2011 High street baker Greggs posted a slight acceleration in sales growth in its third-quarter, showing resilience in the face of severe macroeconomic headwinds. Greggs, which sells bread, sandwiches, savouries and cakes to over 6 million customers a week from 1,540 shops, said sales at stores open over a year rose 0.8 percent in the 13 [...]
STEVE JOBS 1955-2011 October 5, 2011 STEVE Jobs, Apple’s celebrated founder, has died aged 56. Jobs passed away late last night, just six weeks after he stepped down as the firm’s chief executive. Apple marked his passing with a tribute on its website to a “visionary and creative genius” and “an amazing human being”. “Steve’s brilliance, passion and energy were the [...]
Merkel backs plan to prop up Eurozone banks October 5, 2011 GERMAN chancellor Angela Merkel said she would support moves to plough fresh capital into the Eurozone’s banks if they had to write off large chunks of their holdings of government debt yesterday. Merkel backed the move to inject more state funding into the region’s banks to restore confidence in them as they struggle to contain [...]
Obsessing over the UK’s GDP numbers is a waste of time October 5, 2011 IT is astonishing that anybody in the markets, think-tanks or politics still takes the Office for National Statistics’ growth figures seriously. Yesterday’s sweeping rewriting of history by our official number-crunchers shows yet again the stupidity of those who obsess about whether growth is coming in at 0.1 or 0.2 per cent. The ONS has suddenly [...]
WHAT THE OTHER PAPERS SAY THIS MORNING October 5, 2011 THE TIMES BRISTOL DEAL GOES WITH THE FLOW Bristol Water yesterday became the latest British utility company to change hands. The West Country water company, which supplies 1.1m homes in and around Bristol, has had 70 per cent of its shares sold to Capstone Infrastructure, an asset investment fund that used to operate as the [...]
New stress test to cover banks’ bond holdings October 5, 2011 EUROPE’S banking regulator began to look again at its tests of the strength of the region’s banks yesterday in two-day crisis talks over the collapse of Franco-Belgian lender Dexia. Eurozone finance ministers asked the European Banking Authority to reassess how well the banks would survive a write-down in the value of their holdings of Eurozone [...]
