Benchmarking has become circular August 31, 2021 Time and again throughout my career I have ranted about the nonsense of benchmarking in all its forms. By now I have given up on the hope that business and investing will ever leave the practice behind, so I don’t expect this post to change anything except to make me feel better. I spoke recently [...]
Ofgem launches £450m energy innovation fund August 31, 2021 Energy regulator Ofgem today said that it would offer firms hundreds of millions of pounds of funding over the next half-decade to develop innovative new solutions for the electricity grid. In all the watchdog will make £450m available to network companies, system operators, and businesses to help accelerate the UK’s push towards net-zero. It added [...]
US stocks hit fresh record highs again as Fed signals gradual tightening August 31, 2021 Wall Street moved to yet more record highs yesterday driven by investors reacting positively to the Fed’s dovish stance on winding down stimulus measures. The S&P 500 briefly touched a record high yesterday, as did the tech-heavy Nasdaq, but both pulled back slightly to rise 0.43 per cent and 0.90 per cent respectively. Fed Chair [...]
GSK to begin phase 3 trial of Covid-19 vaccine August 31, 2021 GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) has announced it will begin the third phase of trials for a Covid-19 vaccine developed in collaboration with SK bio. The move to phase three follows positive interim results from preliminary trials which showed that 100 percent of candidates who received the vaccine developed antibodies. Levels of neutralising antibodies were between five and [...]
Nike gives burnt out staff in its head office a week off August 31, 2021 Nike has announced that staff working in its Oregon headquarters will be given a week off to destress after the “traumatic” events of the Covid-19 pandemic. In a message posted to LinkedIn last week, Matt Marrazzo, the firm’s head of insights, said Nike would be “powering down” for a week starting Monday. He said: “Our [...]
McDonald’s considers closing indoor seating at US sites amid Delta surge August 31, 2021 McDonalds will consider closing indoor seating areas in the US counties worst affected by the Delta variant of Covid-19. In 2020 the majority of McDonald’s sites across the US closed their doors to eat-in diners, but last month the company had reopened 70 per cent of sites. The spread of Delta, which pushed average daily [...]
Causeway Capital calls for ‘refresh’ of Rolls-Royce’s board : CityAM August 31, 2021 Rolls-Royce’s second largest stakeholder has called on the aerospace giant to “refresh” its board as the firm emerges from the worst downturn in aviation history. In an interview with the FT, Jonathan Eng, portfolio manager at Causeway Capital Management, called for incoming chair Anita Frew to review whether the board had the right mix of [...]
Zoom bags first $1bn quarter but demand for the Covid-19 essential is fading August 31, 2021 Zoom, which became a household name amid the pandemic, has recorded its first billion-dollar revenue in just one quarter – but demand for its Covid-19 essential service is quickly weening. The company forecast revenue of between $1.015bn and $1.020bn for its third quarter, which inched past analysts’ average estimate of $1.013bn, according to Refinitiv data. [...]
Nike gives burnt out staff in its head office a week off – CityAM : CityAM August 31, 2021 Nike has announced that staff working in its Oregon headquarters will be given a week off to destress after the “traumatic” events of the Covid-19 pandemic. In a message posted to LinkedIn last week, Matt Marrazzo, the firm’s head of insights, said Nike would be “powering down” for a week starting Monday. He said: “Our [...]
London business confidence increased in August August 31, 2021 Business confidence in London increased four points during August to 41 per cent, as the city looks to recover from the pandemic. Companies in the city described higher confidence in their own business prospects month-on-month, up 14 points at 43 per cent, according to the latest business barometer from Lloyds Bank Commercial Banking. Businesses’ optimism [...]
