Consumer spending tumbles May 7, 2012 Household spending fell 1.9 per cent in the month to April, according to Visa’s expenditure index out today. On the year, spending was down 4.3 per cent, led by a 6.9 per cent fall on the high street. “The weather clearly had an impact on retail sales and unlike last year there was no Royal [...]
Maker of Angry Birds app soars to higher sales May 7, 2012 ROVIO Entertainment, the creator of the iconic Angry Birds app, yesterday reported a tenfold leap in sales. Full year revenue grew to €75.4m (£60.8m) – compared to estimated sales of £6.2m in 2010 – while pre-tax earnings increased to €48m. This is the first time Rovio has published its full year fiscal results, heating up [...]
There’s no need to fear the return of retail investors May 7, 2012 LAST week, I was having a Twitter conversation with viewers about Google’s top three autofills for the search query “I want to buy…” The answers that came back varied depending on which country or state the viewer was in. In the US, people want to buy houses, cars, and, in some places, guns. In Sweden, [...]
CITY MOVES WHO’S SWITCHING JOBS May 7, 2012 Squire Sanders The legal practice has promoted senior associate Gareth Timms to its global partnership. Timms is a finance litigation specialist, and his promotion took effect on 1 May. He joined the firm in 2005 and has over twelve years of experience working for asset based lenders. Bridgepoint The private equity firm has announced the [...]
BEST of the BROKERS May 7, 2012 PRUDENTIAL JP Morgan Cazenove has maintained its “underweight” rating on Prudential and a target price of 698p ahead of the firm’s first quarter sales announcement tomorrow. The broker predicts its sales to be weak in the US but remaining strong in Asia. INTERNATIONAL AIRLINES GROUP Nomura has maintained its “buy” stance on the British Airways [...]
NEW YORK REPORT May 7, 2012 INVESTORS brushed off Europe’s election results yesterday, as the S&P 500 rebounded from early losses to end nearly unchanged yesterday, despite the uncertainty surrounding the Eurozone’s ability to tackle its debt crisis. US financial stocks, normally highly sensitive to events that could unsettle the Eurozone’s fiscal stability, were not only the biggest gainers, but had [...]
LONDON REPORT May 7, 2012 THE bank holiday began a short trading week in London that is nevertheless crammed full of corporate results, as well as the much-anticipated Bank rate decision. Results are expected today from Hiscox, HSBC and Tui. Tomorrow’s announcements are set to come from EasyJet, Inmarsat, ITV, Sage, Glencore, ICH Group, Balfour Beatty, Prudential, Carphone Warehouse, Weir [...]
Folly which crippled Greece will be repeated in socialist France May 7, 2012 HOLLANDE’S victory was the most predictable election contest I can remember. No poll in recent months ever suggested that Sarkozy was in front. I have been keeping an eye on a US betting website – Sarkozy never traded above a 40 per cent chance of winning, and that was before Christmas. He was doomed. Of [...]
Shareholders are on the money in scrutinising pay May 7, 2012 AS LITTLE as a decade ago, few City-watchers would have cared all that much about the April AGM deluge, but not any more. In rising markets, short-term investors and speculators could ignore the niceties of shareholder democracy and vote with their feet. Several crashes later and investor uncertainty is manifesting itself through the ballot box, [...]
Raise our low interest rates now or this ticking time bomb will explode May 7, 2012 DESPITE the UK slipping back into “official” recession, the Bank of England should begin to start raising interest rates. The policy rate it controls has been historically low for several years, and is significantly below where it would be if it were allowed to reflect demand and supply. Almost all commentators claim to accept that [...]
