Redrow beats crash concerns February 17, 2011 Housebuilder Redrow defied worries of a house price crash yesterday by returning to profit, boasting to the market that its shift towards traditional family homes has paid off. The FTSE 250 firm posted a £8.5m pre-tax profit for the last six months of 2010, compared to a £8.7m loss last year, with a 15 per [...]
Barrick rises on soaring prices February 17, 2011 Barrick Gold reported a stronger-than-expected quarterly profit yesterday as increased sales volumes and record-high gold and copper prices offset higher production costs. Excluding one-time items, earnings rose to $947m, or 95 cents a share, from $604m, or 61 cents. Quarterly revenue for the Canadian miner also came in much higher than expected, rising 25 per [...]
Advertisers slam Lords’ proposal February 17, 2011 UK advertisers and broadcasters including BSkyB, Discovery and MTV yesterday railed against proposals by a Lords committee to cut back on TV advertising, arguing that programme investment will come under threat as a result of a drop in ad revenue levels. The Lords communications committee also tabled a proposal yesterday that ITV should be freed [...]
Soldatino and Carruthers are the best bets of the weekend February 17, 2011 NEWBURY gets the chance to stage the totesport Trophy today following last weekend’s tragic abandonment. Sadly, both the field and the prize money for the feature race have been dramatically reduced, but my original fancy SOLDATINO is set to take his chance and should take plenty of stopping. Nicky Henderson’s five-year-old was having his first [...]
Inflation risk dents 15-year factory high February 17, 2011 OVERSEAS demand for British factory goods shot up this month at its highest rate since July 1995, the Confederation of British Industry (CBI) said yesterday. However, the CBI’s monthly trends enquiry also became the latest business survey to expose spiralling price pressures in the UK. The balance of manufacturers expecting price hikes for their domestic [...]
OECD economies stagger on February 17, 2011 MEMBERS of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) experienced a slowdown in growth in the final three months of 2010, it said yesterday. Economies in the OECD grew on average by 0.4 per cent in the fourth quarter, down from 0.6 per cent in the three months to September. The unwinding of Japan’s [...]
Europe sees rebound in high street confidence February 17, 2011 CONSUMER confidence across the Eurozone rose this month, an official “flash” estimate revealed yesterday. After falling to a five month low in January of -11.2, morale on the single currency area’s high streets rebounded to -9.9. Confidence has closed in on November’s 35 month high of -9.4, and is above the long term average of [...]
Core price pressures grow for US February 17, 2011 AMERICA’S recovery was boosted yesterday, with several data releases boding well for the world’s largest economy. However, the Federal Reserve faces more criticism after core inflation rose at its highest rate for over a year. Consumer price inflation for January came in higher than expected, at 0.4 per cent month-on-month. Core prices – excluding food [...]
Number of new homes in England falls to lowest peacetime level since 1923 February 17, 2011 THE NUMBER of completed new homes in England has plummeted to its lowest level during peacetime since 1923, the Department of Communities and Local Government said yesterday. New housing completions totalled just 102,570 last year, down 13 per cent on 2009. “Today’s figures reveal the extent of the housing crisis and we need real action [...]
REVERSE QE2, SAYS FED’S RICHARD FISHER February 17, 2011 AS THE American economy improves, the Federal Reserve should consider reversing its controversial asset purchasing scheme (QE2), senior Fed official Richard Fisher said yesterday. When the time comes to tighten policy, “one could make an argument that the most logical thing to do is to undo what you did last,” he told Bloomberg News. Yesterday [...]
