Homeowner morale plummets January 9, 2011 Property market confidence among homeowners dropped to its lowest level in over two years in December, property website Zoopla said today. Little over half of respondents expect house prices to rise this year, their survey said, while one in three expect prices to fall.
Online sales boost for House of Fraser January 9, 2011 UK department store House of Fraser saw same store sales jump 8.5 per cent in the five weeks to 8 January, reinforcing the success of multi-brand retailers over the Christmas period. It follows similar results last week from the John Lewis Partnership, which saw sales up 8.9 per cent compared to last year. But House [...]
BEST OF THE BROKERS January 9, 2011 EASYJET RBS rates the airline “hold” with a target price of 450p following easyJet’s December traffic data released last week. The figures, which showed a 7.6 per cent rise in traffic, were stronger than RBS’s expectations. The broker continues to have concerns about rising fuel costs, but expects earnings per share of 41.2p in 2011, [...]
A banker-free dystopia: affordable houses in SW3 and cut-price Astons January 9, 2011 GO on, admit it, I won’t tell anyone. Don’t you think, if you’re being honest with yourself, that London would be a better place if we weren’t the financial capital of the world? Just imagine it. Houses in Chelsea and Hampstead would become affordable to mere mortals – anyone for Cheyne Walk? The Flaming Ferraris, [...]
Anticipate small gains in a big week for Europe January 9, 2011 LAST week was all about the US, but after investors were handed conflicting jobs data from the ADP employment report and the non-farm payrolls numbers from the world’s largest economy, ultimately it was something of an anti-climax. FOCUS SHIFTS TO EUROPE This week the focus is expected to shift to Europe, and a cautious start is the forecast [...]
The rise of 3D January 9, 2011 STEVE DINNEEN REVIEWS THE MAJOR TRENDS THAT DOMINATED THE AGENDA AT THE CONSUMER ELECTRONICS SHOW THE technology world will remember 2011 as the year that 3D went mainstream. Every major electronics manufacturer made 3D the centre of their displays and its presence was ubiquitous throughout the show. Sony predicted 3D will become as accepted as [...]
Sorrell: mobile is the future January 9, 2011 ADVERTISING boss Martin Sorrell has told the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas that mobile advertising has become the most important trend in the industry. The WPP chief executive said traditional advertising such as TV had fared well this year as brands increase their spending in the wake of the recession. However he pointed to [...]
Sailing on the high seas with pirates, yachts and brokers galore January 9, 2011 WHAT do you do when you’ve done the rounds at a clutch of investment banks and stockbroking firms? Well, write a novel about the thrilling world of super-yachts, pirates and international finance, of course. And that’s exactly how Adam Wilson, non-exec chairman of Atlantic Coal, former managing director of Hichens Harrison and founder of Teather [...]
BILL OF THE WEEK January 9, 2011 SIX hungry businessmen headed up to Royal China Club on Baker Street for a feast last week and, unusually for our regular bill, they managed to drop most of their thousands spent on the food, rather than drinks. Most impressively, they blew most of their money on abalone (snails) and guinea fowl soup, with the [...]
So much for the knowledge economy – industry is back January 9, 2011 MAKING things had been thought to have gone out of fashion not that long ago. As the proportion of output and number of jobs devoted to manufacturing and heavy industry in most Western economies seemed to be on a relentless decline, many commentators began talking about “post-industrial societies”, and politicians about “the knowledge economy”. How [...]
