Toyota pays £21m fine for car recalls December 21, 2010 TOYOTA has agreed to pay the maximum fine of $32.4m (£20.95m) related to two US probes into its handling of a spate of vehicle recalls which hurt sales and tarnished its once impeccable reputation for quality. The settlements conclude a tumultuous year for the world’s largest automaker over the recalls of 11m vehicles in the [...]
CITY MOVES | WHO’S SWITCHING JOBS December 21, 2010 RSM Tenon Ruth Hiley (pictured) has joined RSM Tenon as the accountancy firm’s new head of outsourced payroll services. Hiley has a background in bureau management: she has worked at Moorepay, the UK’s largest payroll services firm, and has also been head of the payroll teams at BDO Stoy Hayward and PKF. She will be responsible for helping [...]
BEST OF THE BROKERS December 21, 2010 EASYJET Morgan Stanley rates the airline “equal-weight” with a target price of 510p. The broker hopes to see evidence of the firm’s recent operational shake-up for the rest of the financial year, starting with an interim management statement on 20 January. It believes EasyJet can double its earnings per share in 2011 simply by removing [...]
US Treasury to sell more of AIG December 21, 2010 The US Treasury plans to sell a large piece of its stake in American International Group (AIG) in two stock offerings next year. It would sell any remaining stock in AIG in 2012. The government will own 92.1 per cent of AIG after a recapitalisation plan closes by the end of first quarter, and perhaps [...]
Apple TV sales hit the 1m mark December 21, 2010 Apple expects sales of Apple TV to top 1m units this week, showing that the device is gaining traction in bringing the Web to TV. Apple also said yesterday that iTunes users are now renting and buying more than 400,000 TV shows and more than 150,000 movies per day. “One million is a real benchmark,” [...]
Xcite shares surge on discovery December 21, 2010 Shares in AIM-listed Xcite Energy jumped almost 20 per cent yesterday after tests at its well at the Bentley field in the North Sea returned more than 2,000 barrels of oil. The results show the well is both commercially viable and has a reservoir at the top end of the company’s expectations, it said.
The City is back but under new management December 21, 2010 BRITAIN’S financial landscape has been transformed since we last shone a light on the City’s most powerful figures two years ago. The City A.M./CityJet Power Hundred 2011 list ranks the most influential figures in UK finance as we head into the new year. It should be no surprise that it is very different from 2009. [...]
Currency wars and rate hikes: another year in emerging FX December 21, 2010 CHEAP money and attractive returns have seen investors plough their money into emerging market currencies. Yet hot money inflows have forced currency appreciation despite authorities’ best efforts at capital controls and other methods of weakening their exchange rates. Thanks to highly accommodative monetary policy in the West and efforts to remain competitive among the emerging [...]
FOREX ANALYST PICKS December 21, 2010 FOREX STRATEGIST ILYA SPIVAK My pick: Stay long dollar-yen Expertise: Global macro Average time frame of trades: 1 week-6 months I bought dollar-yen at ¥83.08 in mid-November expecting the pair to rise along with US Treasury yields after the size of the Federal Reserve’s QE matched expectations and opened the door for profit-taking. Prices pulled [...]
the bullish argument for the euro December 21, 2010 DIRECTOR OF CURRENCY RESEARCH, GFT AS WE approach 2011, no currency is less liked than the euro. Only yesterday, the euro was at all-time lows against the Swiss franc with the pair sliding towards the SFr1.2500 level. It appears as though all of Europe is trying to exchange the single currency in favour of the [...]
