Retail enjoys January rebound with best growth in 13 months February 4, 2013 LIKE-FOR-LIKE sales grew at their fastest annual pace for 13-months in January, delivering a much-needed rebound to the embattled retail sector. January’s sales were 1.9 per cent higher than during the same month last year, figures from the British Retail Consortium (BRC) and KPMG revealed this morning. Total spend grew an even healthier three per [...]
Think tank: economy will not reach pre-crisis peak until 2015 February 4, 2013 THE UK economy will grow at a snail’s pace, with persistently above-target inflation, according to widely-regarded forecasts out this morning. GDP will creep up just 0.7 per cent during 2013, the National Institute for Economic and Social Research (NIESR) said yesterday, before gaining pace to grow 1.5 per cent during the following year. Only in [...]
Value of housing expands to all-time record of £4.2 trillion February 4, 2013 THE TOTAL value of the UK’s housing stock rose to breach the pre-recession peak of £4.08 trillion in 2012, according to figures released yesterday. UK houses were together worth £4.17 trillion in 2012, Lloyds Bank said, up from £4.07 trillion in 2011, and up from £3.69 trillion during the depths of the credit crunch and [...]
Factory price fall could spur ECB February 4, 2013 Analysts yesterday suggested that falling producer prices could drive the European Central Bank (ECB) to cut rates. Data put out by Eurostat showed producer prices were down 0.2 per cent in December, following a fall of the same size the month before, and suggesting consumer price inflation could fall even further than the 26-month low [...]
US factories boost output again… February 4, 2013 New orders and shipments in the US manufacturing industry continued their upward trend in December, according to official numbers out yesterday. New orders grew $8.6bn (£5.5bn) – 1.8 per cent – to reach $484.8bn during the month, the Census Bureau said, while firms added 0.4 per cent to their shipments. Firms were getting more active, [...]
…but investment indicator falls February 4, 2013 A gauge of US business investment plans dropped in December, a possible sign firms were losing confidence in the economy’s strength. The data, released yesterday by the Commerce Department, also gave some positive signals, with a big jump in defence industry capital orders pointing to a reversal to some of the surprise fall in US [...]
City Moves for 5 February 2013 | Who’s switching jobs February 4, 2013 Linklaters Simon Pritchard has been appointed partner in the law firm’s competition team. He is a former senior director of mergers at the Office of Fair Trading (OFT). Pritchard is also editor of UK Merger Control, and an external adviser to the OFT on international competition network matters. Lloyds TSB Commercial Finance Donald Kerr has [...]
Best of the Brokers February 4, 2013 ASSOCIATED BRITISH FOODS Shore Capital has downgraded the food and retail group Associated British Foods to “hold” with a target price of 1,762p following several years of sustained share price growth. This is “thoroughly merited given the outperformance of Primark, and the high valuation such a fast growing international retailer should demand” but the broker [...]
FTSE knocked by downgrades and euro jitters February 4, 2013 BRITAIN’S top share index suffered its biggest one-day fall in three months yesterday, as growing political uncertainty elsewhere in Europe and a string of analyst downgrades sparked a wave of profit taking. The growing popularity of former premier Silvio Berlusconi ahead of elections in Italy and a corruption scandal in Spain fanned concerns that political [...]
US stocks slide as downgrades pull back gains February 4, 2013 US stocks slid yesterday, giving the S&P 500 its worst day since November, as renewed worries about the Eurozone crisis caused the market to pull back from recent gains. Shares of McGraw-Hill shed 13.8 per cent to $50.30, their worst daily percentage decline since the October 1987 market crash, after news the US Justice Department [...]
