Snow hits John Lewis sales January 25, 2013 Retailer John Lewis this morning cautioned that heavy snowfall across the country last week hit sales. Sales rose 6.7 per cent to £59.5m in the week to January 19, slipping back from growth of 18.9 per cent the week previously – the first full week of their clearance sale. Simon Russell, director of retail operations [...]
Platinum output tumbles at Anglo American January 25, 2013 Global miner Anglo American’s platinum production sank 29 per cent over the fourth quarter, due to the strikes that crippled the company last year. The miner said this morning that 272,590 ounces of platinum production were lost over the quarter as a result of the strikes and subsequent ramp-up of operations at the Rustenberg, Amandelbult [...]
Why you should take economic statistics with a bucket of salt January 25, 2013 TODAY is GDP day, when the Office for National Statistics releases its first, early and ultra-preliminary estimate of the growth of the UK economy. As ever, the media, the markets and the political classes will massively over-react to whatever gross domestic product (GDP) number is released, good or bad. I would urge everybody not to [...]
Stocks roar back January 24, 2013 UK STOCK markets turned a corner yesterday after blue chip firms spurred the FTSE to its highest level in nearly five years, giving London its best start to the trading year since 1989. The FTSE 100 list of Britain’s biggest companies surged past the 6,200 mark to its highest level since May 2008, capping off [...]
Apple is left out in the cold after disappointing results January 24, 2013 APPLE saw more than $60bn (£38bn) wiped off its market value yesterday as investors bailed out of the company following a set of results that disappointed Wall Street. After the technology giant’s revenues for the last three months of 2012 missed analyst forecasts, shares fell by 12.4 per cent in New York to hit $450.50 [...]
Osborne and Clegg clash over way to fix economy January 24, 2013 GEORGE Osborne yesterday rejected a call from the International Monetary Fund’s chief economist to adopt a less aggressive stance on cutting the UK’s deficit. The IMF’s Olivier Blanchard suggested this year’s Budget, due in March, “would be a good time to take stock and make changes to the austerity plan” and “slower fiscal consolidation” may be [...]
Why you should take economic statistics with a bucket of salt January 24, 2013 TODAY is GDP day, when the Office for National Statistics releases its first, early and ultra-preliminary estimate of the growth of the UK economy. As ever, the media, the markets and the political classes will massively over-react to whatever gross domestic product (GDP) number is released, good or bad. I would urge everybody not to [...]
Fed data shows record balance January 24, 2013 THE size of the Federal Reserve’s balance sheet reached a record, Fed data released yesterday showed, due to the central bank’s purchases of Treasuries and mortgage-backed securities that are part of its unconventional policy aimed at supporting economic growth. The Federal Reserve’s balance sheet – which is a broad gauge of its lending to the [...]
Twitter rolls out video function January 24, 2013 SOCIAL network Twitter, the social network known for its 140-character messages, hinted at the direction of its evolution yesterday with the launch of a new streaming video service for smartphones. The service, called Vine, records six-second-long video clips, which can then be seamlessly embedded within tweets. Privately held Twitter is expected by analysts to go [...]
What the other papers say this morning January 24, 2013 FINANCIAL TIMES Fears over ECB funding scheme Concern is mounting among senior bankers that the European Central Bank’s special longer-term funding scheme risks backfiring, stigmatising the region’s weaker banks a year after it was launched. From the end of January banks have the opportunity to start paying back the cheap three-year money they borrowed under [...]
