August boost to wholesaling a boon to US recovery ambitions October 10, 2012 SALES of wholesale goods climbed in August, data from the US Census Bureau revealed yesterday, driven by increasing inventories. Overall sales were $450.4bn (£281.4bn), up 0.9 per cent on July’s figure, and up 2.1 per cent on August 2011. However this came mainly from building up inventories, which rose 0.5 per cent on the month, putting them some [...]
Advertisers in call for focus on non-whites October 10, 2012 THE PURCHASING power of ethnic minorities is huge and growing, but is being ignored by advertisers and firms who think they do not spend and they are too hard to target, a report claimed today. The spending power of British non-whites hit £300bn in 2010, and is still growing, the report from the Institute of Practitioners in [...]
Yellen says QE in the states helps the world October 10, 2012 Federal Reserve asset purchases boost US growth and thus benefit the world economy, Fed vice chair Janet Yellen said at an IMF event in Tokyo yesterday. Yellen denied critics’ claims that asset purchases on balance harm emerging economies by distorting capital flows.
City Moves | Who’s switching Jobs October 10, 2012 Heartwood Kevin Rait has been appointed as intermediary client director at Heartwood Investment Management, the investment management services group. Rait has 12 years’ experience in working with financial intermediaries, and will help Heartwood to develop its distribution strategy to serve financial advisors. He arrives from Arbuthnot & Co, where he launched its discretionary fund management proposition [...]
Best of the Brokers October 10, 2012 EASYJET UBS maintained its “buy” rating for the budget airline and raised its target price from 650p to 680p, after its final quarter figures beat expectations. UBS sees potential for further growth in business traffic. SUPERGROUP Canaccord Genuity has a “buy” rating on the UK fashion retailer at a target price of 850p. The broker [...]
FTSE driven lower by collapse of BAE’s mega-merger with EADS October 10, 2012 GLOBAL growth worries prodded Britain’s top share index lower yesterday as a failed merger with a French peer hurt shares in defence and aviation firm BAE Systems. London’s blue chip index closed down 33.54 points, or 0.6 per cent, at 5,776.71 as volumes on the index remained light as whole, just 88 per cent of [...]
Chevron profit warning drags Wall St lower October 10, 2012 US stocks fell yesterday, a day after the earnings season opened with Alcoa posting a quarterly net loss and Chevron saying profits would fall sharply in its most recent period. After hitting lows in the early afternoon, stocks briefly trimmed losses after the Federal Reserve said in its Beige Book report that the economy was [...]
Competition for scarce resources may bring the West to a standstill October 10, 2012 THERE are limits to growth. Extra economic activity in emerging economies can lead to less growth for us in the West. At least partly, global economic growth is a zero sum game. Restrictions in the supply of minerals, energy, food and water mean growth is likely to be constrained. If we are lucky, world growth [...]
Alarm bells for Obama: Romney’s debate win could leave him top of polls October 10, 2012 BEFORE last week’s bout between Barack Obama and Mitt Romney, the Washington Post interviewed a number of prominent political scientists on whether presidential debates mattered. The general consensus was “no”, that “few noticeable changes” occur in polling after the debates. Nate Silver, the New York Times’s number cruncher, claimed that if Romney made any gains [...]
Cameron’s strong speech appeals to conservative base October 10, 2012 MANY conservatives are sceptical of David Cameron’s “modernisation” of the party. It’s easy to forget, but back in 2007, the modernisers told colleagues that the economics was settled and the party should instead focus on other issues, like green energy and international development. The party leadership agreed to match Gordon Brown’s spending plans, and shunned [...]
