New US jobless claims hit lowest weekly level in over four years October 11, 2012 NEW US unemployment claims plummeted to a four and a half year low last week, data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics revealed yesterday. Seasonally-adjusted new claims dropped 30,000 in just a week, from 369,000 to 339,000 – putting them 63,000 lower than a year ago. The fall on the headline number came from a much smaller [...]
Housing market gloom returns as transactions and prices drop October 11, 2012 THE HOUSING market stalled in September, with slipping prices and collapsing numbers of sales, data revealed today. Transactions dived 24 per cent into September, according to statistics from LSL Property Services, while the average house price edged down 0.1 per cent to £225,374. “A combination of dipping house prices and falling sales numbers point to [...]
Consumers in Japan reveal August gloom October 11, 2012 CONSUMER confidence dropped in September, data from Japan’s Cabinet Office revealed yesterday. Seasonally-adjusted consumer confidence drifted down from 40.5 in August to 40.1 in September, driven by a fall from 38.7 to 37.7 in the employment sub-index. Separate data released yesterday by the Cabinet Office also revealed a 12.6 per cent monthly crash in machinery orders [...]
Surveyors say commercial rents will slip further in third quarter October 11, 2012 A LACK of demand in commercial property will bring rents further down, according to survey data released by the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors (RICS) today. Eleven percentage points more of those surveyed expected rents to fall over the next quarter, than thought rents would rise – but this was the most optimistic result since the second quarter last [...]
Esurv says Funding for Lending is not yet boosting mortgages October 11, 2012 MORTGAGE lending dived in September, data from Esurv showed today, implying the Funding for Lending Scheme (FLS) has failed to boost loans so far. Home loans slumped seven per cent in September, the surveyor said, to just 47,603, the third worst September since records began 19 years ago. As well as slipping in number, loans [...]
City Moves | Who’s switching Jobs October 11, 2012 Reech AiM Group The international asset management group has appointed Daniel Betts as client services director. He joins Reech from Aviva Investors, where he was most recently client relationship manager. He will oversee all client service functions and will report directly to the chief executive officer Christophe Reech. Scottish Widows Investment Partnership Neil Tong has [...]
Best of the Brokers October 11, 2012 JD SPORTS Seymour Pierce upgraded its rating for the sports retailer from “hold” to “buy,” a and rose its target price from 800p to 1000p. The broker made the change in light of its acquisition of Blacks and JJB’s passing into administration, as well as Sports Direct’s plans to develop in e-commerce. The progress is [...]
FTSE breaks its losing streak as US jobless data provides some cheer October 11, 2012 BRITAIN’S top shares snapped a three session losing streak yesterday, led higher by gains in commodity and financial stocks as a fall in US jobless claims fuelled recovery hopes. The weekly claims figure was the lowest for four years and complemented last week’s fall in US unemployment, providing another piece of evidence that the economy [...]
Apple share drop erases market gains October 11, 2012 US stocks ended flat yesterday after gains brought by a sign of improvement in the labor market were erased in part by a drop in Apple shares after a legal setback in a court ruling. Apple fell two per cent to $628.10 after a US appeals court overturned a preliminary injunction on the sale of [...]
Lack of capital and onerous HMRC rules are restraining tech start-ups October 11, 2012 THE chancellor’s announcement this week that employees could get a stake in their companies in exchange for waiving certain employment rights was a rare flash of creativity from the Treasury. But it will come as no surprise if, in a year’s time, the opposition starts impishly asking how many businesses have made use of the [...]
