Team GB is doing brilliantly – but the British economy isn’t August 2, 2012 JUST as some had started to worry, Team GB delivered spectacularly yesterday, thanks in no small part to Bradley Wiggins, our new sideburned national hero. GB Plc isn’t performing as well, unfortunately. Manufacturing output is shrinking disastrously. The manufacturing purchasing managers index slumped from 48.4 to 45.4 in July – its lowest level since May [...]
Hotmail to hit the trash as Microsoft rebrands its email August 2, 2012 Hotmail has become something of a bad joke among the tech community, lacking the polish or technological nous of rivals like Google’s Gmail. Now, as Microsoft prepares for its biggest product overhaul since Windows 95, it is ditching the name in favour of “Outlook.com” and revamping the interface to tie in with its new Windows [...]
UK economy hit by fresh blows August 1, 2012 THE UK’S recession looks set to deepen even further after manufacturing output fell in July at its fastest rate for more than three years, according to an influential survey published yesterday. It came as fears mounted that the Olympics are failing to deliver the boost that some economists had hoped for – and in fact are [...]
Technical glitch forces NYSE to cancel trades August 1, 2012 THE New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) was forced to cancel trades in several shares yesterday after a technical glitch by market maker Knight Capital triggered dramatic stock price movements. The US exchange identified “irregular trading” in 140 shares in the opening 45 minutes of trade, but ultimately cancelled trades in just six shares. Most of [...]
Fed keeps rates on hold but hints it will act soon August 1, 2012 THE FEDERAL Reserve last night decided to hold fire on fresh action to stimulate growth, despite admitting the economy was slowing. In a noticeably more pessimistic portrait of the US economy than last month, the central bank said that economic activity “decelerated” in July and reiterated its former stance that it would hold interest rates [...]
Team GB is doing brilliantly – but the British economy isn’t August 1, 2012 JUST as some had started to worry, Team GB delivered spectacularly yesterday, thanks in no small part to Bradley Wiggins, our new sideburned national hero. GB Plc isn’t performing as well, unfortunately. Manufacturing output is shrinking disastrously. The manufacturing purchasing managers index slumped from 48.4 to 45.4 in July – its lowest level since May [...]
WHAT THE OTHER PAPERS SAY THIS MORNING August 1, 2012 FINANCIAL TIMES Nationalising RBS on the table Senior government figures are discussing the possibility of fully nationalising Royal Bank of Scotland amid mounting frustration at banks’ failure to lend to British businesses. Cabinet ministers are having conversations about whether to spend around £5bn buying up the 18 per cent of the bank the government does [...]
New lending plan gets off to a shaky start August 1, 2012 THE GOVERNMENT’S latest plan to give banks cheap funds in an effort to boost lending to firms and households received a cautious welcome from banks when it opened yesterday. Majority taxpayer-owned RBS accessed the “Funding for Lending” scheme (FLS) immediately, and cut mortgage and corporate loan interest rates by up to 1.6 percentage points. Lloyds, [...]
Louis Bacon to return $2bn August 1, 2012 HEDGE fund industry titan Louis Moore Bacon plans to shrink his flagship portfolio and return $2bn (£1.3bn) to his investors. In a letter, Bacon told investors that current market conditions make it more difficult to manage huge sums of money. He will send back about one quarter of the $8bn flagship fund’s assets. The Moore [...]
Profits rise at insurer MetLife August 1, 2012 PROFITS at MetLife, the largest US life insurer, doubled in the second quarter following a huge gain on derivatives tied to falling interest rates. The company has long had a substantial derivatives programme designed to hedge the risk of low interest rates. As rates dropped this quarter the company took a $1.4bn (£900m) gain on [...]
