House prices down in September October 6, 2011 House prices unexpectedly fell 0.5 per cent in September and were 2.3 per cent lower in the three months to September compared with a year ago, a survey by mortgage lender Halifax showed. Analysts had expected a rise of 0.2 per cent on the month, for a three-month annual fall of 2.1 per cent. September’s [...]
Ted Baker bucks high street gloom October 6, 2011 Designer clothing brand Ted Baker posted strong first-half results led by growth in its overseas and online businesses, and raised the interim dividend 13.5 per cent. The fashion retailer, which began as a menswear brand in Glasgow in 1987, said it remained cautious of the second half given the uncertain macroeconomic environment. “Whilst we have [...]
Greggs reports sales rise October 6, 2011 High street baker Greggs posted a slight acceleration in sales growth in its third-quarter, showing resilience in the face of severe macroeconomic headwinds. Greggs, which sells bread, sandwiches, savouries and cakes to over 6 million customers a week from 1,540 shops, said sales at stores open over a year rose 0.8 percent in the 13 [...]
STEVE JOBS 1955-2011 October 5, 2011 STEVE Jobs, Apple’s celebrated founder, has died aged 56. Jobs passed away late last night, just six weeks after he stepped down as the firm’s chief executive. Apple marked his passing with a tribute on its website to a “visionary and creative genius” and “an amazing human being”. “Steve’s brilliance, passion and energy were the [...]
Merkel backs plan to prop up Eurozone banks October 5, 2011 GERMAN chancellor Angela Merkel said she would support moves to plough fresh capital into the Eurozone’s banks if they had to write off large chunks of their holdings of government debt yesterday. Merkel backed the move to inject more state funding into the region’s banks to restore confidence in them as they struggle to contain [...]
Obsessing over the UK’s GDP numbers is a waste of time October 5, 2011 IT is astonishing that anybody in the markets, think-tanks or politics still takes the Office for National Statistics’ growth figures seriously. Yesterday’s sweeping rewriting of history by our official number-crunchers shows yet again the stupidity of those who obsess about whether growth is coming in at 0.1 or 0.2 per cent. The ONS has suddenly [...]
WHAT THE OTHER PAPERS SAY THIS MORNING October 5, 2011 THE TIMES BRISTOL DEAL GOES WITH THE FLOW Bristol Water yesterday became the latest British utility company to change hands. The West Country water company, which supplies 1.1m homes in and around Bristol, has had 70 per cent of its shares sold to Capstone Infrastructure, an asset investment fund that used to operate as the [...]
New stress test to cover banks’ bond holdings October 5, 2011 EUROPE’S banking regulator began to look again at its tests of the strength of the region’s banks yesterday in two-day crisis talks over the collapse of Franco-Belgian lender Dexia. Eurozone finance ministers asked the European Banking Authority to reassess how well the banks would survive a write-down in the value of their holdings of Eurozone [...]
More cash left at the ECB amid downgrades October 5, 2011 AS GREEK protestors and strikers returned to the streets of Athens in fresh clashes with police yesterday Eurozone lenders fled to safety, using the European Central Bank as a safe house for increasing amounts of cash on Tuesday night, figures yesterday showed. Overnight deposits at the ECB rose to €213bn from €209bn on Monday, the [...]
IMF baffled by calls to enter bond market as fears of a slump grow October 5, 2011 THE INTERNATIONAL Monetary Fund has urged Europe to shore up its banks with up an injection of up to €200bn (£172.6bn) amid fears a freeze in lending will trigger another recession. Yesterday Antonio Borges (pictured), the IMF’s Europe director, said the move would help to restore confidence across the continent. “We are talking about figures [...]
