ECB’s Praet says that further rate cuts remain an option August 6, 2013 The European Central Bank's executive board member Peter Praet has said that further interest rate cuts remain an option, writing in Vox. Praet also said that the central bank's forawrd guidance includes an easing bias. Against the conditions that we see prevailing over a meaningful horizon, our guidance includes an easing bias. This conveys the [...]
Before the open – 06/08 August 6, 2013 Stocks are expected to open down in Europe, following US and Asian markets, on investor profit taking. $FTSE seen dwn 10 points on weaker US & Asia. $ULVR Unilever downgrde @ JPM, $GSK Glaxo downgrde @ Citi. $EMG Man Group Citi upgrade est. MB — IGSquawk (@IGSquawk) August 6, 2013 Morning ftse -20, dow -26, [...]
Greggs profits go cold as sales fall August 6, 2013 Baker Greggs has announced a before tax profit fall from £11.4m to £4.6m in the 26 weeks ended 29 June (release). The firm has seen like-for-like own shop sales down by 2.9 per cent, while total group sales were up by 3.4 per cent in the same period to £362m. Trading in the first five [...]
Any Other Business – 06/08 August 5, 2013 City and rugby stars collided last week at the launch of rugby player-turned-broker-turned-entrepreneur Peter Winterbottom’s new venture, the specialist rugby communications agency Full Contact. Wints played rugby for both England and the Lions – before broking at Creditex – and the guests at City favourite, the central London rooftop bar Aqua, seemed to reflect his [...]
Lib Dems propose sticking with existing university fees system and bringing back mansion tax August 5, 2013 The agenda has been released for the Lib Dem's autumn conference in Glasgow. Compared to the other party conferences it at least pretends to involve ordinary members, as loyal Lib Dems are given endless opportunities to vote on potential policies. Some conference motions are politically unrealistic pet projects of members (eg legalising cannabis) but others [...]
BP will defend against fines of £18.9m over alleged market manipulation August 5, 2013 BP has denied allegations made by US regulators of natural gas market manipulation, and has said that it will "vigorously defend against" them. US regulators – the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) and US Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) – are currently investigating several BP entitites. The FERC bases its allegations on a recorded two-minute [...]
US services growth is faster than expected in July August 5, 2013 The US services sector is expanding more quickly, according to the ISM non-manufacturing purchasing manager's index. It rose from 52.2 to 56.0 in July, ahead of economist forecasts of a rise to 53.0. That's still well behind the growth that Markit reported for the UK this morning, where services PMI is at a 2006 high [...]
UK output is growing at its fastest pace since records began August 5, 2013 (Source: Markit) Following very strong service sector figures this morning, economic activity is now growing at its fastest pace since records began in 1998. Markit's survey data – the purchasing manager's index – is at a high of 59.48 for all sectors. Any number above 50 implies an expansion. Employment expansion also climbed in July [...]
PM’s official spokesman says Clegg can go where he wants despite Gibraltar crisis August 5, 2013 Despite concerns from the Foreign Commonwealth Office (FCO) the Prime Minister's official spokesman has said that "the choice of holiday destination for the Deputy Prime Minister is up to him." Following a dispute about fishing rights with Spain, the FCO has announced that it will "continue to use all necessary measures to safeguard British sovereignty" [...]
IHS Global Insight hikes GDP forecast after strong data August 5, 2013 Following the strong services data released earlier, IHS Global Insight has bumped up its growth forecast for 2013 to 1.3 per cent (from 1.1 per cent) as it now anticipates 0.7 per cent growth in the third quarter. This would mark the first time that the economy has had two successive quarters of growth exceeding [...]
