Mark Carney is going to be very happy about this chart January 14, 2014 Inflation is finally at the Bank of England's target – and it only took four years to get there. So we expect that the Bank's (still relatively new to the job) governor Mark Carney will be pretty pleased by this chart of falling annual consumer price inflation: This morning Societe Generale's Kit Juckes [...]
Inflation falls to 2pc target for first time in four years January 14, 2014 Inflation is finally at target. Prices rose by just two per cent in the year to December, after inflation dropped from 2.2 per cent to 2.1 per cent in November. Analysts had expected no change. Inflation had been above the Bank of England two per cent target every month since December 2009. The largest contributions [...]
Want to find love? This map might be your best shot January 13, 2014 It can be tricky to find that special someone, but this map could help. Single hot spots? More than half population of Islington, Manchester and Nottingham are single #becauseitsfriday pic.twitter.com/jTFErGMjTk — Johnny Morris (@Hamptons_JM) January 10, 2014 Put together by Johnny Morris, head of research at Hamptons International, this visualisation could be the lonely [...]
US weather unlikely to hit first quarter GDP – but that’s not necessarily good news January 13, 2014 While freezing cold was given for the blame for Friday's poor jobs data, Deutsche Bank's chief US economist Joseph LaVorgna doesn't think we'll see the weather "meaningfully dampen current quarter GDP." But LaVorgna does warn that it is "way too early to say with any precision". This doesn't mean that the weather isn't bad news [...]
Bitcoin tax review could make cryptocurrency transactions much cheaper January 13, 2014 Next month Bitcoin and other virtual currencies could become even more attractive to UK investors and retailers looking to accept them as payment. Bitcoin could find its tax status changed to a ‘private money’ by the end of February as part of HMRC’s review of the tax liability of electronic currencies. Transactions in Bitcoin are [...]
Apax edges towards Israeli float of dairy producer January 13, 2014 Israel's biggest cottage cheese producer took a step closer to floating on the stock market yesterday after its UK-based private equity owners approved plans to list the company. Tnuva, which has a stable of top selling brands ranging from kosher chicken to cheese spreads, has been controlled by London-based Apax Partners – owner of UK [...]
Former HSBC UK chief Joe Garner joins BT as CEO of Openreach January 13, 2014 Joe Garner is the latest big name hire for telecoms company BT. He'll replace Liv Garfield as CEO of Openreach in mid-February, as Garfield leaves to become CEO of Severn Trent. Garner has worked most recently for HSBC as head of the UK bank, in which BT says that he drove "some of the highest [...]
Government and industry team up to launch new shale gas study January 13, 2014 So the government’s shale push continues after yesterday’s business rate bonanza for local councils, with a new study to assess what the industry needs in terms of skills, material and equipment. The new study, conducted by EY, is jointly funded by the Department of Business Skills & Innovation (BIS) and the United Kingdom Onshore Operators [...]
6 reasons to start favouring European stocks over their pricey US counterparts January 13, 2014 Goldman Sachs' chief US equity strategist has said that the S&P500 is "lofty by almost any measure", both for the aggregate market as well as the median stock. Goldman's David Kostin found that to be true when using 10 different barometers: (1) The P/E ratio; (2) the current P/E expansion cycle; (3) EV/Sales; (4) EV/EBITDA; [...]
Suntory time for Jim Beam as Japanese taste for whisky grows January 13, 2014 What with Amec's £1.9bn move for Foster Wheeler and Goldcorp's $2.6bn offer for rival Osisko, today was already shaping up to be the biggest merger Monday in some time. But Japanese investment firm Suntory Holdings just blew everyone out of the water by making a $16bn (£9.74bn) bid for Beam – the NYSE-listed maker of Jim [...]
