European Central Bank holds rates: But here’s what it needs to do February 6, 2014 Today's third central bank decision. Expected to be a bit more interesting than the last two – the European Central Bank disappointed. While consensus was for no change, a few market watchers suggested we'd see a small cut, something in the region of 0.1 to 0.15 percentage points. Societe Generale's Sebastien Galy say that the [...]
Ghana hikes interest rates to 18pc February 6, 2014 Another emerging markets hike. The Bank of Ghana has raised its benchmark rate by two percentage points to 18 per cent. The country has been struggling with a depreciating currency, and the hike is intended to shore that slide up somewhat. That follows rate hikes from India, Turkey, and South Africa in recent weeks. At [...]
Bank holds rates: Here’s why Carney isn’t budging February 6, 2014 The monetary policy committee has been twiddling its thumbs. Bank of England policymakers have held tight on policy (as widely expected). There's no change to interest rates or asset purchases. They'll be sitting on their hands until next week, when the Inflation Report should clarify how the Bank seeks to address its credibility problem. As [...]
SocGen’s Albert Edwards thinks it’s 1997 all over again for emerging markets February 6, 2014 Societe Generale's uber-bear is at it again. After the turmoil in emerging markets over the past few weeks, Albert Edwards thinks the unravelling has been "the final tweet of the canary in the coal mine". He thinks the warnings are being ignored, and that the ongoing "debacle will be less contained than sub-prime ultimately proved [...]
Ocado co-founder offloads 3m shares after losses shock February 6, 2014 After the grocer suffered pre-tax losses of £12.5m in the year to 1 December, co-founder and director Jason Gissing has sold over 3m shares. Gissing is a founding director, and yesterday it was announced that he would step down, leaving chief executive Tim Steiner as the only remaining co-founder at the company. Steiner said that [...]
1 chart that puts talk of an emerging market crisis in perspective February 6, 2014 There is no crisis. Booming UK and EM in meltdown. pic.twitter.com/pWj18e3av3 — Paweł Morski (@Pawelmorski) February 6, 2014 For all the talk of a roaring UK economy, most of the emerging market economies that are getting trashed right now aren't doing all that badly. The above chart shows that most are actually expected to [...]
Reports of an emerging market death have been greatly exaggerated February 5, 2014 Emerging markets have been unloved recently. Not only have they under performed their developed market peers over the past year, but last week saw the biggest withdrawal of money from the asset class since August 2011, with investors pulling $6.3bn (£3.9bn) of cash from EM equities in just seven days – roughly the [...]
PMQs show Cameron’s coalition starting to crumble February 5, 2014 The cracks are beginning to show in the coalition. In fact more and more are appearing every day. The PM should have been worried as soon as he read Danny Alexander’s comments about cutting the top rate of tax. "I would say that [a tax cut] would happen over my dead body,” Alexander told the [...]
Asda boss Andy Clarke’s 4 top leadership tips February 5, 2014 Speaking last night at the British Retail Consortium’s Future Retail Leader’s event, Asda chief executive Andy Clarke gave an account of his journey to the top – starting with the day he left school with just one O Level in English at 15. Realising he had spent too much time on the rugby pitch in [...]
Meet the superstars behind Beckham’s Miami deal February 5, 2014 Footballer turned megabrand David Beckham is not the only famous name behind his plans to set up a new team in Miami. The former England captain, who is due to confirm the $25m (£15m) deal this afternoon, has roped in some friends to help – and they’re bona fide superstars in their own fields too. [...]
