Eurozone’s painfully slow recovery continues at half the speed analysts expected May 15, 2014 Painful figures for the Eurozone. The currency bloc has seen GDP growth of just 0.2 per cent in the first quarter of this year, according to estimates from Eurostat. That's well below the 0.4 per cent economists had forecast. Ishaq Siddiq, chief market strategist at ETX Capital, says that the figures are more "fuel to [...]
Dutch GDP sinks on falling gas consumption May 15, 2014 Shocking economic data from the Netherlands. According to official estimates, Dutch GDP was 1.4 per cent lower in the first quarter of 2014 compared to the previous quarter. The country's official statistics agency said that the weakness resulted from lower gas consumption due to a very mild winter. So perhaps we'll see a strong rebound [...]
Why Mark Carney will be hoping his World Cup analogy isn’t too precise May 14, 2014 The Bank of England's governor has brought back an old favourite to the central bank's press conferences: sport analogies. Mark Carney has suggested that securing the UK's economic recovery so far has been "like making it through the qualifying rounds of the World Cup". A major achievement, but not the ultimate goal. The "real tournament" [...]
Bank of England sees economy growing at 3.4pc this year May 14, 2014 The economists at Threadneedle Street have been busy. We've goth a host of update forecasts from the Bank of England, with the central bank suggesting that the UK economy is now performing strongly. The BoE sees 3.4 per cent GDP growth in 2014, and 2.9 per cent in 2015. In February, BoE forecasts suggseted that [...]
Real wage growth back for first time since 2010 May 14, 2014 Real wage growth is back, but it's weaker than we'd expected. Last month we saw some convincing signs of its return in the Office for National Statistics' volatile single month figures. This morning's Office for National Statistcs data confirms that early indicator, with average earnings up by 1.7 per cent in the three months to [...]
The FTSE 100 may have closed at a 1999 high – but take in these five things to see how high it’s really climbed May 13, 2014 London's leading index is roaring, and on track to smash some old records. Today, it's closed at 6,873.08 – its highest level since 1999, a symbolic year for FTSE 100 benchmarks. But the comparison with today's FTSE and that of 14 years ago may not be entirely fair. It's true that the FTSE 100 is [...]
US rebound evaporates as retail sales slump May 13, 2014 Not the number analysts were looking for. US retail sales grew by a meagre 0.1 per cent in April, a shadow of March's estimated 1.5 per cent leap (which has today been revised down to 0.4 per cent). Analysts at HSBC expected sales "to turn in a solid performance, as households continued to make up [...]
The five nightmare scenarios fund managers are most afraid of May 13, 2014 Global investors are ramping up their cash holdings and reducing exposure to risk, according to May's BoAML fund manager survey. They're increasingly worried about geopolitical instability, as well as the strength of the global economic recovery. Average cash levels have reached five per cent of portfolios, the highest level since June 2012, and a 4.8 [...]
Why investors are fixated on just one number this afternoon May 13, 2014 It's a pretty sparse calendar for traders today, and one data point stands out head and shoulders above the rest. US retail sales numbers will be released at 1.30pm, and they'll help to decode a pretty messy picture. Their strength will give an indication of the strength of the US economy, now that it's clear [...]
This key indicator of German confidence just plummeted May 13, 2014 The Zew survey is one of the few economic releases traders have to go on today, and it's been incredibly disappointing. The German economic sentiment component of the survey has dropped like a stone, falling from 43.2 to 33.1 in May. Analysts had been expecting a much smaller fall, to just 41.0. It's a really [...]
