FTSE flat as investors eye key US jobs data February 3, 2012 THE FTSE was flat in early trading as investors awaited key US jobs data due out later. US non-farm payrolls are forecast to rise by 150,000 after a 200,000 increase in December, while the unemployment rate was expected to remain static at 8.5 per cent. On the domestic data front the UK service industry picked [...]
BT posts strong earnings February 3, 2012 Lower regulatory charges, cost cuts and strong demand for a wide range of services enabled Britain’s BT to post solid third-quarter core earnings on Friday and lift aspects of its forecasts. BT, which has offset falling revenues in recent years by deep cost cuts and an improving operational performance, said revenues for the three months [...]
The Games are the starting gun for race to transform British innovation January 31, 2012 Cisco has a growth plan for the UK, and Neil Crockett reveals why the Olympics is the perfect catalyst Q.What WAS YOUR BRAND’S PRIMARY REASON FOR BEING Involved with the games? A.It’s the first time worldwide that Cisco’s ever been involved in anything like this as a sponsor. We’ve been a supplier: we supplied to [...]
Miners fuel FTSE gains as Fed eyes growth January 26, 2012 The FTSE was boosted by the US Federal Reserve’s promise to keep interest rates – and therefore bond yields – ultra-low for the next couple of years while positive results from miners also contributed to gains. Fed chief Ben Bernanke said that it may consider further monetary easing and would keep rates near zero until [...]
WHAT THE OTHER PAPERS SAY THIS MORNING January 24, 2012 FINANCIAL TIMES WATCHDOG TO PROTECT IRRATIONAL INVESTORS Investors cannot be counted on to make rational choices so regulators need to “step into their footprints” and limit or ban the sale of potentially harmful products, the head of the UK’s new consumer protection watchdog said yesterday. In his first big interview since starting work last autumn, [...]
In defence of hedge funds: Institutional investors are giving a vote of confidence January 19, 2012 THE latest hedge fund performance figures show the average fund was down nearly 5 per cent in 2011, and have prompted some to say: “The hedge fund model is broken”. It is worth noting that global shares, according to the MSCI All-Country World Index, were down 9.4 per cent in 2011, but nobody is arguing [...]
WHAT THE OTHER PAPERS SAY THIS MORNING January 18, 2012 FINANCIAL TIMES TWO BANKS IN DANGER AS DEADLINE APPROACHES European regulators are convinced that two of the continent’s banks will fail to produce credible plans to plug capital deficits by Friday’s deadline, exposing both to the risk of full or partial nationalisation. Officials said that it looked “almost inevitable” that a fresh injection of state [...]
Miners and banks push FTSE to highest end since October January 18, 2012 BRITAIN’S top share index nosed ahead yesterday to close above 5,700 points for the first time since the end of October 2011, as strength in heavyweight miners and banks countered falls in integrated oils. The FTSE 100 ended the day up 8.42 points, or 0.2 per cent, at 5,702.37, just below the intra-day peak of [...]
No Lolcats for a day? Now you’ve got me really angry January 18, 2012 The internet is angry. Yesterday icanhascheezburger.com threatened to go offline. And if you take away my pictures of cats yawning, so help me God I’ll cut you. It wasn’t just Lolcats, either. Reddit switched off. And something called Wikipedia (which, as a journalist, I’ve never visited). It was a dark day for the internet. Literally: [...]
FTSE slips as Eurozone downgrades sap confidence January 16, 2012 The FTSE 100 edged down in early trading as the Eurozone crisis sapped confidence with France losing its Triple A rating and Greece teetering on the brink of a disastrous default. Markets are now worried the Eurozone’s bailout fund, EFSF, might lose its Triple A rating after France, the fund’s second-largest guarantor, was stripped of [...]