Higher retail sales a boost for Eurozone September 5, 2011 SHOP SALES increased across the Eurozone in July despite a tough summer in debt-laden peripheral countries and concern from healthier nations who might be dragged down, according to figures out yesterday. Overall, retail sales increased by 0.2 per cent in July compared with June. Portugal and Romania led the way with 2.5 per cent and [...]
CITY MOVES | WHO’S SWITCHING JOBS September 5, 2011 Cushman & Wakefield The property consultant has appointed corporate real estate executive Simon Ward as a partner in its EMEA corporate occupier & investor services team in London. Ward has more than 30 years’ experience in European and international corporate real estate, holding senior roles including regional director of corporate real estate at Jones Lang [...]
FTSE at two-week low over poor data September 5, 2011 BRITAIN’S top share index was left nursing heavy losses yesterday after service sector data from China, the Eurozone and the UK intensified concerns the global economy is facing another recession. The FTSE 100 index ended down 189.45 points, or 3.6 per cent, at 5,102.58, its lowest close since 22 August, as global growth in services [...]
THE TIPSTER September 5, 2011 THE threat of Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA) lawsuits from the US is certainly hammering banks and with Barclays being very much on the Agency’s hit list, the stock has been tumbling in London over recent days. However, heavyweight investors have shown conviction in the bank in the past, so is there any reason to [...]
Banks slump as service sector data disappoints September 5, 2011 Stocks have retreated this morning after a poor overnight session in Asia and over intensifying concerns that economies worldwide face recession. London’s FTSE 100 has been hit by a barrage of fears over global growth since US employment data on Friday showed job creation slumped to zero in August. Service sector data from China has [...]
European Central Bank faces pressure to cut interest rates September 4, 2011 WORSENING economic data has shifted the European Central Bank’s (ECB) focus towards new interest rate cuts. The headline rate currently stands at 1.5 per cent following increases in April and July. Since then inflation expectations have slightly fallen and growth has ground to a halt. The German economy grew by just 0.1 per cent in [...]
Banks face $200bn US subprime suit September 4, 2011 LENDERS were dealt a heavy blow on Friday as a US federal agency filed 17 lawsuits against banks for allegedly mis-selling securities based on mortgages in the run-up to the financial crisis. Shares in Bank of America, the worst-hit, tumbled more than eight per cent on the news. The Federal Housing Finance Agency, which oversees [...]
Bank lawsuit looms large over the equity markets September 4, 2011 THIS morning’s direction for the markets will be dominated by the news which came out late on Friday evening that a US regulator is suing 17 financial institutions for mis-selling billions of dollars’ worth of mortgage bonds, which ultimately proved toxic when the US housing market collapsed. The targets included not only major US banks [...]
Barcap poaches Morgan Stanley banker September 2, 2011 Barclays Capital (Barcap) has poached Andrew Richards from Morgan Stanley in Europe to head the bank’s private equity coverage in Asia Pacific, two sources told Reuters. Richards, who will be a managing director at Barcap, is expected to fill a position that has been vacant since Takumi Tanaka, a former Lehman and Nomura banker, left [...]
CITY MOVES | WHO’S SWITCHING JOBS September 1, 2011 Brooks Madonald Funds The fund management arm of Brooks Macdonald Group has appointed Mark Watson as new business development manager. Watson, based in Brooks Macdonald’s London office in Mayfair, will develop relationships with IFAs, discretionary fund managers and other business professionals to promote BMF’s fund proposition. He joins from Zurich Assurance Company, where he worked [...]