MANAGE RISK CAREFULLY IN CHOPPY TIMES January 24, 2010 FOLLOWING Barack Obama’s attack on Wall Street towards the end of last week, the markets suffered the sort of wobble that some had thought we had seen the last of. It proved once again that we are not out of the woods yet and was a reminder that spread betters have to be able to [...]
FTSE hits a one-month low as financial stocks plummet January 21, 2010 ASHARP retreat in miners on sinking metal prices and worry about a tax from Australia and weakness in banks on fears about US curbs pushed Britain’s top share index 1.6 per cent lower by the close on Thursday. The FTSE 100 index ended 85.70 points lower at 5,335.10, its lowest since 22 December. The index [...]
BA crew deny Easter strike January 20, 2010 British Airways cabin crew yesterday ruled out striking over Easter if a union ballot on industrial action sanctions a walkout, as expected. The Unite union is locked in a dispute with the airline’s management over crew levels and working conditions. It said it was “never the intention of Unite and its BA cabin crew membership [...]
BA asks staff to retrain as cabin crew January 18, 2010 BRITISH Airways (BA) has vowed to train thousands of baggage handlers and call centre workers as flight stewards in a bid to break a March strike. Chief executive Willie Walsh last night squared up to Unite, the cabin crew union, by sending a letter to 38,000 BA employees asking them to volunteer and cross picket [...]
TRAVEL NOTES January 17, 2010 Astrology in Hampshire Astrologist to the stars Shelley von Strunckel will be offering “astrological first aid” at the beautiful Four Seasons in Hampshire on Sat 23 Jan and Tues 26 Jan. A group session with von Strunckel will shed light on what’s really behind those dramatic changes in your life, and will be followed by [...]
Pension shortfalls shrink as equity market recovers January 12, 2010 THE deficits sustained by the UK’s 7,400 private final salary pension schemes have dramatically improved on the back of rising equity markets and bond yields. Their collective shortfall shrank 65 per cent from £93bn to £33bn in December, according to the government’s Pension Protection Fund (PPF). The figures mark significant progress from the £191bn gap [...]
Bankruptcy looms for Japan Airlines January 12, 2010 FEARS that Japan Airlines is heading for bankruptcy continued to grow yesterday, with shares tumbling by 45 per cent to a new all-time low despite an increased offer of investment from its Oneworld alliance partners. The airlines, led by American Airlines and including British Airways, have upped their offer of investment in the struggling carrier [...]
WHAT THE OTHER PAPERS SAY THIS MORNING January 11, 2010 FINANCIAL TIMES LEHMAN WARNS ON US CLAIMS Big banks seeking to make windfall profits by making “outrageously unreasonable” claims against Lehman Brothers’ US business will be forced to prove their case in public courts, the executive leading the unwinding of the failed bank has warned. Bryan Marsal, the chief executive of Lehman Brothers Holdings, who [...]
Stars and spas in California’s flashy south January 10, 2010 THE Southern California sunshine danced on the ocean off Newport Beach as we stepped aboard the boat where we would be eating our lunch. We opened the champagne, tucked into the picnic, and took it in turns at the helm to guide the boat, silent as a whisper around the bay. This was a brilliant [...]
No frillers win fight of skies January 7, 2010 RYANAIR blew away the competition over Christmas, flying nearly five million passengers in December – 12 per cent more than last year. And total passengers for 2009 reached the dizzy heights of 65m, jetting past the 58m recorded the previous year. The budget airline’s biggest rival EasyJet notched up a 9.3 per cent year-on-year rise [...]