The Black Cats won’t block City’s path to cup success February 27, 2014 BEN CLEMINSON AND BILL ESDAILE WITH THE BEST FOOTBALL AND RACING BETS FAILURE is unthinkable for Manchester City in Sunday’s Capital One Cup final against Sunderland – but they know as well as anyone that favourites don’t always win at Wembley. Last season’s FA Cup final is a perfect case study of David toppling Goliath after Wigan’s shock 1-0 victory [...]
BT’s clash over Sky Sports goes into extra time February 17, 2014 BT’S DISPUTE with BSkyB over the price and availability of Sky Sports on its YouView set top boxes will go into an epic eighth year following a court ruling yesterday. The Court of Appeal decided that the competition tribunal should re-examine its decision from August 2012, which stopped BSkyB being forced to offer Sky Sports [...]
An electric car that truly electrifies February 10, 2014 The first electric city cars didn’t pass muster. Now, Volkswagen has finally given us one to get excited about FRANKLY, we’ve waited far too long for an alternative to the infernal G-Wiz. The original electric city car has been on London’s roads for a decade now, ferrying glum-looking owners for whom the zero-emissions dream was [...]
Our favourite way to forecast the US jobs numbers February 9, 2014 This remains our favourite way to predict the US labour data release. After last month’s non-farm payroll prediction miss, this month we are using a different cat #NFPguesses pic.twitter.com/CwwyVhsYas — Craig Drake (@csdrake) February 7, 2014 Last time this was tried Bob the cat was well off – but that’s because her options were restricted [...]
Weak US jobs data: Only 113,000 workers hired in January February 7, 2014 A weak number from the US. On a seasonally adjusted basis, 113,000 workers were hired in January. Analysts expected to see 185,000 jobs added this month. We saw some nasty numbers last month, with only 74,000 jobs added so there was a good possibility of a rebound. That number has been revised up – but [...]
Our favourite way to forecast the US jobs numbers February 7, 2014 This remains our favourite way to predict the US labour data release. After last month's non-farm payroll prediction miss, this month we are using a different cat #NFPguesses pic.twitter.com/CwwyVhsYas — Craig Drake (@csdrake) February 7, 2014 Last time this was tried Bob the cat was well off – but that's because her options were [...]
Cat cure firm Circassia in biggest healthcare float for eight years February 6, 2014 A CURE for cat allergies could soon be hitting the market after its Oxford-based developers yesterday confirmed plans to raise £175m on the London stock market in the biggest healthcare float since 2006. Circassia, which is privately backed by firms like Invesco Perpetual and hedge fund Lansdowne Partners, said it will use the money to [...]
Brussels is trying to bury the City by forcing it to play by warped EU rules February 4, 2014 IN BRUSSELS, you can hear the dull sound of hammer on iron: the EU driving nails into a coffin. There may be plenty of zombie banks in the Eurozone, and an undead currency walking the corridors of the European Central Bank, but it’s the City that Brussels wants to bury first. There were two examples [...]
BP and BG: Looking into the cryst-oil ball February 3, 2014 Hot on the heels of Royal Dutch Shell’s predictably poor results last week, the market is not feeling too optimistic over tomorrow’s corporate updates from FTSE 100 oil peers BP and BG. BG ‘did a Shell’ last week, slashing forecasts right, left and centre ahead of its results announcement, so the market already knows that [...]
Eurozone manufacturing growth at 32 month high February 3, 2014 A revived manufacturing sector, or a dead cat bounce? Markit's Eurozone manufacturing purchasing managers' index (PMI) came in at 54 in January, up from 52.7 in December. Economists had forecast a jump to just 53.9. Any number above 50 implies expansion, so this headline figure suggests the sector is growing more rapidly. Berenberg's Rob Wood [...]