DEBATE: In the wake of the Carillion scandal, is it time to break up the Big Four accountancy firms? May 17, 2018 In the wake of the Carillion scandal, is it time to break up the Big Four accountancy firms? Rachel Reeves MP, chair of the Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy Committee, says YES. Virtually all the FTSE 250 are audited by the Big Four. This cosy and complacent club has long, lucrative relationships with these companies. [...]
Big Tech must be tamed, for the sake of a fair society May 17, 2018 Just as the competitive oil rush gave way to Rockefeller’s new monopoly in the form of Standard Oil, so the internet’s infrastructure is being built around a handful of companies of immense and growing power: Google, Apple, Facebook, and Amazon, along with their Chinese equivalents, Tencent, Alibaba, and Baidu. There are real concerns that while [...]
UK bank HSBC holds on to the title of Europe’s largest – but Barclays and RBS slip down the ranks May 16, 2018 HSBC has held on to the title of Europe’s largest bank once again, according to new data, as the top four remained unchanged. Ranked by total assets, HSBC tops the chart with €2.1 trillion (£1.8 trillion), research from S&P Global Market Intelligence showed. Unchanged from last year, the UK institution was followed by France’s BNP [...]
Apple chief executive Tim Cook warned Donald Trump against China tariffs May 15, 2018 Apple boss Tim Cook has revealed he criticised Donald Trump’s approach to trade with China in a private meeting with the President last month. Speaking to Bloomberg TV, Cook shed light on the meeting which took place just weeks after Trump imposed tariffs on more than 1,300 categories of products from China. China retaliated by [...]
JP Morgan announces plans to set up securities business in China May 14, 2018 American bank JP Morgan Chase has submitted an application to China’s securities regulator to set up a new brokerage business in which the bank would own a 51 per cent stake. The move from the US’ largest bank comes just a few weeks after China relaxed regulations on foreign ownership over local financial companies – [...]
Finding value in American growth May 11, 2018 Last year saw global growth accelerate at its fastest pace since the financial crisis as this long-running bull market defied expectations and found another gear. It was a period of synchronised global growth reminiscent of yesteryear – a brief boon for global stock market investors. But with growth inevitably cooling in 2018, the challenge now [...]
The impact of Trump-Iran standoff on markets after the scrapped the Iran nuclear deal and threatened sanctions May 9, 2018 Overnight, US president Donald Trump pulled out of the Iran nuclear deal and said he will reintroduce sanctions on the Middle Eastern nation. How is this going to impact markets? President Trump’s decision to pull out of the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), known commonly as the Iran nuclear deal, may have implications for [...]
Trump withdraws from Iran deal: EU mulls retaliation as part of measures to protect European businesses from sanctions May 9, 2018 The European Union is mulling action including counter-measures against the US in a bid to protect firms doing business with Tehran from the threat of sanctions following Donald Trump’s withdrawal from the Iran nuclear deal. Last night Trump described the deal, signed by his predecessor President Obama and the other permanent members of the UN [...]
Walmart takes on Amazon in battle for Indian Flipkart with $15bn bid May 7, 2018 Walmart is set to take on Amazon to buy a stake in India’s biggest online retailer Flipkart, in a deal worth $15bn (£11.06bn). Reports today say that the American retailer will buy three-quarters of Flipkart’s shares at a valuation of just under $20bn. Sources close to the deal told the Financial Times that Walmart boss [...]
How Gin took over the world: It’s selling in record numbers with little sign of slowing down, but could the bubble be about to burst May 3, 2018 From Dalston dives to The Rivoli at the Ritz, people are drinking juniper-flavoured ethanol in record numbers. Last year more than 50m bottles of gin were sold in the UK for the first time, with £1.2bn in sales, up from £600m in 2011. That’s more than a billion gin and tonics. And while the best-selling [...]