FTSE 100 recovers after Bank of England holds interest rates March 18, 2021 London stocks recovered this afternoon after suffering a drop following the Bank of England’s decision to hold interest rates indicated the pace of Britain’s economic recovery from the Covid-19 pandemic. The BoE kept its stimulus programme unchanged this afternoon ahead of an expected recovery in Britain’s economy later this year, helped by the fast rollout [...]
New US jobless claims jumped last week to 770,000 March 18, 2021 New US jobless claims unexpectedly jumped last week to 770,000. Initial claims for state unemployment benefits came in at a seasonally adjusted 770,000 for the week to 13 March, the Labor Department said today. The week before new US jobless claims came in at 725,000 people seeking benefits. Today’s numbers were worse than what economists [...]
‘Electric or bust’ for National Grid as it snaps up Western Power Distribution for £8bn March 18, 2021 National Grid shocked the system this morning when it announced it would buy Western Power Distribution (WPD), the holding company of Britain’s largest electricity distribution business, from US-based company PPL in a £7.8bn deal. Moreover, National Grid agreed to sell The Narragansett Electric Company (NECO) to PPL Energy Holdings, also a subsidiary of PPL, for an [...]
BoE keeps rates steady and dampens expectations of imminent change March 18, 2021 The Bank of England has held interest rates at 0.1 per cent and its bond-buying programme at £895bn, thereby diminishing expectations of changes in the immediate future, with the next announcement not until 6 May. The BoE’s Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) voted unanimously to keep rates at record-low levels. Analysts expected today’s decisions to be [...]
National Express careers to £380m loss as pandemic forces emergency stop March 18, 2021 Coach firm National Express this morning reported a £381.4m operating loss for 2020 as the pandemic drove its vehicles off the road for months at a time. The FTSE 250 company saw passenger numbers plunge 80 per cent when last year’s initial lockdowns struck, sending profit and revenue tumbling. For the full year, it swung [...]
Eve Sleep bounces back ‘six months ahead of plan’ as revenue rises March 18, 2021 Mattress maker Eve Sleep today reported a rise in yearly revenue as it hailed a strong improvement in trading during the second half of 2020. The firm saw revenue rise six per cent to £25.2m, while year-on-year growth edged up 19 per cent in the second half. Profit rose 14 per cent to £14.5m as [...]
Bulls in control after dovish Fed as attention shifts to Bank of England today March 18, 2021 European stock markets had a dull session yesterday as traders played it safe ahead of the closely-watched Fed update. Rates were kept on hold, meeting forecasts. The economy is now projected to grow by 6.5 per cent in 2021, up from the 4.2 per cent forecast issued three months ago. David Madden, market analyst at [...]
US Fed surprises with 6.5 per cent growth prediction and leaves interest rates on hold March 17, 2021 US Fed surprises with 6.5 per cent growth prediction and leaves interest rates on hold
Using AI-powered spacecraft is the only way to clean up space March 17, 2021 In 1978 NASA scientist Donald J. Kessler proposed a theoretical scenario in which the density of objects in low Earth orbit due to space pollution becomes high enough that collisions between objects starts to cause a chain reaction whereby each collision generates more space debris, which then increases the likelihood of further collisions. One implication [...]
City A.M. TV: Daily Market Snapshot (video) March 17, 2021 Recent key leadership areas of the US market were weak yesterday. That included the Russell 2000 (-1.7 per cent), the S&P600 (the small caps: -1.7 per cent) and certain transportation indices (i.e. DJ Transports and NASDAQ Transports -1.6 per cent & -2.1 per cent, respectively). Tech was one of the areas of relative strength with [...]