Miliband’s meaningless EU Polyfilla can’t hide his hostility to business November 10, 2014 WRITING for City A.M. in advance of his speech at the CBI conference yesterday, Ed Miliband penned 700 words of waffle. Ostensibly, this was on the pretext of setting out Labour’s position on the European Union. But his policy was so topsy-turvy, it made you feel seasick. It was so contorted, it would have made [...]
London’s billboards are about to get much more high tech with Clear Channel’s “London Wrap” November 10, 2014 London commuters will soon start noticing a change to the billboard adverts greeting them on their journey into the city. The huge posters at stations and at key commuter points across the capital are about to get a major makeover to bring them into the digital age. Usually plastered with an old-school poster ad made of [...]
Bank of England leaves interest rate at 0.5 per cent for 68th month in a row November 6, 2014 The Bank of England's monetary policy committee (MPC) leaft interest rates unchanged again this month, making it the 68th month in a row rates have been at a historic low of 0.5 per cent. The Bank also left its quantitative easing programme at £375bn, even though across the pond, the Fed wound its programme to [...]
Dollar rises as US jobs data beats expectations November 5, 2014 Having experienced a blip over the summer, the US jobs market continued its recovery in October, creating 230,000 new jobs, data by payroll company ADP showed today. The figure beat expectations of 220,000, causing the dollar to rise 0.4 per cent against both the pound and the euro. The data comes ahead of Friday's non-farm [...]
US markets are searching for rates insight – The week ahead on Wall St November 2, 2014 A SERIES of Federal Reserve officials are due to give speeches after the Fed surprised some investors last week with a hawkish-sounding policy statement that confidently predicted only temporary weakness in inflation. Now that the Fed has ended its massive bond-buying stimulus, financial markets are keen for any insight on how quickly it will raise [...]
A digital billboard revolution: The top out-of-home advertising sites changing the face of London November 2, 2014 In creative terms, advertising mediums can be split into “hot” and “cool” media. This distinction was first put forward by Canadian media critic Marshall McLuhan 50 years ago. The difference is that hot media grabs you, whereas people actively choose to get involved with cool media – the audience does the grabbing. Print, cinema, [...]
Nikkei jumps on Bank of Japan quantitative easing shock October 31, 2014 Following the US Fed's decision this week to draw its quantitative easing programme to a close, yesterday the Bank of Japan (BoJ) took the opposite stance, announcing plans to vastly expand its monetary easing programme. The Bank’s approach under Shinzo Abe has been anything but passive, but the announcement it would increase asset purchases so [...]
US growth beats expectations as dollar gets a lift October 30, 2014 THE DOLLAR continued to increase against the euro yesterday after US GDP growth surprised on the upside and the market further digested hawkish statements from the Federal Reserve on Wednesday. Annualised growth – what annual growth would be if the three-month growth rate were maintained over a full year – was 3.5 per cent in [...]
US GDP defies expectations with 3.5 per cent rise October 30, 2014 US GDP grew 3.5 per cent in the third quarter, figures out today showed, smashing analyst expectations of three per cent. Although the figure is a slowdown from the previous quarter's 4.6 per cent growth, it was enough for the dollar to spike to 0.7967 against the euro as it was announced, before dropping back [...]
Bullish US outlook helps Janet Yellen win over Charles Plosser and Richard Fisher to interest rate pledge October 29, 2014 Federal Reserve chair Janet Yellen persuaded two hawkish colleagues to join her pledge yesterday to keep interest rates low for a “considerable time”, winning them over by sounding an optimistic tone on the US job market and inflation. Immediately after the announcement, the dollar surged to a three-week high. The Fed announced the end of [...]