Anne Richards: We need a new plan to bring women back into the square mile October 26, 2014 "It is bad, shocking, awful. Since 2008 it has got worse. As an industry we’ve managed to deter a chunk of half of the population. We’ve got to get that sorted.” Aberdeen Asset Management’s chief investment officer Anne Richards does not hold back on the City’s gender imbalance. For her entire professional life, [...]
US Fed set to call time on its stimulus plan – New York Report October 26, 2014 UNLESS it springs a major surprise, the US Federal Reserve will call time this week on its programme of government bond purchases, which at one point was pumping $85bn (£52.83bn) a month into financial markets and the economy. The Federal Open Market Committee’s (FOMC) interest rate-setting is meeting on Wednesday. Other indicators include Tuesday’s data [...]
New dictionary words: How well do you know this year’s finance entries? October 24, 2014 Hear ye, hear ye, financial wordsmiths – the 12th edition of the Collins English Dictionary was out yesterday, and with it 50,000 new words to add to your Scrabble repertoire. The financial crisis has definitely taken hold at Collins HQ, with 14 new financial additions to the dictionary, including Fed chief Janet Yellen's ever-popular "taper" [...]
This market storm may not be over – CNBC Comment October 20, 2014 I simply can’t resist the temptation to draw parallels between markets and the autumn storms in the UK last week. The tempest is back. Yes, it was a quiet summer, with volatility in equity, FX and bond markets dropping to multi-year lows. But the lashing of the first storm is still painful, and the finger-pointing [...]
Navratilova blasts ITF silence over Russian’s Williams brothers slur October 20, 2014 EIGHTEEN-TIME grand slam winner Martina Navratilova has criticised the International Tennis Federation (ITF) for its failure to punish the Russian official who referred to Serena and Venus as the “Williams brothers”. Shamil Tarpischev, the president of the Russian Tennis Federation, landed a £15,000 fine and a one-year ban from the Women’s Tennis Association for the [...]
Ebola to Ukraine: The West has failed to pay the piper – with terrible results October 19, 2014 Something truly terrible happened in Hamelin, Germany in the early Middle Ages, something so dire it has become embedded in western consciousness as the fairy tale “The Pied Piper.” Whether the town experienced a severe case of the Black Death, a rush of emigration to Eastern Europe, suffered through the Children’s Crusade, or was the [...]
US and European shares recover from turbulent week October 18, 2014 US and European stock markets rebounded on Friday, following a turbulent week in which shares fell to their lowest prices in months. US stocks were up by more than one per cent at close, with the S&P 500 experiencing its biggest gains in over a week. The Dow Jones Index was up by 1.6 [...]
Bank of England’s Andrew Haldane: Interest rates could stay lower for longer October 17, 2014 The Bank of England's chief economist Andrew Haldane has warned that interest rates may need to be kept lower for longer due the deteriorating state of the world economy. The BoE kept rates at their record lows of 0.5 per cent last week citing concerns over health of the global recovery, lacklustre wage growth in [...]
US Fed stimulus hint sees markets go topsy-turvy October 16, 2014 INVESTORS throughout the world endured another rollercoaster ride yesterday, as the price of assets was jolted around amid volatile trading. The FTSE 100 initially jumped out of bed, gaining 70 points at the open. Yet the previous day’s hangover soon kicked in and the blue chip index slumped to 6,072 points – its lowest level [...]
FTSE 100 recovers on Fed hopes of continuing stimulus scheme – London Report October 16, 2014 Britain’s top equity index yesterday cut most of its daily losses to close almost flat as a Federal Reserve official hinted at a continuation of the central bank’s asset purchase programme. The FTSE 100 closed down just 0.3 per cent at 6,195.91 points after hitting its lowest level since June 2013 at 6,072 points earlier [...]