City & Gild: Cities are brands too April 11, 2014 What is the brand of London, how is it being managed, who runs it and are we really capitalising on our greatest national asset? On landing into Heathrow recently, I was greeted with the same multi-storey billboards for the Tower of London that have been in place for years. But a few smiling Beefeaters stirred [...]
London Report: Fed’s hint on rates steadies FTSE but Marks loses Spark April 10, 2014 BRITAIN’S top share index traded just above flat yesterday, buoyed by the banking sector after the Federal Reserve indicated it would keep interest rates lower for longer than previously anticipated. The FTSE 100 was up just 6.36 points or 0.1 per cent at 6,641.97 at the close, with financial firms contributing about half the gains. [...]
Four ways to cut down on social loafing April 10, 2014 Delegating clearly and obeying the “two pizza rule” will help your team work more effectively FRENCH engineer Max Ringelmann was measuring the force exerted by workers pulling on a rope about a century ago. He noticed something interesting. When more men were added to the experiment, the pull on the rope didn’t increase proportionally. And [...]
What you need to know before the US open April 10, 2014 US stock futures haven’t altered much today, following the S&P 500 reaching its largest gain in more than a month. The number of people claiming unemployment benefit for the first time in the US has dropped to a May 2007 low of 300,000 – much lower than expected. Over here, the Bank of England’s decided [...]
What you need to know before the open April 10, 2014 Not much in the way of surprises from last night’s Fed meeting minutes. It seems officials are not in any hurry to raise rates, and markets rebounded on the news. The sell-off seen earlier in the week, though, seems to have been because of worries over pricey valuations, rather than rates concerns. According to the [...]
Why aspiring entrepreneurs shouldn’t dismiss the MBA April 10, 2014 Entrepreneurship has become a wildly popular MBA specialisation. But the degree alone is not a guarantee of success THE VALUE of an MBA for a career in entrepreneurship remains hotly contested. On the one hand, plenty of successful entrepreneurs obviously don’t have MBAs. Programmes cost in the region of £50,000 a year – and one [...]
Asian markets shrug off poor Chinese exports April 10, 2014 Asian markets have tempered their earlier optimism as China's latest trade data showed imports and exports under-performing market expectations. In March, export growth came in at -6.6 per cent, significantly weaker than Bloomberg's median forecast of 4.8 per cent. However, markets were reassured that the poor figures were partly attributable to distortions caused by over-invoicing [...]
Fed’s minutes play down fear over rate rises April 9, 2014 SENIOR officials at the US Federal Reserve have eased the concerns of investors over its future monetary policy, with last night’s minutes of its March meeting helping to boost shares across the pond. The minutes revealed that Fed officials had worried that traders might overreact to mapped forecasts that suggested interest rates could be 2.25 [...]
New York Report: Dovish Federal Reserve tone boosts shares April 9, 2014 US STOCKS rallied yesterday after minutes from the Federal Reserve’s latest policy meeting showed a more supportive stance than investors had previously expected. All three major US stock indexes ended up more than one per cent, with eight of the 10 S&P 500 sector indexes closing higher. Internet and biotech stocks were among the day’s [...]
Why aspiring entrepreneurs shouldn’t dismiss the MBA April 9, 2014 Entrepreneurship has become a wildly popular MBA specialisation. But the degree alone is not a guarantee of success THE VALUE of an MBA for a career in entrepreneurship remains hotly contested. On the one hand, plenty of successful entrepreneurs obviously don’t have MBAs. Programmes cost in the region of £50,000 a year – and one [...]