Beirut funeral leads to violence October 22, 2012 The state funeral in Beirut of an assassinated Lebanese intelligence chief, Brigadier General Wissam al- Hassan, ended in violence yesterday as angry mourners broke away and tried to storm the offices of Prime Minister Najib Mikati, prompting security forces to shoot in the air and fire tear gas to repulse them. The clashes fed into [...]
Fed expected to sit on hands in October after flurry of activity October 21, 2012 THE FED will hold fire at this week’s policy setting meeting, analysts predicted over the weekend. The Federal Open Markets Committee – which sets interest rates and quantitative easing (QE) – will keep the status quo at this week’s meeting, analysts say, after a flurry of accommodative monetary policy measures at the last meeting in [...]
Plot to bomb Fed Reserve foiled October 17, 2012 THE FBI last night arrested a man after he allegedly planned to blow up the New York Federal Reserve Bank. Officers swooped on the 21-year-old Bangladeshi national following an elaborate sting operation that involved an undercover agent providing him with a fake 1000-pound bomb. The FBI say Quazi Mohammad Rezwanul Ahsan Nafis travelled to the United States in [...]
Volcker warns bank ringfence is too weak to improve market October 17, 2012 THE BANKING ringfence in the UK may fail as the investment and retail operations will still be too closely linked, former Federal Reserve chairman Paul Volcker said yesterday, arguing a full separation of entities is more appropriate. “These things tend to be permeable over time. You want to separate operations decisively? Don’t put them in [...]
Goldman joins bank revival as it swings back into the black October 16, 2012 GOLDMAN Sachs’ profits jumped in the third quarter, bouncing back from a loss over the same period of 2011 and joining the revival in banks’ fortunes also seen by the likes of JP Morgan and Wells Fargo. The investment giant made a profit of $1.51bn (£937m) in the three-month period, compared with a loss of [...]
American consumer comes to the rescue October 15, 2012 THE AMERICAN consumer sprang to life in September, boosting US retail sales and suggesting that the country’s economic recovery could be sustained. Sales were up 1.1 per cent last month, the Census Bureau said – a 5.4 per cent improvement on the same time last year. Separate data measuring the factory activity in New York [...]
Copper in need of a health check October 15, 2012 COPPER was yesterday given a short boost. Economic data coming out of China indicated that its inflation rate fell to 1.9 per cent in September, from 2 per cent the month before. However, this news was not enough to dispel worries of a Chinese hard landing, and the metal closed flat at $8,132.4 (£5,060.84) a [...]
A Romney victory would have a big impact on UK economy October 14, 2012 IF a week is a long time in politics, then three must be an eternity. The US presidential elections, which will be held on 6 November, are now becoming truly spell-binding, with any outcome still possible after an almost unbelievably bitter campaign. Remarkably, Mitt Romney, the Republican candidate, now leads the overall vote in all [...]
Bernanke: QE3 is helping the world economy October 14, 2012 MONEY-PRINTING in the US helps the world economy and does not harm developing countries, Ben Bernanke claimed yesterday, hitting back at critics of his latest quantitative easing (QE3) package. The Federal Reserve chairman insisted that the steps he is taking should boost the US economy and so help the world economy get back on track, [...]
Goldman to swing to profit October 14, 2012 US BANKS are expected to report strong revenue figures this week, in part thanks to the boost to the mortgage market from the Federal Reserve’s latest round of money printing. Goldman Sachs will report its third quarter results tomorrow, and is expected to turn 2011’s third quarter loss of $393m (£245m) into a solid profit [...]