House prices edge back up but market is still in the doldrums November 1, 2012 HOUSE PRICES climbed during last month, Nationwide revealed yesterday, bouncing back after the slip in September and months of weakness in the housing market. The Nationwide house price index grew 0.6 per cent last month, after the 0.4 per cent slip into September. Earlier slips mean the index is still 0.9 per cent lower than it [...]
QE may last until jobless hits 7.25pc November 1, 2012 Boston Federal Reserve president Eric Rosengren yesterday called on the Fed to carry on purchasing assets until the unemployment rate came down to 7.25 per cent. The headline rate was 7.8 per cent in September, but weekly new unemployment insurance claims seem to be trending downwards. New claims fell 9,000 over the last full week [...]
Unemployment targeting by the Fed could see equities move upwards October 30, 2012 AS WE approach the release of the final US employment report before the presidential election, we’ll see plenty of analysis about both the recent decline in country’s unemployment rate and the health of its overall economy. Yet, if you look at more frequently-released data, like weekly unemployment insurance claims, the jobless rate has fallen by [...]
A radical proposal for privatising the UK’s road network October 29, 2012 GOVERNMENTS have used motorists as a cash cow for decades. Fuel duty and road tax raise around £35bn a year, while less than £10bn is spent on road maintenance and improvements. As motoring taxes have increased, investment in new road capacity has collapsed. Transport policy has gradually become dominated by an agenda that seeks to [...]
The impact on markets of devastating job cuts October 29, 2012 CORPORATES are wielding the axe, and blood is being spilt on both sides of the Atlantic. Bloomberg data reveals that US companies have announced 158,100 layoffs this year – up 23 per cent from 2011. But the problem isn’t isolated to the US. Ford announced 1,400 UK job cuts just last week and UBS, which employs [...]
US GDP grows by two per cent October 26, 2012 The US economy expanded by two per cent in the third quarter, the Commerce Department said today, due to a ramp-up in government spending. Federal government expenditures and gross investment increased by 9.6 per cent over the three months to September, while national defence spending jumped 13 per cent compared to the previous quarter. Consumer [...]
Positive data suggests US economy picking up faster than rest of world October 25, 2012 THE US economic recovery may now be on a firmer footing, a raft of data releases yesterday suggested, in stark contrast with more gloomy world conditions. Business activity improved in September, hitting zero on the Chicago Fed’s national activity index, up from minus 1.17, implying economic growth rates close to long-term trends. New orders of [...]
Greenback eases after Federal Reserve sticks with stimulus October 24, 2012 THE DOLLAR drifted off a two-week peak against a basket of major currencies last night after the Federal Reserve stuck to its stimulus programme known as QE3. Following a two-day meeting, the Fed repeated its vow to maintain rates near zero until mid-2015 and to support growth even as some parts of the economy looked [...]
Weak results sour views of US economy October 24, 2012 US stocks ended lower for a second day yesterday as investors soured on another round of underwhelming corporate results and the Federal Reserve said it would stick to its stimulus plan until the job market improves. The S&P 500 has lost 3.6 per cent over the past five sessions, hurt by weak earnings outlooks and [...]
US factory prospects get worse October 23, 2012 ■ Manufacturing activity in the States slowed in October, according to an influential survey from the Richmond Fed, hitting hopes that the economy is back on track to recovery. The index fell 11 points on the month to minus seven, as capacity utilisation and shipping levels slumped. Employment in the sector fell modestly again, and [...]