Elon Musk’s SpaceX wins Nasa commercial flight contract September 17, 2014 It’s a good day for PayPal founder Elon Musk; his SpaceX corporation has been selected by Nasa as one of the two firms to design crew capsules for transporting astronauts to the International Space Station (ISS). The Commercial Crew Development programme has awarded SpaceX and Boeing a combined sum of $6.2bn to develop the capsules. [...]
Thomas Cook’s bookings take a hit in Germany September 16, 2014 SHARES in Thomas Cook fell six per cent yesterday as the travel operator warned of a slowdown in late summer bookings by German holiday-makers. The 173-year-old group said bookings in Germany, which accounted for a third of group sales, had slowed from late July and hurt margins in the fourth quarter as consumers worried about [...]
Ukraine’s war hurts Germany September 16, 2014 GERMAN investors are increasingly nervous about the damage to its economy from Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, the influential Zew index showed yesterday. The index dropped for the ninth consecutive month, falling to a two-year low of 6.9. Any reading of below 24.6 indicates confidence is lower than its long-term average.
Petropavlovsk share price tanks 15 per cent on rights issue to pay bonds September 16, 2014 Shares in Russia-focused gold mining company Petropavlovsk plummeted 15 per cent yesterday on news the indebted miner was seeking a rights issue to placate its senior lender banks and bond holders. A decline in the price of gold in recent years has hit the London-listed miner, which had net debt of $924m (£568m) as of [...]
Hamilton-Rosberg war expected to intensify September 16, 2014 MERCEDES team boss Toto Wolff expects the relationship between warring team-mates Lewis Hamilton and Nico Rosberg to become even more fractious as the Formula One season nears its finale. The top two in the World Championship standings renew hostilities in this week’s Singapore Grand Prix with Rosberg leading Hamilton by 22 points with six races [...]
Mail.ru share price up as Arsenal shareholder Alisher Usmanov takes full stake in “Russian Facebook” VKontakte for $1.47 billion September 16, 2014 Moscow-based internet company Mail.ru has bought a remaining 48 per cent stake in the social network VKontakte, Russia's answer to Facebook, for $1.47bn (£909m) taking full ownership of the business. Mail.ru said in addition to the sale, all legal action among itself, United Capital Partners which sold the stake and VK founder Pavel Durov had [...]
Sluggish Eurozone recovery hit by falling exports September 15, 2014 Worries about the Eurozone’s stuttering recovery worsened yesterday as new data showed weakening exports. A 0.2 per cent fall in goods export values and 0.9 per cent rise in import values from June to July narrowed the bloc’s trade surplus from €2.8bn (£2.2bn) to €1.7bn. Only economic powerhouse Germany showed signs of a widening trade [...]
Oil prices hit new 26 month low on China concerns September 15, 2014 The price of a barrel of oil slipped to a 26-month low during trading yesterday, hit by signs of a slowdown in China and despite the impact of new sanctions on Russia. Brent crude, the global oil benchmark, saw its price fall as low as $96.21 a barrel in trading on the Ice futures exchange, [...]
London Report: Energy firms drag down FTSE on China and Russia concerns September 15, 2014 ENERGY shares capped the FTSE 100 yesterday, hit by the combination of slowing economic growth in China, the world’s top energy consumer, and new sanctions against Russia. They offset a boost from mergers and acquisitions speculation in the beverages sector, which saw shares in SABMiller up 9.8 per cent on the back of a report [...]
This is how Apple kept the name of Apple Watch a secret September 15, 2014 How sure were we that the Apple Watch was going to be called the iWatch? Everyone was fairly confident Apple would go by previous form with its “i” nomenclature. Everyone was wrong. So just how did Apple keep the real name of its first smartwatch quiet for so long? The iWatch name first made an [...]