Move over, US: time for a new stock market leader? July 1, 2020 The US has dominated stock market returns globally ever since the Global Financial Crisis. But nothing lasts forever… Dominance in almost any walk of life goes in cycles. Just ask Manchester United fans or MySpace users… Well, the same can be said of markets. They also go through periods when certain regions (or companies) seem [...]
Competition watchdog pressures government to take on tech giants July 1, 2020 The Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) has said existing UK laws are not suitable for effective regulation, calling on the government to overhaul its structure so it can better tackle tech market dominance. The watchdog said it needs more support to govern the behaviour of “major platforms funded by digital advertising, like Google and Facebook”, [...]
Smith & Nephew spies recovery despite falling sales July 1, 2020 Medical technology firm Smith & Nephew said it expects to slowly recover from the impact of the coronavirus pandemic, as revenue fell in line with earlier expectations. Sales for the second quarter were down 29 per cent overall. However across the period, it reported underlying revenue declines of 47 per cent in April, 27 per cent [...]
The City View: Rupert Soames, CEO of Serco, says private sector has ‘proven itself’ during crisis July 1, 2020 In this episode Christian talks to Rupert Soames, CEO of the outsourcing giant Serco, about the private sector’s relationship with government. Subscribe to The City View Podcast: Apple / Google / Spotify / RSS Serco, which manages the government’s coronavirus test and trace system, has been on a dramatic turnaround in recent years, something which Soames says was made possible by a commitment to excellence [...]
Wirecard UK fallout lessens June 30, 2020 Readers will be very familiar with the €1.9bn Wirecard scandal that has rocked Germany, firmly placed a spotlight back onto the world of auditors and dangerously caused pause for thought for Fintech firms in the U.K. from a regulatory standpoint. As of this morning at 00.01 the FCA resumed Wirecard Solutions’ regulated activities which meant [...]
Netflix to spend $100m on racial equality initiatives June 30, 2020 Netflix has said it intends to set aside approximately two per cent of its cash reserves for initiatives focused on supporting Black communities in the US, following widespread racial equality protests worldwide. It will start with an initial tranche of $35m, $25m of which will go into a new fund called the Black Economic Development [...]
The City View: Campbell Macpherson on leadership in times of crisis June 30, 2020 In this episode Christian is joined by Campbell Macpherson, one of the world’s leading business change specialists, Executive Fellow of Henley Business School and author of the 2018 Business Book of the Year ‘The Change Catalyst.’ Subscribe to The City View Podcast: Apple / Google / Spotify / RSS His second book, The Power to Change, is published by Kogan Page this October. Campbell discusses the forces disrupting business [...]
India bans 59 Chinese apps including Tiktok as standoff escalates June 29, 2020 The Indian government has banned 59 Chinese apps including social media platform Tiktok amid privacy concerns, as tensions between the two countries continue to escalate. India today announced it has blacklisted the usage of certain apps, including Sherait, UC Browser, Clash of Kings, Baidu, We Chat and Xiaomi, claiming they “pose a threat to the [...]
Covid consolidation bears low-hanging fruit for traders June 29, 2020 No understatement is truer than the one about how “nothing will ever be the same again” following the coronavirus pandemic. Businesses in the hundreds of thousands will not reopen. Millions of jobs have been lost. Billions of dollars have been wiped off the valuations of household brands and City darlings. Past worries about Brexit seem [...]
Johnson is ‘asleep at the wheel’, says Labour’s Starmer June 29, 2020 Prime Minister Boris Johnson has been too slow at making decisions during the coronavirus crisis, Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer said today. “I think the Prime Minister has been asleep at the wheel, he has been slow, the comms, the communications has been terrible,” Starmer told ITV. “It began to break down frankly when Dominic [...]