The Long View: The key to effective action? Don’t view the world in those nifty shades of grey September 12, 2013 SHADES of grey are fashionable – and not just because of those kinky books. If there’s one ideal that the modern intellectual class likes to celebrate, to praise in students and respect in authority, it is a fine, discriminating eye for picking out the full spectrum of grey on any issue. Monochrome thought is for [...]
Letters to the editor for 13 September 2013 September 12, 2013 Financial taxes [Re: The unlawful EU financial transaction tax should rightfully be abandoned, yesterday] I oppose the EU’s Financial Transactions Tax (FTT), but why are we ignoring the fact that we already have a domestic 0.5 per cent levy on share trading in the UK? Stamp duty is five times the rate of the FTT’s [...]
Verizon borrows $49,000,000,000 in just one day September 11, 2013 TELECOMS giant Verizon borrowed a record $49bn (£31bn) from the bond markets yesterday – an astonishing sum that is larger than the economies of more than 90 countries. The debt deal, which was so large that it took even Wall Street by surprise, will be used to finance the company’s $130bn purchase of Vodafone’s [...]
Apple share price crushed by hat-trick of downgrades September 11, 2013 APPLE shares slumped yesterday after investors raised concerns that a new cut-price iPhone model is not cheap enough to boost the company’s market share in developing economies. Analysts at Piper Jaffray, UBS and Credit Suisse all reduced their outlook for the company’s stock following Tuesday’s long-awaited announcement of the iPhone 5C, a cheaper version of [...]
What the other papers say this morning – 12 September 2013 September 11, 2013 FINANCIAL TIMES Libor control to remain in London Brussels has ditched its plan to put the scandal-mired Libor lending rate under the direct control of a European supervisor in Paris, in a concession that removes a serious political nuisance for Britain. Early drafts of the European Commission regulation, which is to be unveiled next week, [...]
Arm boosted by Apple’s latest iPhone line up September 11, 2013 SHARES in semiconductor manufacturer Arm Holdings jumped four per cent yesterday, spurred by excitement surrounding Apple’s new smartphone lineup announced on Tuesday. Arm’s processors will be used in the new iPhone 5s that uses high end chips to power a phone with more than double the speed of the previous generation iPhone. Mike van Dulken, [...]
Sales force cut at struggling BlackBerry September 11, 2013 STRUGGLING smartphone maker BlackBerry has cut dozens of sales staff from its US office in a sign of further decline in the company. BlackBerry has struggled in recent years to compete with rival smartphones from Apple and Google. On Monday it was reported that Fairfax Financial, BlackBerry’s largest shareholder, had approached several Canadian investment funds [...]
London Report: Arm’s advance helps to steady FTSE 100 index September 11, 2013 BRITAIN’S blue-chip equity index ended flat yesterday as chip-maker Arm Holdings, boosted by the launch of Apple’s latest iPhone, helped offset profit-taking on DIY retailer Kingfisher after its results. Shares in Arm rose 4.8 per cent in volume one-and-a-half times its 90-day average a day after partner Apple unveiled a new smartphone using the Cambridge-based [...]
New York Report: Wall St rises as Obama helps calm Syria fears September 11, 2013 US stocks closed higher yesterday, with the S&P 500 up for a seventh straight day, as geopolitical fears eased amid diplomatic efforts to allow Syria to surrender its chemical weapons, averting a US military strike. The Nasdaq composite index ended slightly lower on a sell-off of Apple shares. Market nervousness abated as US President Barack [...]
The 5S: Apple goes for gold September 11, 2013 New features of the tech giant’s latest smartphone, reviewed by Melissa York APPLE unleashed its newest smartphone at an international launch in Berlin this week to an audience eager to hear about the latest innovations from the world’s most secretive technology company. Here, we unravel the hype and review the main new features of the [...]