Hefty £1.5bn trading error legal charge erodes Barclays profits July 28, 2022 A £1.5bn legal charge for a trading error has eroded British bank Barclays’s profits, it announced today. Hefty litigation and regulatory costs to deal with selling too many financial products dealt a major blow to Barclays’s first half earnings. Pre-tax profits dropped by a quarter to £3.7bn in the six months to June, down from [...]
London markets jump ahead of expected big US Federal Reserve rate rise July 27, 2022 London markets shrugged off bets on the US Federal Reserve hiking rate steeply later today to jump during opening exchanges. The capital’s premier FTSE 100 index added 0.43 per cent to reach 7,337.93 points, while the domestically-focused mid-cap FTSE 250 index, which is more aligned with the health of the UK economy, increased 0.07 per [...]
IMF economy warning reverses FTSE 100 gains despite Unilever’s best efforts July 26, 2022 A bleak set of projections from the International Monetary Fund (IMF) pegging UK growth as the worst in the G7 weighed on London markets today. The capital’s premier FTSE 100 index remained unchanged, while the domestically-focused mid-cap FTSE 250 index, which is more aligned with the health of the UK economy, dropped 1.18 per cent [...]
UK sinks to bottom of G7 growth league amid global economic downturn July 26, 2022 The global economy could be hurtling toward one of the sharpest slowdowns in recent memory, with the UK plummeting to the bottom of the G7 growth league, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) warned today. A full shut off of Russian gas flows to Europe and more upside inflation shocks would plunge growth into among the [...]
CBI: Consumer spending smashes expectations, but deeper dip may be on the way July 26, 2022 Consumer spending is defying expectations and holding up better than feared amid sky high inflation, a new survey published today reveals. Retail sales volumes dipped to net a balance of minus four per cent this month, slightly lower than June, according to the Confederation of British Industry (CBI). But, the marginal drop was much better [...]
Reckless greenwashing has tarnished faith in the private sector’s role in social issues July 26, 2022 AFTER the past month anyone might be forgiven for struggling to remember what last year’s biggest priorities were. While political attention has been whisked away from the stark problems we face, those problems have not helpfully agreed to go on standby. If anything, they have intensified – and nowhere is this more evident than the [...]
Inflation shock sends chill through British factories, but hiring holds up July 25, 2022 A softening in the UK economy caused by surging inflation has clamped down on UK factories, a closely watched survey published today reveals. A net balance of six per cent of British manufacturers posted new order growth over the last three months, down sharply from 25 per cent in the three months to June, according [...]
US Federal Reserve to back up monster rate hike with another 75 basis point move July 25, 2022 The US Federal Reserve will back up its monster rate rise last month with another big 75 basis point hike this week as it chases down scorching inflation across the pond. That’s according to Wall Street analysts, who think Fed chair Jerome Powell and the rest of the federal open market committee (FOMC) will need [...]
Truss and Sunak have gone astray as they fight for Thatcher’s legacy July 25, 2022 Liz Truss and Rishi Sunak will be glad the hottest day of the heatwave is over, because for the Conservative party it will be a long summer of heavy slog. As the final two candidates battle it out to claim the leadership they will criss-cross the UK for hustings in front of party members before [...]
Travel rebound buoying demand at Rolls-Royce, chief says July 24, 2022 The outgoing boss of Rolls-Royce Warren East said a rebound in air travel after covid was buoying demand at the jet-engine maker as he issued a bullish outlook for aviation in the face of a global recession.