FTSE 100 close: Mixed messages from China and housing rout sends London markets into the red August 21, 2023 London’s FTSE indexes fell amid a housing sell-off and a limited policy intervention from the Chinese central bank to boost its creaking economy. The FTSE 100 index slipped into the red to trade at 7,258.03 while the midcap FTSE 250 index fell 0.87 per cent to 17,938.91. Indexes in Paris and Frankfurt saw gains however. [...]
Gold prices slump ahead of Federal Reserve’s Jackson Hole symposium August 21, 2023 Gold prices have failed to revive in this morning's trading, with investors awaiting the mood music from a key central bank summit later this week.
Crest Nicholson: ‘Persistently’ high inflation leads house builder to lower forecast for the year August 21, 2023 British house building company Crest Nicholson said it expects adjusted profit before tax for the full year to be around £50m down from previous expectations of £73.7m, after a challenging period for the sector bruised business activity. The Surrey based firm said “persistently” high inflation and rising interest rates worsened during the summer of this [...]
The Notebook: Susannah Streeter on the parenthood trap, stripped-back burgers and the terrible trend of pub queues August 21, 2023 Today, it’s Susannah Streeter, head of money and markets at Hargreaves Lansdown, holding the City A.M. pen The pricey parenthood trap I congratulated my 40-something friends and new parents who took on the daunting task of moving house with their baby last week. It’s a challenge we recklessly took on ourselves, almost 17 years ago [...]
House prices: August sees biggest fall since 2018 as signs of crash mount August 21, 2023 The average price of a home fell by 1.9 per cent in August, the biggest dip for the month since 2018, following a season of surging mortgage rates which led sellers to slash the prices of their homes in order to secure a sale. During the tail end of the summer the cost of a [...]
Spike in UK car dealerships being snapped up as British firms go cheap August 20, 2023 UK car dealerships are increasingly being snapped up by overseas investors on the cheap amid a surge in dealmaking in the sector. There were around 20 overseas investments into UK dealer groups in the decade prior to 2019, while the three years post-Covid have already seen 10 transactions, with several set to be completed this [...]
Rishi Sunak says we’ll feel better off next year – but is the PM right? August 18, 2023 Rishi Sunak has pledged Brits will all feel better off next year, as he said he “passionately believes” he can bring down inflation and ease the cost of living crisis. Speaking to the Times, the prime minister vowed to be disciplined on public spending and tax rates in a bid to revive the UK’s economic [...]
Fresh train strikes and overtime ban to cause more rail havoc on 1 and 2 September August 18, 2023 Train drivers are to stage a fresh strike in the long-running dispute over pay, threatening more travel chaos for passengers. Members of Aslef will walk out on September 1 and will ban overtime on September 2, the same day as a strike by the Rail, Maritime and Transport union (RMT). Aslef said its strike will [...]
July washout drags retail sales down 1.2 per cent as supermarkets and high street hit August 18, 2023 July’s awful weather dragged down UK retail sales by 1.2 per cent, as supermarkets suffered the most from the washout with Brits not splashing cash on food and clothes. The latest figures from the Office for National Statistics (ONS) show retail sales volumes in July went down following a small rise of 0.6 in June, [...]
The Conservatives can’t keep protecting the pensions triple lock at all costs August 18, 2023 For years, the Conservatives have refused to budge on the pensions triple lock, even as the cost of it threatens to blow out to £147bn, writes Adam Hawksbee.