Direct Line shares plummet after insurer scraps 2022 dividend January 11, 2023 Shares in Direct Line plummeted today after the insurer said it expects to scrap its 2022 dividend due to facing a “challenging and volatile operating environment in the fourth quarter”. The insurance company said its board “no longer expects to declare a final dividend for 2022” due to it facing a series of challenges related [...]
Sainsbury’s: Expected profits up as food shoppers splash Christmas cash but Argos bears brunt of cost of living crisis January 11, 2023 Sainsbury’s cashed in on Christmas shopping with retail sales up more than five per cent, as the supermarket giant expects its profit to be at the “upper end” of guidance. The major retailer now expects to be making close to £700m in pre-tax profit this March, despite the cost of living crisis weighing down consumer [...]
Ocado beats Google, Microsoft and Mastercard to become one of best firms to work for in Britain January 11, 2023 Food delivery tech firm Ocado beat Google, Microsoft and Mastercard to be crowned as one of the best firms to work for in the UK. In fresh data published by Glassdoor today, Bain & Company was rated Britain’s top employer, with the tech sector dominating the list, taking 21 out of 50 spots. There were [...]
Gold rallies to eight-month highs amid hopes of lower Fed interest rate hikes January 10, 2023 Gold prices have stayed firm in today's trading - with the precious metal peaking at $1,880 per ounce this morning.
Goldman Sachs warns EU risks clean energy exodus as US lures investment January 10, 2023 Europe risks an exodus of clean energy investment to the US, unless it brings in its own inflation strategy, warns Goldman Sachs.
FTSE 100 close: New year rally loses steam on central bank rate warnings and Ocado slump January 10, 2023 London’s FTSE 100 premier index’s new year rally lost some steam today driven by investors wobbling over a string of hawkish comments from central bankers and Ocado’s shares slumping. The flagship index shed 0.39 per cent to close at 7,694.50 points, while the domestically focused mid-cap FTSE 250 index, which is more aligned with the [...]
Andrew Bailey and Jerome Powell play down central banks’ climate change role January 10, 2023 Andrew Bailey and Jerome Powell, two of globe’s top rate setters, have today said central banks should only have a limited role in tackling climate change. The chiefs of the Bank of England and US Federal Reserve, speaking at a summit hosted by the Swedish central bank, the first in the world, played down their [...]
Global economy ‘perilously close’ to recession after aggressive rate hikes to tame inflation January 10, 2023 The global economy “is perilously close to falling into recession” after central banks across the world have collectively raised interest rates aggressively to tame roaring inflation, one of the globe’s top economic institutions has warned. World GDP will expand just 1.7 per cent this year, a slump beaten only by the Covid-19 pandemic and financial [...]
UK insurance: shares in Aviva and Admiral shrug off Bank of England’s warnings of a ‘prolonged’ recession in the sector January 10, 2023 The UK’s insurance companies were told to brace themselves for a “prolonged” recession by boosting their risk management processes, the Bank of England (BoE) has said in a letter to sector CEOs. In a letter to insurance chief executives, the BoE’s insurance watchdog warned that various risks might stem from the downturn as it called [...]
Pantheon: Investment slump on Bank of England’s rate hikes will deepen UK recession January 10, 2023 The UK recession is set to be powered by businesses slashing investment due to higher interest rates squeezing their finances, City economists have warned. Finance chiefs are “despondent” amid a rapid acceleration in borrowing costs caused by the Bank of England scrambling to tame sky high inflation, Samuel Tombs, chief UK economist at Pantheon Macroeconomics, [...]