London Report: Bank falls stop FTSE’s nine-day winning streak October 23, 2013 THE UK’S benchmark equity index fell yesterday to end a nine-session winning streak, as a drop in heavyweight banking shares dragged the stock market down from five-month highs. Nevertheless, several traders felt any pullback would be relatively short-lived and saw the UK stock market rallying into the end of 2013. The benchmark FTSE 100 index [...]
The UK economic growth surge exposes the real evidence on bank lending October 23, 2013 WHEN Charlie Bean, deputy governor at the Bank of England, gave his speech this week on the UK’s economic outlook, he admitted that the Old Lady was surprised with what was happening. The Bank’s analysis showed that the “recent run of UK data has been unusually strong relative to market expectations”. There are “at last [...]
Regulator chief Martin Wheatley says that reform means challenges will give way to fairness October 23, 2013 Chief executive of the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) Martin Wheatley will speak tonight about lessons learnt and challenges ahead for the financial world, highlighting the importance of fairness and cultural reform in preventing future crises. The regulator will say that there is no room for complacency, despite an improving situation: “poor conduct is still a [...]
UK banks benefit from housing upturn as corporate lending remains weak October 23, 2013 Citi Research has released a report concluding that there is an increasing upside to UK banks. Analysts cite several positive indicators leading to a positive assessment of the sector. There was a significant increase in mortgage volumes in July and August, with gross mortgage lending for the eight months to August 2013 amounting to £99bn, [...]
Bank’s Bean says UK some way off a housing boom October 22, 2013 Charlie Bean, deputy governor for Monetary Policy at the Bank of England, has said that he thinks we are "still some way off seeing an unsustainable house-price boom" despite "increasingly noisy commentary" to that effect. The third override condition, delegated to the Bank’s Financial Policy Committee, relates to whether the monetary policy stance is resulting [...]
Fed’s Evans says decision on taper will be tough at December meeting October 21, 2013 IT WILL be “tough” for the Federal Reserve to have sufficient confidence in the strength of the US recovery by its meeting in December to start scaling back its massive bond-buying campaign, one of its senior officials said yesterday. “October is a tough one. December? I think we need a couple of good labour reports and [...]
US existing home sales dip in September October 21, 2013 The number of completed transactions on home sales in the US has fallen 1.9 per cent, with existing home sales index coming in at 5.29m, with prices rising at their slowest pace for five months. The reading follows expectations of 5.30m (revised from 5.37m) and after August's near four-year high of 5.39m (revised from 5.48m). [...]
Banks lent less to businesses in three months to August October 18, 2013 (Bank of England) The Bank of England's latest Trends in Lending survey shows that, whilst bank lending to businesses in the three months to August fell, mortgage approvals for households rose markedly. So did lending to individuals. (Release) Net lending to businesses of all sizes fell by £2.3bn over the period. Net lending to businesses [...]
Tills ring out as retailers record best quarter in over five years October 17, 2013 RETAILERS saw a bumper quarter between July and September, as official statistics yesterday confirmed the best sales of any three-month period since 2008. The quantity of sales in the sector rose by 1.5 per cent in comparison to the second quarter of the year, marking the second-best performance in nine years. The quantity of sales [...]
What you need to know before the open – 16/10 October 16, 2013 US uncertainty still dominates – Asian markets remain cautious as the dollar pared gains yesterday, following a series of meeting that failed to see an agreement reached. The FTSE is expected to have a weak start as European markets are set to open flat this morning – although equities are expected to climb today on [...]