Why UK recovery could rescue the great British banking sector sell-off September 2, 2013 ROLL up, roll up. Britain’s banks are up for sale. This month and next, the Lloyds privatisation will compete for attention with Barclays’s £5.8bn rights issue. Then there’s the initial public offering triplets: Williams & Glyn, Virgin Money and TSB – all set to hit the market with aplomb. And that’s before RBS has turned [...]
Demand for houses rises as Help to Buy takes flak September 1, 2013 DEMAND for housing continued to rise through August, as warnings over the sustainability of chancellor George Osborne’s Help to Buy scheme continued to roll in. According to Hometrack data out today, demand continued to rise last month, with 1.1 per cent more buyers registering with agents, and a 0.4 per cent hike in prices from [...]
Experts worry funding is not raising lending September 1, 2013 BANK lending to businesses and households edged up in July, raising hopes that the flow of credit is at last improving on the back of initiatives like the Funding for Lending Scheme (FLS). However, analysts have warned that the FLS’s impact is negligible so far. “The scheme has succeeded only in ensuring credit flows tread [...]
Wall St The Week Ahead: US awaits wave of new statistics September 1, 2013 WALL Street is braced for a wave of economic reports this week, including the August jobs report, which might prove decisive in finding whether the economy is strong enough for the Federal Reserve to dial back its bond purchases in mid-September. However, The US market is closed today for Labor Day. Anxiety about the Fed [...]
House prices continue to rise on Help to Buy scheme August 30, 2013 House prices are up again in August, by 0.6 per cent. That's in line with analyst predictions, and slightly lower than last month's 0.9 per cent growth (release). Nationwide's figures are provided on a seasonally adjusted basis, while nominal average house prices have actually dropped slightly, down from £170,825 to £170,514. £311 isn't a discount [...]
Carney tears up King’s rulebook August 28, 2013 BANK lending is in line for a £90bn boost after Mark Carney yesterday agreed to let the safest institutions divert resources away from regulatory liquidity buffers and into business and household credit. It comes after business secretary Vince Cable called the Bank of England the “capital Taliban,” claiming regulators’ tough capital requirements were hitting [...]
Governor stands firm on plan for UK interest rates August 28, 2013 INTEREST rates could stay at rock bottom even after unemployment falls below seven per cent, Bank of England governor Mark Carney said yesterday. In a bid to convince sceptical markets he really is serious about keeping rates down for the next three years, Carney said he would look for a wide range of evidence that [...]
US pending home sales suffer biggest monthly fall this year August 28, 2013 US pending home sales fell by more than expected in July, according to data from the National Association of Realtors (NAR). The pending home sales index fell by 1.3 per cent from the month before to 109.5 – the biggest fall this year. This follows a 0.4 per cent drop in the month to June. [...]
US mortgage applications continue to fall August 28, 2013 Mortgage applications in the US fell by 2.5 per cent last week from the week before, according to survey data from the Mortgage Bankers Association (MBA). This follows a 4.6 per cent fall the week before. The average contract interest rate for 30-year fixed-rate mortgages increased by 12 basis points to 4.8 per cent in [...]
London Week Ahead: Mark versus market in first public speech August 26, 2013 BANK of England governor Mark Carney’s keynote lunch speech to business leaders in Nottingham tomorrow has already been dubbed “Mark versus Market” – with market watchers dubious about Carney’s claims for long-term low interest rates. Rob Wood, economist at Berenberg Bank, said: “Growing momentum in the economy, rapidly rising house prices, and wide disagreements on [...]