US stocks drop on anticipated poor earnings January 7, 2013 US stocks lost ground yesterday, as investors drew back from recent gains that lifted the S&P 500 to a five-year high, in anticipation of sluggish growth in corporate profits. Shares of financial companies dipped after a group of major US banks agreed to pay a total of $8.5bn (£5.3bn) to end a government inquiry into [...]
We need an export-led revolution to save the UK economy January 3, 2013 HAPPY New Year, dear readers. Let me begin my first column of 2013 with a plea to economists, policy-makers, commentators, politicians, financiers, business folk and everyone else who wants more growth and jobs. Please, please, spend less of your time obsessing about fresh ways to subsidise mortgages, pump prime the economy with more quantitative easing [...]
What the other papers say this morning January 2, 2013 FINANCIAL TIMES BofA raises lending after years of cuts Bank of America is ramping up mortgage and corporate lending after two years of focusing on capital levels and cost-cutting. Chief executive Brian Moynihan said the company should overtake JPMorgan Chase in direct-to-consumer mortgage lending in the next six months and he had directed bankers to [...]
London house prices up £28k through 2012 December 20, 2012 HOUSE prices across the UK crept up through 2012, according to data out yesterday from property website Zoopla, with London leaping further ahead. Mortgage lending increased again in November, the Council of Mortgage Lenders (CML) revealed, with the first signs that the Funding for Lending Scheme (FLS) may be having an effect. Home purchase loans [...]
Rate-riggers to face trial in USA December 19, 2012 SWISS bank UBS was yesterday hit with almost £1bn of fines for Libor fixing around the globe – a fine three times larger than the penalty paid by British bank Barclays in June. And the US authorities announced two former traders, including one Briton, have been charged with conspiracy and face extradition. Dozens of traders [...]
Lending plan mainly boosts house market December 19, 2012 THE GOVERNMENT’S flagship lending scheme is boosting the mortgage market more than it is improving the supply of credit to small businesses, a Bank of England report said yesterday. The Funding for Lending Scheme (FLS) was introduced by the Bank and the government this year, with the intention of loosening credit and aiding economic growth. [...]
House prices up on high volume of transactions December 13, 2012 HOUSE PRICES managed to creep up in November, after the month saw uncharacteristically high activity. Prices were up 0.2 per cent on the month, according to data from LSL Property Services and Acadametrics, on the back of a five per cent rise in the number of transactions compared to last November. This put prices up 3.3 per [...]
Fed targets jobs as it doubles QE December 12, 2012 THE US Federal Reserve sailed further into uncharted waters last night, announcing an extra $45bn (£27.9bn) a month of monetary stimulus and an unprecedented plan to keep its ultra-loose policies running until it hits a new employment target. Chairman Ben Bernanke has driven the Fed through an exceptional period of cash creation and quantitative easing [...]
Mortgage loans jump back after September dip December 12, 2012 MORTGAGE lending bounced back strongly in October, according to industry figures released yesterday, yet analysts remain unconvinced that the government’s Funding for Lending Scheme (FLS) is delivering a sea change in the housing market. The total number of loans for house purchase climbed 13.8 per cent to 49,500, data from the Council of Mortgage Lenders [...]
Decline in homeownership is the result of bonkers red tape December 12, 2012 AS ever, the census is chock-a-block with fascinating statistics, including about the major demographic shifts that this country is undergoing. London has become a European version of New York, a cosmopolitan, global melting pot. It also reveals a number of worrying trends. Just 64 per cent (14.9m) of households owned their own home in 2011, [...]