An F-Shaped recovery – How Freelancers are powering Britain’s brilliant bounce-back July 7, 2020 This wasn’t just any ordinary crisis – the financial hit the UK has taken from COVID-19 has been shorter, sharper, and deeper than any we’ve seen before. According to the Resolution Foundation, the mere seven working days of lockdown in the first three months of 2020 gave the UK it’s biggest quarterly economic contraction since [...]
Bitcoin addresses surge as volatility drops to 15-month low July 7, 2020 This week the price of Bitcoin (BTC) started trading around $9,150 and quickly moved up to $9,250. The cryptocurrency’s price then plummeted again making it clear its range narrowed down from $9,000 to $10,000 to its lower end. Ether (ETH), the second-largest cryptocurrency by market capitalization, started the week trading close to $224 but over [...]
Tiktok exits Hong Kong as US ponders banning the app July 7, 2020 Tiktok is to remove its app from Hong Kong, as other technology firms say they will stop processing data requests from authorities in the city state. Tiktok, which is owned by Chinese giant Bytedance, said it had made the decision to exit the region after China approved fresh national security law for the region last [...]
Mirror publisher Reach to axe 550 jobs as advertising dries up July 7, 2020 Mirror publisher Reach today said it would axe 550 jobs as it seeks to overhaul its business as advertising revenue sank by more than a quarter over lockdown. The newspaper giant said the axed jobs, which account for around 12 per cent of its workforce, would help save £35m annually, at a one-off cost of [...]
Markets live: Nasdaq hits record intraday high as FTSE 100 rallies on recovery hopes July 6, 2020 The FTSE 100 and US stock markets rose sharply today as investors cheered the prospect of more stimulus for the UK economy and followed the lead of Asian markets. London’s index of blue-chip companies was 1.87 per cent higher this afternoon at 6,2572.5 points. The FTSE 250 index of slightly smaller firms rose 1.27 per [...]
Lessons from lockdown: Advertising’s future is distributed July 6, 2020 Sometimes an earthquake’s aftershocks are so severe, the main quake is re-designated a foreshock. From a commercial standpoint, we look ahead to lockdown’s aftershocks with apprehension, but look ahead we must. As the dust settles, business leaders are surveying a new landscape and asking, what’s changed? Speaking for my own business, the recent crisis is [...]
Russia remains dangerous, but don’t confuse it for a superpower July 6, 2020 It is one of those news stories where the incident perfectly fits the larger political risk profile. During the past week, the New York Times reported that a Russian military intelligence unit paid bounties to Taliban-linked militants in 2019 to kill American soldiers in Afghanistan. One imagines the reasoning for this was to decisively derail [...]
French PM resigns ahead of Macron reshuffle after election trouncing July 3, 2020 French prime minister Edouard Philippe has this morning resigned ahead of a government reshuffle by president Emmanuel Macron. The Elysee palace said that a new prime minister would be named within the hours. It added that Philippe would continue to manage government affairs until a new cabinet had been named. Doubts had arisen over Philippe’s [...]
The Derby: Behind closed doors but Epsom still at centre stage July 3, 2020 As the sun breaks over the Derby course this Saturday, for the 241st running of the most famous race in the world, it will be a very different scene to most years. There will be no packed infield full of double decker buses, no ferris wheel on the Hill, no HM the Queen in the [...]
The City View: Sir Martin Sorrell on why Boris is in trouble if unemployment bounces July 3, 2020 In today’s episode of The City View, advertising giant Sir Martin Sorrell talks to City A.M.’s Andy Silvester about the economic recovery, leading a company through these difficult times and the acceleration of the shift to digital. He also offers his views on the response of firms to increased awareness of racial inequality, the US [...]