Pain must always come before gain January 27, 2011 CREDIT rating agencies have come in for a lot of flak, not least in this newspaper, but yesterday they proved that they can still tell the Emperor it has no clothes. The downgrade of Japan’s credit came as a stark reminder that government debt will be the new sub-prime. It certainly ought to serve as [...]
Profits surge at Starbucks January 26, 2011 COFFEE giant Starbucks posted a 35 per cent rise in operating income yesterday, which nevertheless fell short of analyst forecasts for the full-year as the rising cost of coffee continued to dent margins. The world’s largest coffee chain has seen wholesale coffee prices increase by nearly three-quarters since last summer – due to poor weather, [...]
S&P hits highest level for 29 months January 26, 2011 THE S&P 500 closed at a 29-month high yesterday led by gains in tech and commodity shares, as investors largely ignored the US Federal Reserve’s lukewarm economic assessment. The stock market had little reaction to the Fed, which said high unemployment still justifies a $600bn bond-buying programme that has helped equities rally in the last [...]
What the other papers say this morning January 25, 2011 FINANCIAL TIMES RUSSIANS PREPARE FOR LISTING SPREE IN LONDON Four industrial and mining companies from Russia are set to list in London within the next few weeks, the first in a string of companies from the country rushing to raise an estimated $15bn-$20bn (£9.5bn-£12.7bn) this year. The companies are taking advantage of a narrow window [...]
Vickers rules out break-up January 23, 2011 SIR John Vickers, chair of the Independent Commission on Banking (ICB), ruled out breaking up the financial industry into “narrow banks” on Saturday in his first official speech since the commission was convened. But Vickers’ speech, which gave a glimpse of the ICB’s thinking three months before its preliminary report is due out, did discuss [...]
Stanchart leans towards Shanghai as its adds Asia staff January 21, 2011 Emerging markets bank Standard Chartered has said it will continue hiring aggressively in Asia as it believes growth in the region will outpace that of the rest of the world. Chief executive Peter Sands said that Stanchart’s hiring spree would include recruiting another 2,000 people in Singapore by the end of next year to take [...]
BofA posts $1.2bn loss but Merrill performs January 21, 2011 Bank of America, the largest US bank by assets, reported a second straight quarterly loss, driven by a $2bn (£1.25bn) writedown of its mortgage business. The bank posted a fourth-quarter net loss of $1.2bn, or 16 cents a share, compared with a loss of $5.2bn, or 60 cents a share, a year earlier. But shrugging [...]
Balls is back January 20, 2011 ED Balls was last night installed as Labour shadow chancellor in a dramatic move following Alan Johnson’s resignation from the post after less than four months. Johnson said he was leaving “for personal reasons” as Balls, the architect of Gordon Brown’s economic policy and a former treasury minister, returned to a role shaping the party’s [...]
What the other papers say this morning January 20, 2011 FINANCIAL TIMES GE EXPECTS DOUBLE-DIGIT GROWTH IN CHINA General Electric expects “solid double-digit” sales growth in China this year and “for a long period of time”, although revenues there have fallen short of expectations, chief executive Jeff Immelt has said. Mr Immelt said he was “quite happy” with the progress of GE’s business in China. [...]
CITY GIVES CASH TO BRIDES WHO ARE HONEST January 17, 2011 The City of London Corporation will today honour a little-known City tradition by handing out cash to brides who can prove they are “honest”. The somewhat politically dubious accolade dates back to 1882 when Italian-born nobleman Pasquale Favale fell in love with and married a City girl. He was so taken with the Square Mile [...]