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November 20, 2008
by Elaine Frei
Europe’s equities markets declined Thursday after miners and the oil sector saw declines.
In London the FTSE 100 was down 3.26 percent to 3,874.99 while the FTSE 250 dropped 2.24 percent to 5,578.68.
The biggest losers on the 100 were insurers as Prudential (LSE: PRU; NYSE: PUK) was down 16.33 percent and Aviva (LSE: AV) turned in the worst performance of the ...
by Elaine Frei
The yen gained on the US dollar and the euro after the US Labor Department reported that 542,000 individuals filed for first-time unemployment compensation last week, the most in 16 years.
The yen also strengthened versus the Australian dollar and the South African rand on the likelihood that investors will abandon risky currency trades.
At noon in New York, the yen traded at ...
by Peter Charalambous
Last month Japanese exports experienced their biggest decline in seven years which has resulted in the second largest trade deficit in three months.
It is clear that this is a worrying situation, due to the fact that it is very rare for Japan to experience trade deficit at all, and this is further confirmation that the economy is in recession, ...
by Peter Charalambous
It is hoped that Chancellor Alistair Darling may help the nation’s small and medium-sized companies’ credit which would be the first signal that the £37bn bank bail-out has not been a success in helping the real economy.
It is both predicted and hoped that the Chancellor is going to bring in measures that will help companies to protect themselves against the loss ...
by Peter Charalambous
Many analysts have described the pre-Christmas storm around retail sales in the UK simply as a high street war, due to the increased competition and price slashing that is used to entice hard-up consumers part with their hard earned cash.
According to the Office for National Statistics, UK retail sales fell by 0.1 percent last month, which was lower than expected. ...
by Peter Charalambous
The European and Asian stock markets have been affected by the heightened fear that the long and protracted fall in the global economy will continue, which has caused the Dow Jones to fall to its lowest level in 5 years.
Shares in London have also been hit again today, due to the fact that investors have taken a hit in Japan ...
by Peter Charalambous
The Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) members currently account for over 60 percent of the world’s economic growth and the group have indicated the need for trade protection to be removed.
APEC groups, established in 1989 include: Australia, Brunei, Canada, Chile, China, China's Hong Kong, Chinese Taipei, Indonesia, Japan, Malaysia, Mexico, New Zealand, Papua New Guinea, Peru, the Philippines, ...
by Peter Charalambous
According to Finance Minister, Palaniappan Chidambaram, India’s economy is in a position to bounce back in 2009 with a predicted 9 percent growth, as measures have been taken to ensure that the factors causing the slowdown have been mitigated.
Analysts predict that interest rates will fall and that further duty cuts will be made so that consumer spending will increase domestically.
However opposition leaders ...
by Peter Charalambous
Due to the recent rate cut there have been drastic changes to the National Savings & Investments (NS&I), as the state owed bank has re-adjusted the rate on the majority of its accounts to reflect the Bank of England cut.
With the latest cut of 4.5% to 3%, the variable NS&I savings rates for Individual Savings Accounts, income bonds, ...
November 19, 2008
by Elaine Frei
Crude oil prices fluctuated between gains and declines Wednesday after the US Energy Information Administration released its weekly inventories report for the week ending 14 November.
At 1:37 p.m. in New York December contracts , which expire at the close of trade on Thursday, were down 15 cents to $54.24 per barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange.
Prices for WTI were up ...
by Peter Charalambous
The Bank of England policymakers have voted 9-0 towards cutting interest rates by a further 1.5 percent.
The Bank has calculated that interest rates can be cut to 2.5 percent and this may be needed if inflation is needed to be stopped falling below its target for 2009. However it seems as though the rate setters are currently still to decide ...
by Peter Charalambous
The fear of deflation in the British economy is now higher than ever with the theory that the UK could return to 1930’s style deflationary pressure, following last month’s indicators that reveal that many goods have fallen.
With the possibility of even more aggressive rate cuts, with analysts indicating rates could be slashed by 2 percent in the next few months, consumer price ...
by Elaine Frei
The pound gained on both the dollar and the euro Wednesday after the minutes of the most recent meeting of the Bank of England’s Monetary Policy Committee showed that Bank officials considered a rate cut bigger than the 1.5 percent cut it made on 6 November.
The pound traded at 83.65p to the euro at around 11:30 a.m. in New York while ...
by Peter Charalambous
Singapore's Finance Minister, Tharman Shanmugaratnam, said yesterday that the budget deficient is much larger than predicted for this year as the government had to spend its way out of the recession and protect itself against the global downturn.
The trade dependent island fell into recession recently and the fact that the deficit is seemingly three times bigger than the initial S$800 million ($527 million), ...
by Peter Charalambous
With headlines splashed across UK papers earlier this week that 370,000 jobs in the capital may be lost, unemployment is set to hit almost 2 million by the start of 2009, with the economy contracting by up to 2 percent.
With business conditions and the global financial crisis only getting worse in the short term, the Confederation of British ...
November 18, 2008
by Elaine Frei
Crude oil prices were lower in late trade in New York Tuesday.
December contracts for West Texas Intermediate crude were down 20 cents to $54.75 per gallon a few minutes before the close of floor trade on the New York Mercantile Exchange, while January Brent crude contracts were down 23 cents to $52.08 per barrel.
The declines came even though Organization ...
by Elaine Frei
Most of Europe’s equities markets saw gains Tuesday as crude oil prices that were slightly higher in New York trade sent some oil producers higher and on hopes that the recession will not hurt profits too much after relatively good news from some US companies.
The FTSE 100 added 1.85 percent to 4,208.55 in London, but the FTSE 250 was 0.85 percent ...
by Kay Murchie
Transport company National Express has announced today it is to axe over 300 jobs from its East Anglia franchise.
It is understood that the company is to shut its call centre in Norwich, which currently employs 73 people, as part of overall cuts in the workforce. The remaining job losses, primarily in administration staff, will be spread throughout the ...
by Kay Murchie
Wolseley, which is one of the UK’s largest suppliers to builders, has announced it is to axe 2,300 more jobs and close over 200 branches in a major cost-cutting exercise in which it expects to save £80 million a year.
The job cuts, which represent 15% of staff in the UK, are as a result of the ...
by Peter Charalambous
Swiss retail sales in September have ripped through economists’ initial expectations of 0.8 percent annual growth to post a rise of 6.4 percent, according to figures from the Swiss Statistics Office.
Within the period, the nation has experienced rising wages and almost five years of consecutive labour market growth has meant that consumers have been given the courage and security to spend.
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