It was a day for financial contemplation on Tuesday as the first anniversary of Lehman Brothers filing for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in the early hours of 15 September 2008 was marked, not quite by a minute’s silence but by many hours of contemplation of who the World’s financial systems almost went into meltdown.

Following the collapse of Lehman Brothers, once the fourth-largest US investment bank, the knock on effect caused meant that governments around the world had to pump trillions into their financial systems. The previously unimagined bank bail-outs, central bank actions and huge stimulus plans to save their biggest banks followed. Moves that are estimated to have cost every citizen of the developed world around $10,000 each..

On the day, Paul Myners, the minister who job it is to oversee London’s financial district, announced that he remains “very confident” that the UK’s multibillion-pound bailout of its troubled lenders will result in a profit for the country.

Last year the U.K. orchestrated a rescue package for banks including Royal Bank of Scotland Group Plc and Lloyds Banking Group Plc. In the April annual budget the government submitted to Parliament it estimated that the bailout may cost taxpayers £50 billion

When asked to give his impressions when investments in the UK banking system would result in profit for members of the U.K. public, Myners replied by assessing that it will take “much less” time than a decade, and when it came it would add up to a “a nice little nest egg for the British taxpayer.”

Speaking of nest eggs or was it Easter eggs, Cadbury’s chief executive Todd Stitzer is due to be in the hot seat today, when he faces a group of the company’s’ top level investors since Kraft’s £10.2 billion unsolicited takeover proposal was rejected by the company. Stitzer as well as Andrew Bonfield, Cadbury’s chief financial officer are expected to be asked to outline the confectionery group’s long-term growth plans. The address was scheduled before Kraft approached Cadbury late last month.

UK oil and gas explorer, BG Group have announced another oil and gas discovery in a giant field off the coast of Brazil on Monday, making it the second in less than a week.

BG said further work was needed to evaluate the results before any concrete announcement can be made.

Hopes of a swift economic rebound and warned households and businesses of a “slow and protracted” recovery, according to Mervyn King, Bank of England governor.

King’s comments led to a sharp reassessment in financial markets of the likelihood and timing of any rise in interest rates.

The pound has taken a beating in the last few days, falling against all the major currencies for the last three months.

• Pound/US dollar 1.6477
• Pound/Euro 1.122
• Pound/Japanese Yen 148.8052
• Pound/Swiss Franc 1.7034

The FTSE 100 continued its upswing rising 60.31 points to finish on 5.102.44 while the FTSE 250 rose on Tuesday by 87.24 points to 9251.84/

The US recession is probably over but the economy will remain weak for some time due to unemployment, Federal Reserve chairman Ben Bernanke has said.

But he added that the economy would still feel "very weak" to Americans concerned about job security.

A year after Lehman Brothers collapsed, a think tank has warned the lessons of the crisis have not been learned.

The Institute for Public Policy Research (IPPR) says the rapid return to the City’s bonus culture shows that real reform has been "very limited".

The warnings echoed a speech by US President Barack Obama, who warned of complacency in the banking sector.

Despite President Obama’s and Bernanke’s comments , stocks on Wall Street rose on the day’s trading. The Dow Jones rose by 56.61 points to 9683.41, while the NASDAQ rose by 10.86 points to 2102.64.

Japan Airlines (JAL) plans to cut 6,800 jobs, as an airline trade body upped its projected losses for the global industry this year.

Media reports have said several US and European airlines are in the running to take a stake in the loss-making carrier.

The airline had already launched a programme of job cuts, plans for fuel-efficiency and a focus on business customers.

Reports this week have suggested that Delta Airlines and American Airlines are in talks to invest in JAL to expand into Asia via code-sharing agreements.

financial

Related Websites

• Conversions Here are a few conversions which could be useful to...
• Weight Lost: 47 pounds in 7 weeks... Under 1 Pound Weight Loss This Week After 7 weeks on the medically assisted weightless program JumpStart...
• FedPrimeRate.com Now Recommending Small Business Credit Cards The United States Prime Rate website has issued a press...

Tags: Andrew Bonfield, Bank of England, Banking, bankruptcy, Barack Obama, Ben Bernanke, BG Group, British Economy, British Pound, Budget, Cadbury, Credit Crunch, Currency, Dow Jones, Economy, Employment, Financial News, FTSE, Gordon Brown, Institute for Public Policy Research, Investment, IPPR, JAL, Japan Airlines, Kraft, Lehman Brothers, Lloyds, Mervyn King, Money, Money Markets, NASDAQ, Paul Myners, Recession, Retail, Royal Bank of Scotland, Stitzer, Stock Markets, Stocks and shares, UK Banks, UK Economy, UK government, UK Recession, US President

The British pound continues to fall sharply against the dollar as foreign exchange traders predict that the UK economy will continue to lag behind that of the US and the 16-nation Eurozone.

UK short-term bond yields have hit all-time lows as analysts begin to predict that the Bank of England may go as far as to introduce negative interest rates on its deposits in an attempt to encourage lending to the wider economy.

On that piece of stunning news, Two-year gilt yields, which have an inverse relationship with price, fell to 0.83 per cent – the lowest level since records began. Commercial banks have begun to transfer cash deposits at the Bank of England into gilts. Mervyn King, governor of the BoE has strongly hinted that he is considering charging banks for holding deposits at the central bank because he fears the quantitative easing initiative is being undermined by commercial bank’s lake of desire to circulate money into the economy through increased lending.

According to information issued by the Office for National Statistics (ONS) one in six UK families have at least one unemployed, making for the highest rate since 1999. The number of households where at least one person is unemployed reached 3.3 million in the second quarter of 2009, a rise of almost a quarter of a million from the previous year, with the north-east of England being the hardest hit.

Lord Mandelson has once again displayed his desire to put the UK taxpayer’s money where his mouth is, by announcing that he is willing to invest heavily to ensure commit taxpayers’ money to, in exchange the long-term survival of Vauxhall, about to be sold off by General Motors, the American car group who are in liquidation.

The Business Secretary has again reiterated his pledge of financial help, around £500 million to any one of the three parties interested in buying the UK branch, and save its 5,500 jobs.

The minister is insistent that the party that receives taxpayer funds will be the one that produces a business plan protecting most of the Vauxhall workforce for the long term.

On the FTSE yesterday, it was reported that the U.K.’s mortgage lender, Lloyds Banking Group Plc may have no option but to write off £500 million on loans made to Admiral Taverns Ltd. The news did not inspire the market and their stock fell 0.1 percent, to 107.8 pence.

The FTSE 100 had a flat day’s trading, falling 26.22 points to 4,890.58, while the FTSE 250 took a sudden reverse, dropping 77.60 points to close on 8,783.21

Sterling continued to weaken on Wednesday’s trading, on reports that it was being hindered by poor financial results in the UK.

• Pound/US dollar 1.6228
• Pound/Euro 1.1391
• Pound/Japanese Yen 151.8732
• Pound/Swiss Franc 1.7324

In the US, the latest indications that the state of the world’s largest economy is growing increasingly positive came with the news that sales of durable goods and new home sales both soared last month, Durable goods orders were lifted by the popularity of the government’s "cash for clunkers" car scrappage scheme, helping US car orders to rise 0.9%, in July.

At the same time, the annual rate of sales of new US homes rose 9.6% last month, the biggest rise in sales of new houses since September last year.

On Wall Street, markets drifted from the morning’s highs during the afternoon, with the Dow Jones Industrial Average and the NASDAQ Composite index both gaining a further 0.3 per cent to 9,539.29 and 2,024.23, respectively.

The Bank of Japan announced on Wednesday that the volume of their exports rose by 2.3 per cent in July from June as stronger demand from Asia and replenishment of inventories boosted manufacturers.

The data suggest that Japan may enjoy another quarter of respectable economic growth from July to September, after last week’s report that output rose at an annualized rate of 3.7 per cent in the April-June quarter

Related Websites

• Saving Money on Gas Isn't Always Worth It There's an ARCO gas station right by my office that...
• Gold Play: Great Time To Invest As I've mentioned before I think the US is going...
• Are Hidden Fees Keeping You From Meeting Your Financial Goals? Hidden fees are nasty little critters that can eat away...

Tags: Admiral Taverns Ltd, Bank of England, Bank of Japan, Banking, British Economy, British Pound, cash for clunkers, Dow Jones, Durable goods, Economy, Financial News, FTSE, General Motors, Global Credit Crisis, Lloyds, Loans, Lord Mandelson, Mervyn King, Money, Money Markets, NASDAQ, Office for National Statistics, Recession, Sterling, Stock Markets, UK Banks, UK Economy, UK Recession, Vauxhall, Wall Street

Signs that the UKs hard hit investment banks are springing slowly back to life comes with the news that new job openings in July were at their highest for the year and the impetus is expected to continue if not increase in the autumn.

According to recent data, the number of job listings in June and July across London’s financial sector was almost double of that in December 2008 with an August looking to be even stronger.

The strong half-year results from most of the major UK banks show a dynamic upward trend, especially in investment banks, which at the peak of the financial crisis cut their staff back to the bone.

Another item of positive news from that banking sector is that the Lloyds Banking Group is to place their decision to close its 164-strong Cheltenham & Gloucester branch network on hold for the time being. Less than three months after announcing their decision, partially state owned Lloyds, are to take a second look at their decision, and while the situation is under review, the branches will remain operational after their planned closure date of November. Lloyd’s sudden change of heart is believed to be connected to its recent request for state aid approval from the European Commission.

Shares in John Menzies rose more than 24 per cent on Wednesday after demand for air travel and new contracts for newspaper delivery boosted underlying profits at their aviation services and news distribution division.

Meanwhile Menzies’ news distribution division, responsible for more than two thirds of the company’s total turnover, announced a 2 per cent reduction in sales to £573 million.

In the first half to June 30, Menzies negotiated new contracts with all the leading newspaper and magazine publishers, and is now serving an extra 3,000 retail outlets.

One of the largest and well known UK camera retailers, Jessops, who have been experiencing financial difficulties for some time now, have announced that they are close to closing a rescue deal with their bankers.

In spite of falling sales, Jessops, who operate 211 stores across the UK and Ireland, announced their intention to defer the end of their financial year to November, hopefully to allow the company sufficient time to reach an agreement with HSBC on restructuring its £60 million debt facility.

A spokesman for Jessops announced that sales had been weak for the summer months, down 4.7 per cent in the 12 weeks to August 16, on top of the expectations that the company would make a pre-tax loss before non-recurring charges for the year, following its £49.8 million pre-tax loss in the year to September 2008.

Britain’s largest bus and train operator FirstGroup, who also own and operate the Greyhound coach brand in the US, announced that the famous Greyhound buses will soon be seen on UK street, The company plans to start a bus route, running from London Victoria to Portsmouth and Southampton . .

The buses will be equipped with all the comforts that a passenger could ask for, including free Wi-Fi, power sockets for each passenger, air conditioning, complimentary newspapers and leather seats. To add a bit of character, each Greyhound bus will be named after character featured in US classic pop music, with of the names brought to mind including Peggy Sue, Billy Jean and Barbara Ann.

FirstGroup, who acquired the Laidlaw company, Greyhound’s parent company in a £1.9 billion deal in 2007, intend to provide strong opposition to their competitors through providing greater comfort and improved service at low cost. Each Greyhound coach will have a maximum of 40 seats compared with the usual 50. Customers will be able to reserve their seats over the internet.

The FTSE 100 was in good shape yesterday rising 66.91 points to close on 4,756.58. On the way back is the FTSE 250 jumping by 1.92% or 161.11 points to close on 8,531.36 at the end of the days trading.

It has been revealed that Bank of England governor Mervyn King intended to inject even more billions into the UK economy in August, but his move was vetoed by his colleagues on the monetary policy committee. The news has unnerved markets, sending the pound lower and gilt yields down. King apparently had intended to increase the central bank’s “quantitative easing” programme of injecting cash into the banking system by £75 billion to a total of £200 billion.

The pound remained fairly stable, apart from falling heavily against the Swiss Franc.

• Pound/US dollar 1.6507
• Pound/Euro 1.1582
• Pound/Japanese Yen 155.3327
• Pound/Swiss Franc 1.755

In the six months to April US banks have begun to reduce consumer access to revolving loans including credit cards and home equity lines of credit for about 20% of borrowers, according to a recent study. The study shows that banks in America are becoming increasingly aggressive in cutting their lines of credit to US consumers, with the average decrease to a consumer’s credit line averaging $5,100, more than double the $2,200 average reduction in the six months to October 2008

Seemingly unaffected was the Dow Jones Industrial Average, which continued its steady recovery, up a further 45.19 points to close on 9324.35. The NASDAQ also continued to show improvement, up 14.39 points to close on 1983.63

The sudden surge in the price of oil following data showing a huge drop in crude supplies last week was what pulled US stocks out of their early week slump

US natural gas prices sank to a seven-year low on Thursday amid concerns about a possible supply glut as winter looms in the offing.

Demand for natural gas has been weak, particularly from the industrial sector. US producers have cut the number of rigs drilling for new gas by more than half since September 2008 although stocks continue to rise due to output from existing facilities.

Related Websites

• Money Merge Account Analysis Pt 33 I've used the term Innumeracy here to describe the equivalent...
• How to End Cable Box Rental Fees Forever About a week ago, I mentioned how I was undergoing...
• Top Ten Bankruptcies Not David Letterman's Top Ten by any means but a...

Tags: Bank of England, Banking, British Economy, British Pound, Cheltenham & Gloucester, Currency, Dow Jones, Economics, Economy, European Commission, Financial News, FirstGroup, FTSE, Greyhound buses, HSBC, Investment, investment banks, Jessops, John Menzies, Lloyds, Mervyn King, Money, Money Markets, NASDAQ, Recession, Stock Markets, UK Banks, US Banks

There were some glum faces yesterday at the Office for National Statistics on the announcement that consumer price inflation remained unchanged in July at 1.8 per cent in July, after forecasts that it would drop sharply for the month to 1.5 per cent.

Hopes were that after the Bank of England had extended its quantitative easing programme by £50 billion taking it up to £175 billion, that inflation figures would react accordingly. The fact that they didn’t points to signs that the recession is deeper than analysts have been calling till now. During the last 16 months inflation has proved higher than analysts predicted on no less than 12 occasions.

The Building Societies Association (BSA), the body appointed to represent Britain’s mutually-owned lenders, has issued a complaint to Europe’s anti-trust regulator. The complaint is regarding a planned restructuring of state-owned bank Northern Rock, that the organization claims would distort competition in the mortgage market.

BSA has requested from the European Commission to ensure that Northern Rock be made to pay financial penalties if the proposed overhaul goes ahead.

The Commission is due to deliver its verdict in the autumn, with a negative verdict liable to cause a major setback in the British government’s efforts to restore Northern Rock to financial health and sell it back into private ownership

Spiralling costs seems to be hitting home everywhere, with the news that the cost of running the Houses of Parliament has reached almost half a billion pounds in 2008-9 being another example. The costs of operating the UK seat of government is proving to be an increasingly expensive pastime, with costs up

more than £12 million from 2008 arriving at close to £400 million, a sum that includes salaries, allowances and pensions for MPs and their administrative staff. One the upside, the costs of maintaining the House of Lords dropped by almost a third from £152.5 million to £106.5 million. There must be a message there, somewhere.

The news that the Royal Bank of Scotland Group PLC is close to putting its asset management business up for sale, will be good news for most, but not for those who bank at Coutts, the private bank owned by RBS, renowned as an adviser to the Queen, that will be included in the package and may well fall into foreign hands.

On the FTSE, shares in African Minerals, the iron ore mining company, managed by Regal Petroleum founder Frank Timis, rose 1.6 per cent to 312 pence on news that the company had embarked on takeover talks with Eurasian Natural Resources Corporation (ENRC).

Shares in the Sierra Leone-based group have risen 13-fold this year amid speculation of interest from several parties including ENRC.

In the retail sector Tesco’s shares were the weakest, falling 0.5 per cent to 363 pence after industry data for July showed a poorer month.

Credit checking agency Experian inched 0.4 per cent higher to 517 ½ pence after suggestions from the US Federal Reserve that lending supply was improving.

The FTSE 100 made up for most of yesterday’s reverses rising 40.77 points to close on 4685.78. The FTSE 250 recovered after a major collapse on Monday, rising 80.39 points to close on 8,354.48

According the BOE Governor Mervyn King the pound’s biggest five-month rally in 24 years may be stuttering to an end, largely due to the Bank’s flooding the U.K. economy with newly printed cash.

Sterling soared in value by 23.5 percent from March 10 to Aug. 5 on speculation U.K. assets would rise as the worst financial crisis in six decades eased. The rally appeared to be petering out and the pound has slumped 2.6 percent since Aug. 5 to last week’s $1.6543 close. However on Tuesday, the pound improved a little on figures showing inflation proving far more resistant to recession than economists had expected.

• Pound/US dollar 1.6353
• Pound/Euro 1.169
• Pound/Japanese Yen 156.3554
• Pound/Swiss Franc 1.777

In the US, news that construction starts of new homes had fallen in July, after three straight months of increases caused no little construction.

The number of new properties sold for last month fell 1% to an annual rate of 581,000.

US wholesale prices also recorded an unexpectedly large fall last month, down 0.9% from June, and by 6.8% from July 2008.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average recovered part of the previous day’s losses rising 82.6 points t to close on 9217.94. The NASDAQ moved up 25.08 points to close on 1955.92.

The ongoing weak demand for personal computers and printer ink has seen Hewlett-Packard (HP) Revenue fell by 2% to $27.5 billion, not encouraging but better than Wall Street estimates.

Like most technology firms, HP has suffered in the global downturn as consumers trim their spending.

Meanwhile that perennial optimist the International Monetary Fund (IMF) has woken up to remind us that the world has indeed begun to recover from recession, adding that the process will not be simple.

A chief economist for the IMF warned that the recession had "left deep scars, which will affect both supply and demand for many years to come"

Related Websites

• Fishing Report: June 10, 2011 Lake fishing has seen a lot of improvement this week...
• Why You're Wrong If You Think Gold at $2000/oz Is Unlikely... or Worse, Just a Bubble A gold tsunami is at our doorstep.  It's not about...
• Crime Shouldn't Pay: Tell Attorney Generals to Hold TBTF Banks Accountable Unless you're new here, you've probably figured out I'm an...

Tags: Bank of England, Banking, British Economy, British government, British Pound, BSA, Building Societies Association, Coutts, Credit Crunch, Currency, Dow Jones, Economics, Economy, Eurasian Natural Resources Corporation, European Commission, Experian, Financial News, FTSE, Global Credit Crisis, Hewlett-Packard, House of Lords, Houses of Parliament, HP, IMF, Inflation, International Monetary Fund, Mervyn King, Money, Money Markets, mortgage market, Mortgages, NASDAQ, Northern Rock, Office for National Statistics, RBS, Recession, Retail, Royal Bank of Scotland, Stock Markets, Stocks and shares, Tesco, Tesco's, UK Banks, UK Economy, UK government, UK Recession, US Federal Reserve, Wall Street

UK unemployment has risen to its highest level in 14 years despite all the indications that the recession has begun to recede

Recent reports indicate that in the second quarter through June, the number of people seeking work rose from 2.22 million to 2.44 million, an increase of 220,000 making for the highest level of unemployment since 1996. According to the Office for National Statistics, claims for jobless benefit climbed by 24,900 in July to 1.58 million.

A separate statement issued by the Bank of England predicted that unemployment will keep climbing even after the recession is recognized is over, which will hamper the pace of recovery. To soften the unemployment burden, BOE Governor Mervyn King announced that the bank will to expand its bond-buying program.

According to the International Labour Organization, overall UK unemployment rose to 7.8 percent between April and June, compared with 9.4 percent in the U.S. in July, 9.4 percent in the euro region in June and 5.4 percent in Japan.

According to the UK’s Financial Service Authority (FSA) an end to the practice of awarding non performance related bonuses appears to be in the offing at long last. From 2010, UK financial institutions will be disallowed for paying their staff guaranteed bonuses out with the current financial year. Exempt however are senior bank employees who can still have their bonuses spread over two or three years.

Lloyds TSB have announced that its Insight asset management business is to be sold off to the Bank of New York Mellon (BNY) for £235 million.

Analysts say the deal may mark the start of a phase of consolidation and disposals among mid-sized asset management groups facing increasing margin pressure.

BNY Mellon beat off several competitors in the auction for Insight, whose revenues in both 2006 and 2007 were around the £125 million. 2007.

The Lloyds group, 43.5 per cent taxpayer owned is known to be consolidating their activities, in anticipation of talks to be held with the European Commission about state aid approval. Lloyds surged 6.4 percent to 96.83 pence.

Also on the offload trail are RBS who are well into the process of selling or shutting down its businesses in two-thirds of the 54 countries where it has been operating, in the aftermath of suffering the largest trading loss incurred in British corporate history last year.

As part of their campaign, RBS have announced a £53 million deal to sell off 99.4 percent of the Banks branches in Pakistan to the privately owned Muslim Commercial Bank, the country’s biggest lender by market value. The deal is not yet official, requiring regulatory approval which, according to analysts will be a formality. Royal Bank of Scotland Group Plc, the biggest bank owned by the U.K. government, added 5.4 percent to 45.15 pence.

Independent Television Corporation (ITV) the hard pressed and profit starved UK commercial network broadcaster has received a long overdue boost in the shape of a positive recommendation of better times ahead to investors from their bankers. The news pushed their shares up towards its target price of 50 pence, for the first time in a long time.

The U.K.’s largest publicly traded residential landlord Grainger Plc were among the stars on the FTSE on Thursday as their shares shot up by 16 percent, (33.5 pence, to 243.5 ) on news that that they had succeeded in reducing their debt burden by £100 million pounds since March, through disposal of real estate.

The FTSE 100 to a new 10-month high on Thursday, making for an increase of more than a third since early March, as reports of a global economic recovery gains impetus.

The FTSE 100 continued to make up for losses earlier in the week, up 38.70 points to close on 4,755.46. Meanwhile the FTSE 250 took another giant step forward, rising 131.73 points to close on 8,483.66

Sterling has a mixed day on yesterday’s markets, ring slightly against all of the currencies, with the notable exception of the EURO.

• Pound/US dollar 1.6575
• Pound/Euro 1.1605
• Pound/Japanese Yen 158.3223
• Pound/Swiss Franc 1.7751

In the US retail sales fell in July, following two months of rises, as fears of job security appear to have put a block on consumer spending.

The figures proved to be an unpleasant surprise for analysts, who had been expecting a rise of 0.7% in overall sales last month.

On Wall Street, US stocks reached new highs for the year, with the Dow Jones index rising 36.58 points to close on 9398.19, while the NASDAQ again passed the 2,000 point mark, up 10.63 points to finish the day on 2009.35

The big news coming out of Europe was that both the French and German economies have announced an end to the year-long recessions in both of Europe’s strongest economies.

Stronger exports and consumer spending, as well as government stimulus packages, contributed to of 0.3% between April and June

However economic activity in the eurozone fell by 0.1%, a sign that the region is still in the throes of the recession.

The Volkswagen / Porsche takeover deal has finally been finalised. Volkswagen is to pay €3.3 billion for a 42% stake in Porsche’s main production division. Between the lines, the takeover was closer to a rescue for debt-laden Porsche, which will amount to a complete merger of VW and Porsche SE during 2011

Crude oil prices rose by more than $1 a barrel as commodity markets rallied after better-than expected economic data fuelled hopes that the eurozone’s recession was close to ending.

Gold rose 1 per cent to $956 a troy ounce, bolstered by dollar weakness

Related Websites

• Nurek Hydroelectric Power Plant The dam, the central feature of the Nurek Hydroelectric Power...
• ING Direct Can Now Replace Your Brick and Mortar Bank! I am having a love affair with ING Direct. I...
• Personal Finance Links (Tribute to my Grandfather-In-Law Edition) Last week, I mentioned that we had a family emergency....

Tags: Bank of England, Bank of New York, Banking, BNY Mellon, British Economy, British Pound, Crude oil, Currency, Dow Jones, Economics, Economy, Financial News, Financial Service Authority, FSA, FTSE, Gold, Grainger Plc, Independent Television Corporation, International Labour Organization, ITV, Lloyds TSB, Mervyn King, Money, Money Markets, NASDAQ, Office for National Statistics, Porsche, RBS, Recession, Royal Bank of Scotland, U.K. government, UK Banks, UK Recession, Unemployment, US retail, Volkswagen, Wall Street

House prices in the U.K. appear to have fallen in June for the first time in five months. The reason was attributed to banks scaling back their lending whilst requiring buyers to put down higher percentage deposits.

Figures now show that the average house cost slipped by 0.4 percent to 226,436 pounds from May, when it rose by 2.4 percent.

Governor of the Bank of England Mervyn King announced that whilst the housing market has shown signs of stabilizing, the squeeze on lending may slow the economy’s recovery.

According to a company spokesman, the “essential” value line at Waitrose, the first ever line to be launched by the supermarket chain, is achieving sales at levels well ahead of the group’s projections, with the initial 800 products launched now accounting for 13 per cent of sales.

It has been announced that less than ten per cent of the projects that are part of the more than six hundred billion pound worldwide private infrastructure refurbishments will be ready to commence before the end of 2010, calling into question whether spending on major public projects can provide the ready stimulus that was hoped would push the recession hit economies of the West into life.

Many large projects dependant on private financing, have dried up in recent months, particularly in the UK, where London’s Crossrail line is a particular example.

Not encouraging news especially backed up with the predictions that the U.K.’s business services sector will lose more than three hundred thousand jobs up to 2013. The sectors likely to be hardest hot are construction and real estate.

Bonuses and the Royal Bank of Scotland never seem to be far from the headlines. The bank is expected to announce this week their £9. 6 million pay package for chief executive Stephen Hester. Hester’s salary package has gained support from shareholders as part of a long-term incentive plan put up at a recent meeting chaired by Sir Philip Hampton, chairman of the RBS. As if by coincidence, Hester’s package was approved just a day after his predecessor Sir Fred Goodwin agreed to hand back a third of his self negotiated £16. 6 million pension package

Oil prices were under pressure yesterday with shares in Shell, Europe’s largest oil producer, declining by 4.7 percent to 1,516 pence. The second largest, BP, saw their shares sink 3.8 percent to 478 pence. Crude oil prices have taken a major backward step in the last few days as concern mounts that both Chinese and U.S. gasoline stockpiles are raising due to a reduction in demand during the recession.

Switzerland based Xstrata, the largest exporter of coal used by power plants, proposed a “merger of equals” with the world’s biggest platinum producer Anglo American. The merger, if successful, could trigger fresh consolidation in the mining industry. UK-based Anglo American continued to appear to be less enthousiastic about the deal, whilst warning that talks remained “at a very preliminary stage, placing pressure on Xstrata to add cash to its offer. Shares in Anglo American added 4.6 percent to 1,698 pence.

The 46 games in next season’s English Premier League up for grabs after Setanta went under, will now be broadcast by ESPN. Disney-owned ESPN has bought the rights to two packages of games shown on Saturday teatimes and Monday evenings. Both will be sold to customers through BSkyB.
ESPN will also be showing the 23 games per season that Setanta was due to broadcast from seasons 2010-13 inclusive.

With the oil majors applying overall pressure as crude futures lost the $70 mark, London’s FTSE 100 fell 111.88 points to close on 4234.05, the lowest since April 29. The gauge has still rallied 21 percent from this year’s low on March 3 and is now trading at 30.1 times its companies’ earnings, compared with 17 times profits in the week the rally began in March

The FTSE 250 also continued its downward spiral closing down 159.50 points on 7174.84

Sterling fell back against the major currencies on a difficult day for trading.

Pound/US dollar 1.627
Pound/Euro 1.1759
Pound/Japanese Yen 154.8584
Pound/Swiss Franc 1.7687

On Wall Street, share values fell dramatically with the Dow Jones down 200.72 points on 8339.01, while the NASDAQ lost the bulk of its recent gains down 61.28 points to close on 1766.19

Investigators handling the huge global swindle organised by Bernard Madoff’s have asked for more time to reach a final figure of the amount of money lost as well as the number of investors defrauded. Madoff is due to be sentenced on June 29th.

Related Websites

• Services of SEO Squads and Packages in Technology    (submitted 2011-11-02) Ongoing an enterprise is not...
• More Adventures as a Shopping Skeptic I had two interesting experiences this past week-end as a...
• Where the U.S. Gets Its Oil According to Jeff Rubin, in his book Why Your World...

Tags: Bank of England, Economy, House Prices, Interest Rates, Mervyn King, Money Markets, Mortgages, Royal Bank of Scotland, Stocks and shares

It might have happened in any case, however when the dark clouds of recession eventually dissipate over high street Britain what will remain in place there seems very hard to imagine. In the falsely inflated boom time, especially over the last five years or so, to be a major retailer with a top location was the nearest thing to having the proverbial “licence to print money”.

While internet shopping was making some major inroads, the UK public still demanded their constitutional rights to touch, feel and ponder before making a decision to purchase. However as the credit crunch began to bite, and the bite deeper, the public began to stay away and sales began to plummet. Some famous names began to disappear from the scene, either closing down voluntarily or being forced into liquidation. Probably the best know of them of all was the Woolworths chain, although there were many that said that their time had come and their form of retailing was outmoded.

However for those who want to maintain their role as major UK retailers times are tough and look like getting tougher. Figures announced at the beginning of this week show that retail sales in February fell by almost 2% percent from the previous month, almost five times more than was predicted arriving at a level as low as late 1995. According to Mervyn King, Governor of the Bank of the U.K. economy has contracted to a level unseen since the late seventies from the beginning of 2009.

The main reason for the decrease in sales was in the non-food sector which fell by 3.2 percent from the previous month, meaning that the public are just not spending money on what are now regarded as luxury items.

What may bring high street retailers further cause for concern is that sales on the internet, whilst there are no official figures available, seems to be much less effected by the downturn. It may be possible that the UK public have realised the significant cost savings available online, especially in major items such as electrical goods and furniture, and have foregone the pleasure of touching and testing and being sold to, in order to save some of their hard earned cash.

Related Websites

• 3 Proven Methods To Increase Membership Site Sales What makes membership sites unique compared to other internet marketing...
• Repairing the Tiles in Your Bathroom In this day and age, people seem to spend an...
• Save Money by Ensuring Your Vehicle is Winter Proof This article was written by Andreas Nicolaides, a personal finance...

Tags: Bank, Banking, Financial News, Governor of the Bank of the U.K, Mervyn King, negative equity, Retail, UK Banks

History is in the making as for the first time ever, the Government and Bank of England all but control the UK banking sector.

Until now, the powers that be have set the Bank of England interest rate, but banks and building societies have had the option of whether to follow or not.

Tomorrow, Bank of England governor Mervyn King has a chance to write his place in the history books by taking the interest rate to the lowest ever since the bank opened for trading 314 years ago.

The monetary committee he chairs has four options:

·     Leave the rate as it is at 3%

·     Cut the rate by less than 1%, for instance by 0.25% or 0.5%

·     Cut the rate by 1% to 2% – a rate last seen in 1951

·     Cut the rate by more than 1% to enter a historic new era. 

For the first time, the Bank of England governor knows his actions will not be undermined by speculators in the banks because the Government now calls the shots in several of the UK’s biggest banks after bailing them out with billions of pounds of taxpayer’s cash.

The odds are a 1% cut as the bank was looking to cut the rate by up to 2.5% last month according to minutes of their meeting.

This makes economic sense as inflation is falling and dropping the rate frees up cash for businesses making loan repayments and homeowners with mortgages – both moves stimulate spending that is so badly needed to shift the country out of recession.

Retailers are falling like dominoes in the high street with manufacturing and construction in dire straits.

Cutting the interest is the single act that will promote a ‘feel good’ factor in the economy and put more money in people’s pockets rather than the paltry cut in VAT.

---

For More information on specific Banks use these links

• Alliance & Leicester
• Barclays
• Capital One
• Child Trust Fund
• First Direct
• HSBC
• Post Office
• Tesco Savings

Related Websites

• Where have the Pioneers of High Interest Internet Banking Gone? As a young professional who came of age during the...
• 11 Things to Consider When Choosing an Online Bank. Do you feel like your money isn’t showing a very...
• Comparing Canada's Big 5 Banks Many people know that financials make up about 30% of...

Tags: Bank of England, Government, Inflation, Interest Rates, Mervyn King, UK interest rates