As the UK’s emergence from the recession gains slow but steady momentum recent predictions from the Bank of England show that the number of jobs available on the market are unlikely to deteriorate any further, Reasons given are that most UK companies are doing the maximum to maintain current staff levels to cope with the anticipated upturn in demand.

According to spokesman for the BOE, the banks findings were that although employment had fallen during the recession, it was much less than the comparative fall in output. Figure confirm that although unemployment had risen in the last two years, it was much less pronounced than during the previous two periods of recession in the 1980s and 1990s, although the current recession was much more severe. Despite that slightly rosy report, the fact remains that unemployment benefit claims jumped in January to the highest level since Labour rose to power almost 13 years ago.

According to a European Commission (EC) report due to be published later this week, the UK government’s plans to reduce their budget deficit are far from being realistic as well as lacking in ambition

The EC report went on to warns hand out a warning that if the UK continues on their current path, the will not be able to cut their deficit to meet the deadline set by the EU rules by 2015. The EU are insisting that

Deficits in their member countries must be less than three percent of their gross domestic production (GDP) by then. To show how far the UK is lagging behind is that the GDP in the UK is expected to be as high as 12.6% or £178 billion.

British Airways, facing imminent strike action from their cabin crew, have revealed their contingency plans to cope with the crisis. The plans, if they need arises to put them into action, will allow it to the airline to handle around 60% of its scheduled flights, with 45,000 passengers taking their seats during the first stage of the strike, due to begin on the 20th of March, .

Those who BA will be unable to transport will be given the option of flying with other airlines. Meanwhile plans for the second round of strikes will be announced nearer the date. Of the almost two thousand flights scheduled during the strike dates, more than half will need to be cancelled. However BA expects that all of their long-haul flights and more than half of short-haul flights taking off from Gatwick airport will take place.

Another sign that all is not well with the UK travel industry is the news that UK’s airports handled 7.4% fewer passengers in 2009 than in the previous year, making for the largest decline in traffic in history

The Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) also announced that this was the first time that passenger traffic had fallen for two consecutive years, with charter flights being especially hit, down by 17%, in total more than two hundred million passengers passed through UK airports in 2009, the lowest number

since 2004. Overall scheduled airline traffic fell by six percent while.

domestic flight traffic was down by eight percent.

Telecommunications companies are getting hot under the collar about the government’s plans to increase the availability of internet access on mobile phones, with some of them going as far as threatening legal action. Among the companies who are investigating legal action are O2 and Vodafone upset, after UK government ministers finally submitted their proposals designed to end the long-standing dispute between mobile phone operators over radio spectrum. Hopes are that the law will be passed by the government before the end of March and they will give the green light to plans to hold a large air wave auction in early 2011. However UK telecommunications companies with O2 and Vodafone leading the way hope that they will be delay the auction.

On the money markets, Sterling continues to be in the doldrums, sitting on $1.5228 and €1.1046 with no signs or reasons for a recovery in sight. The pound ended two days of minimal gains against the dollar after a private report showed U.K. home sellers raised asking prices by the smallest amount for March on record as the supply of available properties increased.

On the FTSE, things were looking a lot more optimistic, with the 100 index rising 26 points to 5620.43.

In the US, the big news was that industrial production has again increased in February, making it for the eighth consecutive, despite analysts’ predictions that it was likely to fall. According to the Federal Reserve who produces the figure, production would have been even higher had it not been affected by severe winter storms that had plagued the industrialized zones in the North East of the Country in February

Overall industrial output rose by 0.1% in February, from January’s figures while the manufacturing sector dropped by 0.2%. Production in consumer goods fell by 0.4% in February, much of it because of a drop in new car sales.

On Wall Street optimism was in the air, with the Dow Jones rising again, this time by 43.83 points to close on 10658.98. The NASDAQ showed a very commendable rise or 15 points to 2378.01.

The US Federal Reserve has again repeated their pledge to hold interest rates at record lows in order to allow the continuation of the economic recovery. Main interest rate would be kept at the current 0% to 0.25% range, news that was widely expected.

The Feds rate-setting committee announced that the data being gatherer on the US economy described a mixed picture of the recovery from recession.

The troubled Euro succeeded in reaching a five-week high against the yen in money markets over the last two days. The rise was caused by increased speculation that the European Union will announce their bail out plans for Greece. When the plans are eventually released, anticipations are that there will be an increase in demand for the Eurozone currency.

On concerns that the Bank of Japan will announce extra credit-easing steps at its two-day policy meeting, the yen was close to a three-week low versus the dollar. Japanese Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama had sown some seeds of doubt regarding the strength of the currency when he announced last week that his government needed to take steps to arrest the currency’s rise.

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Tags: BA, Bank, Bank of England, Bank of Japan, Banking, BOE, British airways, British Economy, British Pound, Civil Aviation Authority, Credit Crunch, Currency, Dow Jones, Economics, Economy, Employment, European Commission, Financial News, FTSE, Gatwick, GDP, Global Credit Crisis, Money, Money Management, NASDAQ, O2, Recession, Stocks and shares, UK Banks, UK Economy, UK government, UK Recession, UK travel, US economy, US Federal Reserve, Vodafone, Wall Street, Yukio Hatoyama

According to a leading economist the UK should be classed with Greece and Spain, as countries carrying severe debt problems Not in agreement and understandably so are the UK Treasury sources who rebuked the suggestions that the UK was gradually becoming one of the poor relations of Europe by confirming that all of the three major credit-rating agencies had reaffirmed the UK’s triple A credit status.

Meanwhile Chancellor of the Exchequer Alistair Darling is the man faced with balancing the demands of investors and rating companies who fear that Britain’s top-level credit rating could be at risk, with the hopes of the UK public as well as some of his colleagues for an easing of taxation in the coming budget. Darling has already put the dampers on a lot of people’s hopes that this year’s budget will not be too populist, in a move to win votes for the general election that is due to follow a few months later

“People in the U.K. will want the budget to be realistic,” Darling was quoted as saying. “No one is looking for giveaways; that’s not the mood.” He summed up. Darling said voters realize the need to reduce Britain’s record budget deficit having already vowed to more than halve the £176 billion-pound deficit by 2014 starting next year.

Britain’s budget shortfall, which the Treasury estimates at about 12 percent of gross domestic product this year, is the biggest among the Group of 20 nations.

Dividends paid out shareholders by UK companies were honed back by to the tune of £10 billion in 2009, according to recent research.

Total dividends paid out by British listed companies amounted to £56.9 billion last year, down 15 per cent on 2008. The figures would have been considerably worse for investors if it not had been for the contribution of just five leading UK companies, with almost fifty percent of all dividends paid out coming from them. The e British business heroes were by BP, Shell, HSBC, Vodafone and GlaxoSmithKline. A sign of the shifting sands in the UK trading picture is that as recently as 2007, these companies accounted for 35 percent of the total dividend payout.

All the UK banks combined cut their dividends by half, adding up to around £6 billion less in dividends than in 2008. Performing particularly poorly was the high-street sector whose dividend payouts fell by 62 per cent.

At the recent meeting of the Group of Seven finance ministers’ tacit agreement was reached to draw up as set of common rules designed to force banks to pay for possible failures similar to the current one, which led to taxpayers being forced to take on trillions of dollars in liabilities.

The ministers said the world’s most advanced economies should adopt common rules as long as other major countries also agree. Apparently the G-7 is moving closer to an agreement on a bank insurance levy, one of a range of options proposed by the U.K. in November.

Already Sweden has taken the first step forward by creating a fund financed by their banks to help safeguard its financial system. In terms of the agreement, Swedish banks are required to make annual payments to the fund. The Swedish government injected 15 billion kronor (£1.2 billion) into the fund when it was set up, as well adding funds that had previously held in Sweden’s deposit guarantee fund.

According to government estimates, interest from the funds deposited by banks and on the money in the fund means it will swell to 150 billion kronor, or 2.5 percent of Sweden’s gross domestic product, by 2023.

U.K. stocks rose for first time in four days, led by a rebound in mining companies. The FTSE 100 Index increased 50.2 points to 5,111.84 at close of business in London.

The pound dropped to its lowest level in more than eight months against the dollar as growing concerns over the UK’s fiscal situation began to weigh on the currency. Sterling closed at 1.5701 and at 1.1388 against the Euro. The Euro has lost a lot of its attractions recently and was down to an eight-month low of 1.3583 against the dollar.

On Wall Street things were looking up. The Dow Jones Industrial Average finished up 74 points at 10058.64. The NASDAQ gained 15 points to close on 2,150.87.

Honda has added close to half a million cars to its existing global safety recall list. The problem this time is over airbag inflation problems mostly affecting cars sold in North America, with others Japan, Mexico, Taiwan and Australia due for recall. There was also further bad news for e Japanese carmakers Toyota after they were forced to recalled nearly half a million hybrid cars over faulty brakes, and millions of other models will need to be brought back to dealerships worldwide, suffering from accelerator and floor mat problems.

General Motors’ (GM) Opel unit has announced their plans to will invest 11 billion Euros (£9.7 billion) in introducing new product ranges over the next five years. Opel’s investment plan to breaking even within two years, a move that will entail cutting 8,300 jobs across Europe as well as the closure of at least one company plant in Antwerp, Belgium. Opel are trying to persuade

European governments to provide them with billions of Euros in loans to help the company’s plan to return to profitability.

India has announced that its economy is looking at growth levels by 7.2% in the year to the end of March. Government stimulus measures helped to maintain strong growth during the global downturn, but attention is now turning towards cooling rising prices, raising the chance that state support could soon be withdrawn. Many financial analysts also expect the government to raise interest rates earlier than expected. Strong growth in manufacturing in India is helping to compensate for falling agricultural output.

Oil prices rose and base metals moved higher as commodity markets managed a partial recovery after a sharp sell-off in the previous week US crude oil prices traded above the $71 a barrel.

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Tags: Alistair Darling, Bank, Banking, BP, British Economy, Credit Crunch, Currency, Dow Jones, Economics, Economy, Financial News, FTSE, G-7, General Motors, GlaxoSmithKline, Honda, HSBC, Money, Money Markets, NASDAQ, Recession, Retail, Shell, Stock Markets, Toyota, UK Banks, UK Economy, UK government, UK Recession, UK treasury, Vodafone, Wall Street

As was generally expected, the Bank of England (BOE) monetary policy committee has announced that they will not be extending their quantitative easing programme, under which it has purchased just over £200 billion, mostly in government gilts. The decision came after that the UK economy posted slight growth for the fourth quarter of last year However the BOE did retain their right to resume purchases should circumstances warrant it. At the same meeting, BOE officials voted to continue holding interest rates at their current record lows.

The Institute for Fiscal Studies (IFS) has issued a statement expressing their conviction that government’s plans to cut Britain’s yawning budget deficit after that do not go far enough. Instead the IFS called for "more ambitious plans", suggesting that no less than £13 billion of extra cuts or tax hikes will need to be implemented by 2015 to stabilise the country’s finances. The IFS also called for an independent body to oversee official forecasts for the public finances

In addition, the IFS’s statement pointed out that the UK Government needed to aim for a tightening of around 5 per cent of national income, amounting to a ballpark figure of £70 billion over the five years to 2015, in order to stem up the hole in the country’s public finances. Chancellor of the Exchequer Alistair Darling, in his pre-Budget report, pointed to a fiscal tightening of £57 billion in for the same term, which according to the institute would be slightly more than four percent national income for the entire period.

The IFS report is only one of a few that Darling has had to contend with, all of them criticising his plans to address the public finances saying his plans do not go far enough and that his aim of halving the budget deficit as a proportion of national income by the 2013-14 financial year was unlikely to succeed.

According to a report from, the Nationwide Building Society, U.K. consumer confidence rose in January, on news that the economy has eventually emerged from its worst recession on record. The index of sentiment increased 3 points from the previous month to 73, almost double the level of 39 measured in the same month last year.

Meanwhile it appears that the Government faces a battle to pass its flagship digital economy bill before the forthcoming election, largely due to the surprise resignation of one of the ministers charged with pushing it through parliament. Aims to address the UK’s future infrastructure needs, with regards to the digital industry, the bill is scheduled to deal with some controversial measures, including anti-piracy policies and the introduction of a 50 pence-a-month broadband tax on every phone line

Toyota world’s biggest car maker, with around 1.6 million of its cars on UK roads, is to recall millions of cars around the world following an accelerator pedal problem affecting seven of its models. The company’s UK division will be making contact with more than 180,000 UK drivers warning them to arrange repairs after a potential problem with sticking or jamming accelerator pedals was identified, but it will be nearly a week before it can start repairs on cars with defective accelerator pedals

In the meantime, the company’s financial results for the three months to December 2009 show a huge swing back into profit. Toyota announced a net profit of 153 billion yen (£1.06 billion) making for an almost 100% reversal on the same period last year.

Toyota also confirmed that they expect to £1.23 billion in recall costs and lost sales, but said it still expected sales to increase to 7.18 million units in the current financial year.

Broadband provider Virgin Media have announced that their TV subscribers will now be able to access to a high definition (HD) channel from Eurosport, which will be the first of several new services that will be launched on its TV platform over the next few months.

Eurosport typically covers such events as the Tour de France, French Open tennis and the World Touring Car Championships. A spokesperson for Virgin Media was quoted as saying: "With HD ready TVs now common in UK homes, the combination of HD channels as well as our pioneering TV on-demand service gives Virgin TV customers a huge range of HD programming with the unique flexibility to enjoy HD content whenever they want, at the touch of a button."

On the FTSE, U.K. pub chain owner, and brewers of London Pride ale saw their shares rise 1.8 percent, to 537 pence in anticipation of the release of their latest trading statement. Also due to publish their recent earnings are the Vodafone Group Plc. the world’s largest mobile phone company. The news failed to spark too much excitement, and their stock fell 0.6 percent to 134.5 pence. In the same boat were the Yell Group Plc who publish of the U.K.’s yellow pages directory, who are about to publish a trading statement. Their shares dropped 0.5 percent to 36.8 pence.

The pound closed down at 1.5777 against the dollar, while the Euro the dollar was up a little at 1.1458

The FTSE 100 Index dropped 30.16 points to reach 5,253.15 at the close of trading on Thursday. The index has dropped 3.6 percent so far this year while still 49 percent higher than in March of 2009.

Troubled Asset Relief Program (Tarp) paymaster Kenneth Feinburg has called insurance giant AIG’s expected latest round of bonus payments "outrageous".

Feinburg’s comments came as reports say the insurance giant are to announce bonus payouts of around $100 million (£63 million) to its financial products division.

AIG was bailed out from bankruptcy thanks to $182.3 billion of US aid in 2008. Their staff has already been compelled to return $39 million of bonuses paid out last year, with Feinberg "insisting" that AIG workers repay a further $7 million of bonus payments.

Time Warner has announced a major leap in their fourth quarter profits, largely thanks to their two recent hit films Sherlock Holmes and The Hangover. This is the first profit that the company has reported since they

split from AOL in 2008. Net income for the leaner and meaner Time Warner was $627 million (£387 million), compared with a $16 billion loss for the last quarter of 2008, largely due to value write-downs for AOL as well as the company’s cable assets.

Even leaner and meaner AOL also reported fourth quarter results showing a reversal in fortunes from the year before.

Despite encouraging news from the retail sector, an unexpected rise in unemployment benefits claims for sent US stocks sharply lower in early trading on Thursday. On the news, the Dow Jones fell sharply by 192 points, to close on 10092.49, while the NASDAQ dropped 38 points, to finish on 2144.32

Oil prices CL-FT dropped by 5 per cent on Thursday’s trading , the steepest one-day drop since July, due to the fear that demand in debt-laden European economies is liable to fall as well as the rise in U.S. unemployment . U.S. crude for March delivery settled down $3.84 (U.S.) a barrel to $73.14, while London Brent fell $3.79 to $72.13 a barrel.

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Tags: Alastair Darling, AOL, Bank of England, Banking, British Economy, British Pound, Dow Jones, Economy, Eurosport, Financial News, FTSE, Institute for Fiscal Studies, London Pride, Money, Money Markets, NASDAQ, Nationwide Building Society, quantitative easing, Recession, Stock Markets, Stocks and shares, Toyota, UK Banks, UK Economy, UK government, UK Recession, Virgin Media, Vodafone

Darling blames the financial sector for the UK’s delayed return to growth.

Chancellor of the Exchequer Alistair Darling has said in a recent interview that the U.K.’s economic recovery is being retarded by the country’s large financial services sector. “I am not surprised that it has taken time for the economy to return to growth,” Darling was quoted as saying. “What is holding us back is the fact that we have a large financial-services sector, which has affected what we produce.”

British Sky Broadcasting Group Plc,(BSB) the U.K.’s biggest pay-television provider, has announced a 3.4 percent increase in first-half operating profit as increased pay-TV and broadband subscribers boosted sales. Earnings for BSB in the six months to Dec. 31 2009 were £401 million ($651 million) up from £388 million in 2008. Turnover rose 10 percent to £2.87 billion for 2009.

Soft drinks and squashes producer Britvic have reported strong first-quarter sales growth, whilst striking a more cautious note about second-quarter trading, partly because of the extremely cold weather conditions experienced across Europe in December and January. Britvic, whose brands include Tango and Robinsons, reported sales of £242.7 million for the 12 weeks to December 20, an increase of 11 per cent on the same period in 2008.

Richard Branson’s financial-services un Virgin Money Holdings U.K. Ltd., it, named former Lloyds TSB Chief Executive Officer Brian Pitman as chairman as it seeks to build a new retail banking group. Financial analysts have credited Pitman with transforming Lloyds TSB into Britain’s most profitable lender before his departure in 2001.

No sooner had the press conference to announce the launch of the new Apple iPad than mobile phone operators in the UK were preparing to open talks with the company regarding the provision of third generation (3G) internet services to the new device when it hits the UK shores. Industry sources said that O2, 3, Vodafone, Orange and T-Mobile are preparing to meet Apple "in the next week" Apple is expected to ship the Wi-Fi only versions of the iPod to the UK in March, while the 3G versions will go on sale in the US "and selected countries" in April. Apple chief executive Steve Jobs announced during the launch on Wednesday that the priority was to secure agreements with international operators for 3G, with deals expected by the end of July.

On the money markets, the euro dropped to a five-month low against the pound on Thursday as concerns mounted over the finances of Greece and other Eurozone countries. The pound closed at 1.6129 against the dollar, with the Euro being traded at 1.1541

UK banks fell sharply at the end of trading, retreating from earlier gains. Lloyds Banking Group fell 0.2 per cent at 51.83 pence, HSBC dropped 0.5 at 660 pence, Royal Bank of Scotland lost 1.3 per cent to 33.29 pence and Standard Chartered was down 2.6 per cent at 1432 pence.

The FTSE 100 fell 71.7 points, or 1.4 per cent, to 5,145.74, with Wall Street’s weak start also being a factor.

The year 2009 gas witnessed the biggest decline in air passenger traffic in the post-war era, according to figures released by the International Air Transport Association (IATA).

"In terms of demand, 2009 goes into the history books as the worst year the industry has ever seen," according to a spokesman for the organisation. Passenger traffic dropped by 3.5% from a year earlier, while freight traffic fell 10.1% as the downturn hit demand. However, figures for December showed a rise in traffic of 1.6% on a year ago.

Chairman of the US Congress financial services committee, Barney Frank, has argued that the dramatic proposals unveiled by the administration last week to clamp down on banks could be incorporated into legislation could be enacted into law within months.

On Frank’s prediction, the Dow Jones fell by 135 points, to close on Thursday at 10120.46, while the NASDAQ lost 31 points, to finish on 2179.0.

The US Commerce Department have confirmed that December sales of new homes have fallen, and for the second month in a row.

Sales fell by 7.6% to 342,000 homes, down from a revised rate of 370,000 in November. Analysts had expected new home sales to increase in December.

The number of new homes sold in 2009 was 374,000, 23% fewer than in 2008 and the lowest number sold in a year on record.

The Federal Reserve left interest rates unchanged at their range of between zero and 0.25%, as the US central bank repeated its vow to keep rates exceptionally low for an extended period. Interest rates have remained at their current low range since December 2008.

Ford has posted an annual profit for the first time in four years.

The carmaker made a $2.7 billion (£1.7 billion) profit in 2009, a dramatic improvement on their loss of almost $15 billion in 2008. A spokesman said that Ford expects to remain in profit for 2010.

The company made an $868 million profit for the third quarter of 2009, a dramatic improvement on the $6 billion loss it made for the same period the previous year. Ford attributed their return to profitability to cutting costs and reducing debt levels.

Thanks largely to "exceptional demand" for Windows 7, computer software giant Microsoft has reported a 60% jump in profit for the three months to 31 December 2009. Net profit for the quarter was $6.66 billion (£4.13 billion), up from the $4.18 billion for the same period a year earlier. Microsoft also reported turnover for the quarter of $19.2 billion, comfortably beating analysts’ forecasts.

French President Nicolas Sarkozy has called for a fundamental rethink of capitalism in the aftermath of the financial crisis.

His comments came as bankers and regulators clashed over proposals to break up banks that threaten the whole financial system.

Mr Sarkozy said he wished to restore a "moral dimension" to free trade.

France has supported forcing banks to hold more capital and curbing bonus payments in global negotiations over the past year on how to reform the system to prevent future crises.

Samsung Electronics have overtaken Hewlett-Packard (HP) to become the world’s largest technology company in terms of company turnover. Samsung have reported full-year sales of $117.8 billion which overtook HP’s sales of $114.6 billion in 2009. With a sales forecast at $127 billion, Samsung are expected to surpass its US rival again this year, with HP expected to achieve "only" $120 billion in sales.

In energy markets, crude oil prices consolidated ahead of the latest US weekly inventories data, with prices averaging around $74 a barrel. US crude stocks were expected to have risen 1.4 million barrels last week, according to a recent poll of analysts, with demand from US refineries remaining weak.

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Tags: 3, Alastair Darling, Apple iPad, Bank, Banking, Barney Frank, Brian Pitman, British Economy, British Sky Broadcasting Group Plc, Britvic, Economics, Economy, Federal Reserve, Financial News, Ford, Hewlett-Packard, HSBC, Interest Rates, International Air Transport Association, iPod, Lloyds TSB, Microsoft, Money, NASDAQ, Nicolas Sarkozy, O2, Orange, Recession, Richard Branson, Royal Bank of Scotland, Samsung Electronics, T-Mobile, UK Banks, UK Economy, UK Recession, US Commerce Department, US Congress, Virgin Money Holdings U.K. Ltd, Vodafone, Windows 7

In an interview held over the weekend, chancellor of the Exchequer Alistair Darling predicted that should the Labour Party be re-elected in this year’s anticipated elections they will be prepared to tightly rein in spending and curb Government borrowing. The treasury chief warned that the UK has little option but reduce the massive budget deficit entailing making the toughest public spending cuts seen in 20 years.

Darling’s comments signaled a change in direction or a possible split in Labour’s election strategy as until recently Gordon Brown’s has pinned the bulk of his preliminary electoral campaign and its possible success on the need to support economic recovery, instead of reducing the country’s current £178-billion-pound deficit. The International Monetary Fund has forecast that the UK’s GDP deficit will peak this year at 13.2 percent.

To the chagrin of many, city bankers look likely to suffer minimal impact from the bonus super tax imposed on them by the government last month.

Most banks who were available for comment hinted they are preparing to absorb if not all at least part of the cost of 50 per cent tax by inflating their bonus pools, and are prepared to run the risk of irritating the government and even their own shareholders in order to keep their staff happy. The banks are unofficially conceding that dividends are likely to be hit by their capitulation, and they are already under pressure as regulators have pressurized banks to increase their capital holdings, which will have a consequent effect on their profit margins.

Meanwhile, the Association of British Insurers (ABI) has written a letter to the remuneration committee chairmen of the UK’s top 350 companies warning boards against paying big bonuses and keeping directors safe from tax increases. ABI are concerned that investors will lose out amid fears that banks will absorb the supertax on bonuses at the expense of dividends. Last year was marked by a number of cases of shareholders rebelling against companies’ plans.

With Christmas trading a fading memory, it has been reported that city analysts are taking a close look at Tesco and attempting to determine how much the extra £100 million pounds’ worth of loyalty vouchers given to customers affected their Christmas trading. Fears are that by Tesco’s inflating their Clubcard loyalty scheme they could have "artificially" inflated their UK sales figures for the period, with estimates that the extra vouchers could have added around 1.5% the supermarket chain’s UK turnover for the Christmas , which is due to be released on Tuesday.

The Crown Estate, owner of the UK’s coastal seabeds, have granted development rights to energy companies that will herald the largest wind energy project ever seen in the world.

The announcement has the potential to see an additional 32 GigaWatts (GW) of clean electricity feeding into the UK grid, on top of 8 GW from previous rounds. 32 GW will mean enough offshore wind energy to supply nearly all the homes in the UK, with projection that investment in UK offshore wind overall could be worth £75 billion and support up to 70,000 jobs by the year 2020.

A total of nine development zones, with a capacity of just over 25 GW, have been allocated to Ten European Companies following a competitive tender.

Plans are currently under approval by the UK Government to construct what will be the fastest railway in Europe. The multi billion pound project would see trains travelling from London to the West Midlands at 250 mph from a new station to be constructed in the capital.

Construction is scheduled to begin in 2017, and the first trains should toll out of London 2025, carrying more than a thousand passengers at a time. The project is expected to cost as much as £60 billion.

Taking a short term view, the UK is currently investigating a variety of options on how to deal with increasing stocks of swine flu vaccines, with the British public showing a lack of interest in taking advantage of the free injection. The department of health is looking at either renegotiating existing contracts with the drug companies, such as GlaxoSmithKline and Baxter International to reduce the consignments. Other last attractive options are to sell the vaccines on to other countries or simply give them away. France and Germany also intend to cancel millions of doses of the H1N1 vaccines because of oversupply.

All of the five UK mobile networks are now reported to be in talks with Google over plans to market their new Nexus One mobile phone. Vodafone are the first operator to officially announce that had sealed a deal to offer the device, while no official launch date has been set as yet. The remaining four UK mobile phone operators. While it is expected that the big four will be providing support and service for the Nexus One, Google will be marketing their new baby exclusively online.

A little reminder that the internet doesn’t yet rule all of the World came with the news that UK greeting cards company Clinton have reported a rise in sales of 3.5 percent on last year for the weeks approaching Christmas, with like-for-like sales in the 22 weeks to Jan. 2 rising. However this upturn in sales appeared to be a drop in the ocean as the company continues to experience difficult trading conditions and has closed 12 of their stores in the last six months.

The pound stuttered slightly above the dollar in pre-weekend trading, while sliding backwards against the Euro.

• Dollar 1.6025
• Euro 1.1116

As brokers set off home for the weekend in their snow ploughs and sleds, the FTSE 100 edged just 7.52 points higher to 5,534.24. For the week the index was up 2.4 per cent, making for the third straight weekly gain.

In the US official figures have shown the unemployment rate holding steady at 10% despite the fact that employers unexpectedly cut 85,000 jobs in December. The US Labor Department had initially estimated that 11,000 jobs were cut in November, but now says that the economy had in fact added 4,000 jobs.

Since the recession began in 2007, 7.2 million jobs have been lost in the US, with 4.2 million of them in 2009 alone.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average closed for the weekend still on the up, eleven points to 10,618 while the NASDAQ also jumped 17 points to close on 2,3170.71.

General Motors (GM) reluctantly advised that they have begun "winding down" process for Saab, whilst continuing efforts to find a buyer for their Swedish car-making subsidiary.

GM intends to organize an "orderly" winding down at Saab, which they expects to take several months. The US group also confirmed that they are continuing to evaluate the several proposals they had received to acquire Saab, including the one from Formula One boss Bernie Ecclestone.

With the news that the exports had risen by 17.7% in December, China now claims to have overtaken Germany to become the world’s largest exporter.

December’s remarkable rise ends a 13-month decline in trade as a result of the global downturn.

Total Chinese exports for 2009 were £7.5 trillion, which marked a downturn in foreign of 13.9%, as the global economic downturn led to a fall in demand.

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Tags: Alastair Darling, Association of British Insurers, Bank, Banking, Baxter International, Bernie Ecclestone, British Economy, British Pound, budget cuts, Clinton Cards, Currency, Dow Jones, Economy, Financial News, FTSE, GDP, General Motors, GlaxoSmithKline, Google, Gordon Brown, H1N1, International Monetary Fund, Labour party, Money, Money Markets, NASDAQ, Nexus One, Recession, Retail, Saab, Stock Markets, Stocks and shares, super tax, swine flu, Tesco, The Crown Estate, UK Banks, UK Economy, UK government, UK Recession, US labor Department, Vodafone

While the UK and with it almost all of Western Europe and the West Coast of the US are caught in the grip of the longest running and most severe cold spell that it has seen for close to thirty years without a break in the foreseeable future, many analyst are now scratching their heads and asking themselves "what will this do to the price of oil?"

Since the weather began to turn incredibly difficult about a week ago the price of oil has risen steadily from the around $78 to $82 within the space of one week, the highest price it has been all of 2009, and to those of you who may have forgotten, sat on a low of $32 a barrel towards the end of December 2008. With the news that the major economies, and especially China, were starting to build up stockpiles of oil, hopes were that prices would begin to fall and settle around the ideal figure of between $68 to $72 a barrel.

Analysts fear that if the span weather persists, and predictions are that at least in the UK it could continue to the end of January, and the increase in demand could push the price up oil even further, as stocks diminish. Meanwhile leading bodies in UK industry bodies have asked head- teachers to minimize snow-linked school closures to reduce levels of absence from the workplace. Although 61 percent of 200 companies surveyed by the British Chambers of Commerce said less than one in 10 employees was absent, the Federation of Small Businesses warned that childcare-related absences following school closures would become a serious problem. The cold snap looks likely to cost the economy close to £700 million pounds a day, meaning total financial damage of £14.5 billion pounds if, as expected. The bad weather lasts a further three weeks.

As expected UK interest rates will remain unchanged at 0.5%, meaning that the cost of borrowing has remained at a record low since March 2009. Economist are not expecting to see a rates increase s in the near term, despite expectations that the UK will finally have exited recession in the last quarter of 2009.

Formula 1 boss, Bernie Ecclestone is looking to buy a Saab, not the car but the company, and intends to do so in partnership with the Luxembourg-based private investment company, Genii Capital, which recently invested in Renault’s Formula 1 team.

Ecclestone’s dramatic announcement came shortly after the deadline for expressions of interest in the company closed without any public bids.

As well as Ecclestone’s offer, a second bid s also emerged, from the Dutch sports car maker, Spyker Cars.

U.S. food giant Kraft has received a ticking off from the principal shareholder Warren Buffett who has also thrown a spanner in the works of their proposed transaction. The Buffett-owned holding company Berkshire Hathaway who Hold 9.4% of Kraft’s stock announced that they will be voting against it is the proposal to issue up to 370 million shares to facilitate the Cadbury deal.

A spokesman for Kraft reacted to Buffet’s statement by saying that "Mr. Buffett is our largest investor and one of the most respected investors in the world. We take his opinion very seriously. We agree Kraft shares are deeply undervalued. We would not do anything to hurt shareholder value and we intend to remain disciplined in this process." Shares fell 7 pence, or 0.9 percent, to 772 pence on trading.

In their annual Christmas trading statement, Majestic Wine announced a rise in sales of 11.7 percent between Nov. 3 and Jan. 4 in the UK, with champagne sales regaining their seasonal appeal over Christmas. While champagne sales grew 11 percent, fine wine sales climbed 30 percent and online trading rose by 20 percent.

Family-owned brewer Fuller Smith & Turner also managed to increase its profits, sales and dividend in the six months to September, largely bucking the trend prevalent in the brewery sector. With members of the controlling families owning more than half of the company equity and 60 percent of the voting rights, executive chairman Michael Turner pronounced the effect that company’s long-term, risk-averse strategy was paying dividends.

The FTSE 100 brought in the New Year and new decade by closing above 5,500 for the first time since the start of September 2008 – before the Lehman Brothers collapse, coming after a 22% rise over the whole of 2009 and a 53% rally from the low last March. The FTSE 100 closed on Tuesday on 5522.5.

Britain’s currency weakened possibly due to U.K. Business Secretary Peter Mandelson hints that the pound’s devaluation aided the economy in the recession.

• Dollar 1,5967
• Euro 1.1126

The U.K.’s largest home builder by market value Persimmon Plc has announced that they completed the sale of 8,976 new homes in 2009 with a total value of around £1.4 billion pounds. On the news their shares gained 1.2 percent, to 469 pence. Wolseley Plc, the world’s largest supplier of heating and plumbing gear seemed to be moving in a positive direction, with their shares added 4.7 percent, to 1,361 pence.

The Vodafone Group PLC expects to be able to offer Google Inc.’s Nexus One smart phone to its U.K. customers in the next few weeks, with their rivals reported to be already in advanced talks with the Internet giant about the device.

Vodafone, the world’s biggest mobile operator, is also in early discussions with Google about supporting the phone in France, Germany and Spain, a Vodafone spokesman told Dow Jones Newswires Wednesday, and hopes to offer it across the rest of Europe through the course of 2010.

JD Sports Fashion Plc, the U.K.’s second- largest sportswear chain said sales at stores rose 6.6 percent in the five weeks up to the Ist of January .2010. On the news their shares jumped 6.2 percent, to 550 pence.

Marks & Spencer Group on Wednesday reported a small increase in third-quarter sales, despite not slashing prices in the run-up to Christmas, as customers snapped up cashmere sweaters and clothing for kids. But the company cautioned that trading will remain challenging this year.

Group sales at the iconic British retailer rose 2.6% in the three months to Dec. 26. In the U.K. same-store sales rose 0.8%, with general merchandise up 1.2% and food up 0.4%. Underlying sales returned to growth for the first time in two years.

Still, the results missed the consensus forecast for a 1.2% increase in same-store sales, partly because this year’s trading period excluded the first day of the company’s post-Christmas sales, when it typically sees a surge in revenue. Online sales increased 32% and international sales climbed 6%

Britain’s Home Delivery Network said it would buy DHL’s UK parcel delivery operations, DHL Domestic, from Deutsche Post DHL (DPWGn.DE), growing its market share in a sector profiting from a boom in online shopping.

With many of the UK s leading retailers, among them John Lewis and Next reporting significant online growth, companies such as Home Delivery Network have felt the impact.

The parcel delivery company, headquartered in Merseyside, northwest England, said the combined businesses would have annual revenues of more than £600 million pounds, delivering over 180 million parcels a year, with a combined market share of 17 percent.

Britain’s currency recovered slightly over the last two days

• Dollar 1,5992
• Euro 1.1198

The FTSE100 finished trading on Thursday in a fairly static position at 5526.72 barely moving on the week’s trading.

On Wall Street, the Dow Jones Industrial Average closed on Thursday up a further 24 points to 10,607 while the NASDAQ also dropped 8 points to 2,300.71.

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Tags: Bank, Banking, Bernie Ecclestone, British Chambers of Commerce, British Economy, British Pound, Cadbury, Currency, DHL, Dow Jones, Economics, Economy, Federation of Small Businesses, Financial News, Freezing Britain, FTSE, Fuller Smith & Turner, Genii Capital, Home Delivery Network, Interest Rates, JD Sports Fashion Plc, John Lewis, Kraft, Lehman Brothers, Majestic Wine, Marks & Spencer, Michael Turner, Money, Money Markets, NASDAQ, Nexus One, Oil, Persimmon Plc, Peter Mandelson, Recession, Saab, Spyker Cars, Stock Markets, Stocks and shares, UK Banks, UK Economy, UK government, UK Recession, Vodafone, Wall Street, Warren Buffett, Wolseley Plc

Lloyds Banking Group is to cut 5,000 more jobs by the end of next year as it continues to reduce overlap following its merger with HBOS last year.

While almost half of these posts are among staff, 2,600 permanent jobs would be lost. The union Unite accused the bank of "corporate arrogance" and short-termism following the announcement, which will mean that Lloyds will have cut 15,000 jobs this year.

Japan’s second- largest carmaker Honda Motor Co have announced that they will be widening job cuts at its UK factory in Swindon, due to a major fall in demand in Europe as the end of government stimulus programs draws close.

According to a company spokesman, Honda plans to expand their voluntary early retirement plan, which succeeded in reducing the number of workers at the factory by 1,300 last December, although the spokesman declined to say how many additional jobs would be cut. The plant, which builds the CR-V and Civic models for the European market, saw production plunge by 75 percent to 400,000 units in the year until end September 2009.

A rapid recovery in UK commercial property values conditions could see the sector turn positive this year. The recovery comes after the deepest slump on record that looks like leading to an almost boom like situation according to forecasts. Real estate values are set to overturn most of the losses suffered in the first half as booming investor demand has taken prices back to near peak levels in some sectors.

As was widely expected, Cadbury have rejected the formal bid from Kraft on Monday, going as far as to describe the US food group’s offer as “derisory”. Roger Carr, Cadbury’s chairman, declared the formal offer “worse than the proposal the board has previously rejected” as it made no attempt to improve the terms of its original offer of two months ago. In the meantime Kraft’s share price has fallen steadily since their offer in early September, reducing the value of the bid from 745 pence a share to 717. Cadbury’s shares closed up 3 pence to 761 on the FTSE, while Kraft’s shares fell 31 cents in New York in midday trading to $26.47. However, Kraft have not rules out making an increased offer during the formal takeover offer period, which could last up to three months as analysts predict that the company may wait until towards the end of the offer period before making a final offer.

Company management at Sainsburys will be feeling the pressure as recent figures show that the supermarket group sales were expanding at the lowest rate of the UKs "big four " supermarkets. Sainsbury’s sales were shown to have risen by 4.7 percent in the 12 weeks to October 31, making for the lowest turnover expansion, less than the 5.6 percent recorded by Tesco, with Asda and Morrisons leading the way.

Unofficial reports have it that Orange UK sold more than 30,000 iPhones on launch day. Orange is the second carrier to offer the iPhone in the UK behind O2, while Vodafone has announced plans to begin offering the handset early in 2010, as well as the iPhone, Orange UK have also launched a so-called business homescreen for the soon to be launched Samsung Omnia Pro B7330. The Omnia Pro is reputed to be a smartphone based on a different concept from the iPhone, featuring Windows Mobile 6.5 and a full QWERTY keypad. Orange’s new homescreen provide quick access to email, voicemail, contacts, calendar and so on, “ensuring vital business applications are right at their employees’ finger tips”. The Samsung Omnia Pro B7330 will be soon available through Orange, coming as the carrier’s first “business WM6.5 device,” targeted at medium and large business customers.

For more information about The Samsung Omnia Pro B7330 Visit Compare-Mobile.co.uk

Sterling lost ground on Tuesday after a ratings agency said the UK was the major economy most at risk of losing its AAA credit rating , Since then the pound has weakened in value over the last two days against all the major currencies.

• Pound/US dollar 1.6719
• Pound/Euro 1.1161
• Pound/Japanese Yen 149.468
• Pound/Swiss Franc 1.6852

The FTSE 100 has rallied strongly since the beginning of the week up 86 points to 5,230.55. The FTSE 250 also rose 38.3 points to 9,120.96. London equities principally made progress on Monday, largely thanks to strong trading in insurance stocks.

As US carmaker General Motors (GM) were seen to be making efforts to calm the waves after their surprise decision last week to retain ownership of their European plants, a spokesman for the company has forecast that Opel and Vauxhall will retain consider independence as well as receiving considerable financial support . The US carmaker has announced that that they will provide a “reasonable and sizeable” portion of the restructuring costs for Opel and Vauxhall, rather than seek 100 percent government aid. GM have forecast that they will need €3 billion ($4.5 billion) to restructure the Opel and Vauxhall operations and intend to raise at least partial funding from interested European governments.

The Dow Jones has made some major steps forward since the weekend, up 243 points to 10246.97, closing at the highest level since October 2008.

The NASDAQ also jumped, reaching 2151.08.

US software company Adobe Systems has announced that it is to cut almost 10% of its workforce, a total of 680 jobs. Adobe Systems best known for Photoshop, Flash and Acrobat, said the cuts were necessary to cut costs.

Gold extended its record-breaking run above the $1,100 mark on Monday while crude oil raised more than $2 a barrel as markets made a strong start to the new trading week. Gold hit a record at $1,110.85 a troy ounce, a rise of 26.5 per cent this year, before easing back to $1,107.00, up 1.1 per cent on the day as analysts digested the implications of India’s decision last week to buy half of the gold the International Monetary Fund has put up for sale.

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Tags: Acrobat, Adobe, Adobe Systems, ASDA, Banking, British Economy, Cadbury, Currency, Dow Jones, Economy, Employment, Financial News, Flash, FTSE, General Motors, GM, Gold, HBos, Honda Motor Co, International Monetary Fund, iPhone, Kraft, Lloyds, Lloyds Banking Group, Money, Money Markets, Morrisons, NASDAQ, O2, Oil, Omnia Pro, Opel, Orange UK, Photoshop, property values, Recession, Retail, Roger Carr, Sainsburys, Samsung Omnia Pro B7330, smartphone, Stock Markets, Stocks and shares, Tesco, UK Banks, UK commercial property, UK Economy, UK government, UK Recession, Vauxhall, Vodafone

UK Prime Minister Gordon Brown was observed to be rapidly retreating from his proposal that a financial transactions tax be imposed to aid the global economy. Brown, made the speech on Saturday at a meeting of global finance ministers, suffered a backlash on his proposal to implement a miniscule “Tobin tax”. The Tobin tax originally saw the light of day in the early 1970s and was evolved by James Tobin, an influential American macroeconomist and recipient of the Nobel Prize for economics, of that time who proposed imposing a small tax on every amount exchanged from one currency into another. The US was among the first to criticise Mr. Brown who up till now has defended the financial sector against more aggressive moves on regulation by other European governments in the past.

A recent report has suggested that in the past six months alone, only one in ten UK savers have enjoyed an increase on the interest rates paid on their accounts despite the Bank of England’s base rate remaining static…

The study shows that 10% of variable savings accounts are paying lower rates than they were in May, with just 3.5% of variable rate accounts have seen interest rates increase over the same period, despite the implied competition for savers’ deposits.

According to the report, almost half of variable rate accounts are being paid less than 0.5%, while almost a quarter of the banks are offering returns below 0.1%.

The pound continued its recovery against the dollar over the weekend, rising also against all the major currencies.

• Pound/US dollar 1.6835
• Pound/Euro 1.232
• Pound/Japanese Yen 151.2029
• Pound/Swiss Franc 1.6947

As Monday’s bidding deadline drew closer, shares in Cadbury eased by 0.5 percent to 758 pence. Market analysts expect US food company Kraft to make a formal offer on Monday under the current terms whilst leaving room for maneuver at a later stage. Kraft Foods offer is projected to be around £10 billion ($16.59 billion), and will setting the battle for control of the famed British confectionary company officially in motion.

Those apparently in the know have stated that Kraft had always planned to take its offer directly to Cadbury shareholders, This they will do on Monday, in response to the U.K. Takeover Panel’s deadline to either make a formal offer or back off for six months.

On early rumours that the debt-laden rail and coach operator National Express could launch a fully underwritten £250 million placing and open offer as early as next week, their shares added 4.3 per cent to 330 pence on early trading.

Meanwhile it was reported that Vodafone are preparing a fresh round of cost cutting in an attempt to offset falling revenue at the mobile phone operator.

Vodafone intend to reduce their operating expenses by £1 billion gradually by March 2011, however market analysts now say that the target might even be increased to £1.5 billion. Expectations are that Vodafone will report turnover of £21.6 billion for the six months to September 30, meaning an increase of 8.3 per cent on the same period in 2008, with profits of £7.5 billion, up 2.8 per cent.

Rising unemployment and economic uncertainty in the UK has helped one company report revenues to increase revenues by 15.6 per cent in the six months to September 30. BrightHouse, who rents high-end consumer durables to people who have a low or non-existent credit rating, enjoyed profit growth up £94.6 million for the period. The privately owned retail chain, who supply top-of-the-range television sets, electrical appliance and furniture on a kind of rent/buy agreement without requiring large deposits. Turnover was increased thanks to the opening of 11 new stores in the period, bringing the nationwide total to 188, although like-for-like revenue also rose by close to ten per cent. BrightHouse’s earnings were up 23.7 per cent from the same six-month period in 2008.

Battery-operated robotic hamsters costing about £6 each look like becoming the Christmas hit for 2009, with demand in the UK for outgunning supply. GoGo Pets are the hottest toy of the season, seemingly on a par with demand for the famous Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, the smash hit of Christmas 1987. The interactive hamsters, Squiggles, Patches, Chunk, Pipsqueak and NumNums, respond to touch with squeaks and noises, and can be set to run about randomly in “explore” mode, and to “coo and chirp” calmly when held. Initial demand for the toys has proven so strong that retail giant Toys R Us had removed them from their Christmas toy catalogue to avoid disappointing customers.

On Friday, the FTSE 100 closed 17.1 points higher at 5,142.7 after a volatile session in which the market rose on early trading and then fell sharply after the release of a key US unemployment report, later recovering as the data was reassessed.

The FTSE 100 rose by 98 points, or 2 per cent for the week, its best weekly performance for a month. Meanwhile, the FTSE 250 rose 62.3 points to 9.082.7, leaving the mid-cap index up 170 points, or 2.2 per cent.

Irish airline Aer Lingus has announced a drop in sales of 9.7% in the third quarter, largely due to a drop in long-haul passenger traffic.

In the three months to September, long-haul numbers dropped 13%, offset by increase of 10%, passenger traffic in short-haul flights

Despite the reduction in turnover, share values s surged 11% to 62 Eurocents as investors recognized some clear signs that the loss-making airline was beginning to stabilise. Last month, the carrier said it would cut almost 800 jobs to try to save 97 million Euros a year (£90 million) by 2011.

The dollar jumped and Wall Street stocks look set to open lower after a crucial report on the US labour market showed unemployment at a fresh 26-year high. The unemployment rate rose from 9.8 per cent in September to 10.2 per cent last month, as the Labor Department announced that non-farm payrolls in October fell by 190,000, the highest since April 1983.

Despite the negative figures, the Dow Jones held its own, up 17.46 points to 10023.42. The NASDAQ also climbed a little, reaching 2112.44.

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Tags: Aer Lingus, Bank of England, BrightHouse, British Economy, British Pound, Cadbury, Chunk, Currency, Dow Jones, Economics, Economy, Employment, Financial News, FTSE, GoGo Pets, Gordon Brown, hamsters, Kraft, Money, Money Markets, NASDAQ, NumNums, Patches, Pipsqueak, Recession, robotic hamsters, Squiggles, Stock Markets, Stocks and shares, Tobin tax, Toys R Us, UK Banks, UK Economy, UK government, UK Recession, Unemployment, Vodafone, Wall Street

For the third consecutive month of increase, UK housing prices have increased. They are reported to have risen by as much as 1.6% in September. Housing prices in the UK continue to remain considerably lower than in September 2008, as much as 7.4 percent. However since the end of 2008, prices have grown by 1.7 percent as increased demand and reduced inventory have combined to push housing prices up, especially in the recent months. House prices increased by 2.8% in the third quarter of 2009, making for the first rise since the third quarter of 2007, and the largest percentage growth since the first quarter of the same year. The increased demand for property is believed to stems from improved affordability, and the reduction in both interest rates.

It may come to pass that the U.K.’s largest government-controlled bank, the Royal Bank of Scotland Group Plc (RBS) may have to surrender more than ten percent of their one million small business customers, The reason being that the European Commission has imposed a penalty on the RBS for receiving billions of pounds of state aid. Currently it is reported that the RBS, in a move designed to reduce their credit card risk portfolio are only issuing new cards to existing clients.

The Office for National Statistics has announced that U.K. manufacturing output has slumped 1.9% from the month in August whilst dropping 11.3% on a yearly basis. The wider industrial production measure fell 2.5% from July and slid 11.2% from August 2008.

The FTSE 100 rose by 2.26 percent on yesterday’s trading, or 113.65 points to close on 5137.98. The FTSE 250 was still on the rise, but at a reduced pace, closing up a further 25.12 points to close for the day on 9,226.35.

The pound made a minor recovery against the leading currencies, while continuing to hover around $1.60. The Sterling’s latest bout of weakness surrounding Sterling began after UK industrial production was shown to have slumped in August. Additional statistics released on Wednesday show that corporate profitability in the UK had deteriorated for a fifth successive quarter and is standing at its lowest level since 2001.

• Pound/US dollar 1.5958
• Pound/Euro 1.10863
• Pound/Japanese Yen 141.422
• Pound/Swiss Franc 1.64861

Europe’s largest discount airline, Ryanair Holdings Plc set aside as being of “no substance” recent reports claiming that the company is preparing to take control of Aer Lingus Group Plc through a rights issue. In another sign of the advantage that short-haul, low-cost carriers such as EasyJet hold over long-haul flag carriers during the current downturn, the company announced that it had handled more than 4.4 million passengers in September, an increase of 5.3 per cent over the corresponding month in 2008. The increase, the largest since April, was well above the 4.7 per cent rise the airline recorded in August, traditionally one of its busiest months. In any event, stock in EasyJet fell 0.3 percent, to 3.38 Euros.

According to Sir Terry Leahy, chief executive of Tesco, the worst is over for the UK economy as well as for the U.K.’s premier food retailer. Sir Terry’s revelation came after Tesco’s announced pre-tax profit for the first half of its financial year rose that had risen by 1 per cent to £1.42 billion. Sir Terry prediction is that that the UK would see a “slow and steady recovery” as the money pumped into the economy to stimulate it had to be paid back. He added that uncertainties over the financial outlook for 2010, such as public sector cuts, the proposed increase in value added tax and the threat of rising unemployment, would not be sufficient to prevent “a gradual recovery. Sir Terry also defended Tesco’s performance in the US, where its Fresh & Easy chain has reported losses of £85 million in the six months to the end of August. Shares in Tesco rose 0.4 percent, to 391.4 pence.

The management team at Matalan have reportedly held several meetings over the past few weeks to examine strategic options for the discount clothing and home-ware retailer. Subjects on the agenda included the possible sale of the company during 2010 with an asking price of around £1.5 billion pounds. If a sale was to go through, and discussions are at a very early stage, company founder John Hargreaves would be liable to realise hundreds of millions of pounds in profits from the sale. Matalan have invested significant sums of money in revamping their 200 UK stores have reported solid profits for June.

Shares in Vodafone, the World’s largest mobile phone service providers were under pressure for a second day, dropping 2 per cent to 137 pence. The share price fall could be attributed to a culmination of factors, among them, fears of a price war in India, and analyst’s predictions that AT&T was considering opening their mobile network to third-party voice applications such as Skype. A move that would put pressure on Vodafone’s Verizon Wireless division to emulate.

In the year to 30 September, the US budget deficit more than tripled to a record £877 billion ($1.4 trillion) according to US Congress estimate figures recently released. Analysts had previously predicted a slightly higher deficit but later revised their estimate, which has been attributed to increased government spending coupled with a huge drop in tax revenues. The actual deficit will be released by the Treasury Department later this month.

The Dow Jones index dropped a little on yesterday’s trading, closing on 9725.58, down 5.67 points. The NASDAQ index continued to rise, but at a slower pace, up just 6.76 points to close on 2,110.33.

The White House have announced that it was weighing policy options designed to create new jobs to ease the burden on America’s unemployed, currently numbering more than 15 million. A spokesman for the President hasted to rule out speculation that a second stimulus to provide a further boost to the US economy was on the cards. The majority of US economists believe that the country was on track to move out of recession. However the black cloud of increasing unemployment is hanging over the picture, with unemployment figures hitting 9.8 per cent, the highest rate since 1982.

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Tags: Aer Lingus Group Plc, AT&T, Banking, British Economy, British Pound, Credit Crunch, Currency, Dow Jones, EasyJet, Economy, Employment, European Commission, Financial News, Fresh & Easy, FTSE, Global Credit Crisis, House Prices, Matalan, Money, NASDAQ, Office for National Statistics, property, RBS, Recession, Royal Bank of Scotland Group Plc, Ryanair Holdings Plc, Sir Terry Leahy, Skype, Stock Markets, Stocks and shares, Tesco, The White House, Treasury Department, UK Banks, UK Economy, UK government, UK industrial production, UK Recession, Unemployment, US budget, US Congress, US economy, Verizon Wireless, Vodafone

In spite of various and long ranging attempts to steer clear of it, Lloyds Banking Group now appear likely to participate in the government sponsored insurance scheme to freeze their toxic assets

Despite the fact that Lloyds signed up for the insurance scheme way back in March, giving itself the option of freezing £260 billion of toxic assets, mostly taken on when it acquired mortgage lender HBOS, the bank has made no serious attempts to participate in the scheme. It would mean that up to £20 billion would be freed for fresh lending but in turn would allowed the UK taxpayer to own close to thirds of the bank. When the deal was first signed in March, shares in stood at 36 pence per share, and yesterday they were almost three times that amount.

At their meeting on Thursday, European Union leaders are expected to urge sanctions for banks that pay excessive bonuses. Ahead of the meeting, UK Prime Minister Gordon Brown has insisted that there was broad backing for bonus restrictions. The EU leaders are likely to urge the Group of 20 (G20) richest nations to maintain their stimulus spending as signs of global recovery grow stronger. Many EU countries blamed excessive bonus taking as a principal cause of the crisis and are seeking to regulate how bonuses are paid at banks in the future.

Vodafone are seeking to assure their investors that they stand to benefit from the recent plans of UK mobile phone businesses of France Telecom and Deutsche Telekom to merge. If the merger does take place, Vodafone once the market leader in the UK, faces falling down the ladder to become the third largest British mobile operator. Currently Vodafone is the second largest UK network operator, behind Telefonica’s O2 subsidiary. Orange UK and T-Mobile UK are respectively the third and fourth largest UK mobile phone operators, but would become the market leader after the proposed merger. On the announcement, stock in Vodafone rose 0.2 percent, to 139.5 pence.

On the FTSE yesterday HSBC provided the foundation for the climb for a fifth straight day of gains. Shares in the bank’s shares gained 2.5 per cent to 717 pence amid growing optimism about its household consumer credit division, now renamed HSBC Finance.

Europe’s largest home-improvement retailer Kingfisher Plc are due to report their interim trading results. In anticipation, their stock rose 1.9 percent to 205.5 pence.

Stuart Rose, chairman and chief executive officer of the Marks & Spencer Group has dismissed the suggestion that his plan to remain as chairman of the company after the hiring of a new CEO was deterring candidates for the job. After that matter was put to rest, stock in M&S climbed 1.7 percent, to 373.8 pence.

Meanwhile Britain’s second-largest clothing retailer Next Plc announced pre-tax profits for the six months through the end of July profit had increased by 6.9 percent to reach £185.5 million pounds. Despite the fact, their stocks fell 1.2 percent, to 1,699 pence.

The UK’s FTSE 100 index continued to climb, rising 39.82 points to close at 5163.95 while the FTSE 250 rose on Thursday by a further 58.84 points to finish the day on 9364.08.

The pound, after making a minor recovery yesterday, fell back against the main currencies yesterday.

• Pound/US dollar 1.6443
• Pound/Euro 1.1155
• Pound/Japanese Yen 149.8274
• Pound/Swiss Franc 1.6914

The Dow Jones Industrial Average adjusted downwards but only slightly on Thursday trading, downing 7.79 points at 9,783.02. The NASDAQ also fell, but just a little, 6.4 points to 2126.75.

The European plane maker Airbus has raised its forecast for new aircraft demand over the next 20 years.

It predicted global demand for 25,000 new aircraft across the industry between 2009 and 2029, up from the 24,262 it forecast for 2007 to 2027.

Airbus have also said that passenger numbers would fall by 2% this year but rise 4.6% next year going on to add that that demand for aircraft would be susceptible to economic upturns and downturns.

Their principal rival the Boeing Company predicted in June that 29,000 new planes would be ordered between 2009 and 2029.

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Tags: Airbus, Bank, Banking, Boeing, British Economy, British Pound, Credit Crunch, Currency, Dow Jones, Economy, Employment, Financial News, FTSE, Gordon Brown, HBos, HSBC, Insurance, Kingfisher Plc, Lloyds, Lloyds Banking Group, Marks & Spencer, Money, Money Markets, NASDAQ, Next Plc, O2, Orange UK, Recession, Stock Markets, Stocks and shares, T-Mobile UK, UK Banks, UK Economy, UK government, UK Recession, Vodafone