US banking giant Morgan Stanley has today announced fourth quarter profits surged by 60% – in line with forecasts. The Wall Street bank said net profit came in at $600 million (£375 million) for the final three months of 2010, against a profit of $376 million a year ago. Shares in the bank were up [...]
The National Association of Realtors (NAR) has today revealed sales of previously owned homes in the US rose more than expected in December. The industry body said sales grew 12.3% to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 5.28 million units – beating forecasts of 4.85 million units. Economists had expected a lower reading due to [...]
China, which is the world’s second largest economy, experienced growth of 10.3% in 2010 – much higher than expected, according to the National Bureau of Statistics. While the growth is staggering, it has again raised fears of the economy overheating, which is adding to inflation pressures. In addition, fourth quarter growth was better than expected, [...]
US banking giant Citigroup has today reported a $1.3 billion (£811 million) profit for the fourth quarter of 2010, against a loss of $7.6 billion loss a year earlier. Meanwhile, revenue surged to $18.4 billion, from $5.4 billion in the same period a year ago but were 11% lower compared with the third quarter. However, [...]
The latest survey from the Nationwide Building Society has revealed an improvement in UK consumer confidence for the month of December after three months of falls. The building society’s consumer confidence index rose to 53 in December, up from 45 in November – which represented the lowest reading since March 2009 – when the economy [...]
The reporting season for US banks has got off to a flying start after JPMorgan announced income surged 47% in the fourth quarter. Fourth-quarter profit increased to $4.8 billion, or $1.12 a share, from $3.3 billion, or 74 cents a share, compared with the year ago period. Analysts expected $1 a share. Meanwhile, revenue grew [...]
The Commerce Department has revealed US retail sales grew for the sixth consecutive month in December. Sales grew by 0.6% on the month – although this was less than the 0.8% expected by analysts. December’s increase was less than in the previous two months, as retailers started their sales early, while parts of the country [...]
Housebuilder Bovis Homes has today issued a positive trading statement after saying it expects profits to be ahead of expectations for the 2010 year. The company, which is one of the smaller listed housebuilders, said it will also start paying dividends again to shareholders. Many housebuilders took a battering during the housing market slump and [...]
Supermarket giant Tesco today announced like-for-like sales, excluding petrol, grew by just 0.6% in the six week period to 8 January compared with a year earlier. The figures were worse than expected for the Christmas period and the company blamed the heavy snowfall which gripped most of the country during the build up to the [...]
The Office for National Statistics (ONS) has today revealed the UK’s trade deficit widened to a record high in November. According to the ONS, the goods trade gap widened to £8.736 billion in November from an upwardly revised £8.591 billion the previous month. This represented the biggest deficit since monthly records began more than 30 [...]
The Chartered Institute of Purchasing and Supply (CIPS)/Markit manufacturing purchasing managers’ index (PMI) has today revealed UK manufacturing activity surged at a record pace in December. The closely-watched CIPS/Markit manufacturing PMI rose to 58.3 in December from November’s revised reading of 57.5. Not only was the reading the highest since September 1994, it confounded analysts [...]
The National Association of Realtors (NAR) has today revealed sales of previously owned homes rose more than expected in November, offering hope that the housing market may slowly be recovering from its slump. The industry body said sales grew 5.6% to a seasonally adjusted annual unit rate of 4.68 million, up from October’s 4.43 million [...]
The Commerce Department has today revealed the US economy grew by an annualised 2.6% in the July to September period – slightly higher than the second estimate of 2.5% but much faster than the first estimate of 2%. However, the growth rate was less than the 3% most analysts had expected. Today’s estimate is the [...]
Government data has today revealed Japanese exports picked up in November – for the first time since February. Exports grew 9.1% to 5.44 trillion yen in November on an annual basis, against the 7.8% reported in October. However, the figure was still short of expectations for a 10.8% gain. The improvement was attributed to strong [...]
The latest survey from the Nationwide Building Society has revealed a fall in UK consumer confidence for the month of November. The building society’s consumer confidence index plunged 7 points to 45 in November – this represents the lowest reading since March 2009 – when the UK was in the midst of recession. According to [...]
Figures today revealed India’s wholesale price inflation rate fell last month to 7.48%, from 8.58% the previous month – in line with expectations of 7.50%, but still significantly above the central bank’s target of between 4% and 5%. The figures suggest the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) will keep interest rates on hold when it [...]
The Commerce Department has revealed US retail sales grew for the fifth consecutive month in November. Sales grew by 0.8% – exceeding the 0.5% expected by economists and will boost hopes that the economic recovery picked up pace in the final quarter of the year. High unemployment remains a major concern in the world’s largest [...]
Official figures have today revealed the Japanese economy grew faster than estimated in the third quarter due to stronger corporate spending. The world’s third largest economy grew by 1.1% in the July to September period, up from the first estimate of 0.9%. On an annual basis, the economy expanded by 4.5% from an earlier estimate [...]
The Confederation of British Industry’s (CBI) December industrial trends survey today revealed further good news for the sector after overseas demand surged to a 15-year high. The pound gained following the news which revealed firms experiencing above normal demand from overseas was 4% – a significant improvement on the previous month’s -7% and the highest [...]
The Chartered Institute of Purchasing and Supply (CIPS)/Markit manufacturing purchasing managers’ index (PMI) has today revealed UK manufacturing activity surged at a record pace in November. The closely-watched CIPS/Markit manufacturing PMI rose to 58 in November from an upwardly revised 55.4 in October. Not only was the reading the highest since September 1994, it confounded [...]
Phone fraudsters stealing bank card pins
Fraudsters using a phone scam to trick bank card holders into revealing their pin numbers stole £750,000 in the first four months of this year. This is the same amount stolen through this scam in the whole of last year. The fraudster telephones a bank customer, often someone elderly or vulnerable, telling them that their [...]
FSA rules out ban on interest-only mortgages
Speculation that the Financial Services Authority would ban interest-only mortgages as part of its Mortgage Market Review has proved to be unfounded. However, lenders will be required to monitor the performance of the investment product taken out by the customer to repay the mortgage at the end of its term. Investments are performing poorly because [...]
Bank of England may end free in-credit banking
A director of the Bank of England has warned that official intervention could be considered to end the ‘dangerous myth of free in-credit banking’. Andrew Bailey has already spoken out against free banking in relation to the mis-selling of financial products. In a speech made available to media, he reiterated his concern, saying that it [...]
Bank of England votes against more economic stimulus
The Bank of England voted against a further round of quantitative easing, at its latest Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) meeting. Just one member, David Miles, voted for further asset purchase to encourage growth in the UK economy, while the other eight members voted to keep the Bank’s quantitative easing programme steady at £325bn. The minutes [...]
Catalogue debt growing says helpline
Calls from people concerned about their debts with mail order catalogues accounted for more than 12 per cent of all calls received by National Debtline last year, compared with just 8 per cent in 2007. More people were concerned about catalogue debt than about payday loans, mortgage or rent, according to the Money Advice Trust [...]
Homeserve faces mis-selling investigation
HomeServe, which provides emergency insurance cover and domestic repairs to households in the UK, is to be investigated by the Financial Services Authority (FSA). Issues over the possible mis-selling of household emergency policies were uncovered last October during an internal review at the Walsall-based company. Homeserve’s call centre staff were found to be selling ‘Complete [...]
OFT warns Wonga over debt collection methods
Payday loan company Wonga used aggressive and misleading methods to collect debts from customers, the Office of Fair Trading (OFT) has found. Wonga sent letter and emails to certain customers suggesting they had committed fraud and threatening to report them to the police if they did not act in the way Wonga suggested. The company [...]
NS&I re-launches investment account
National Savings & Investments (NS&I) has re-launched its Investment Account at a higher interest rate than it previously offered. The account now offers 0.75 per cent before tax, compared with between 0.2 and 0.3 per cent previously, depending on the account balance. Deposits and withdrawals on the account can no longer be made at Post [...]
Rightmove reports property downsizing trend
Two in five property owners planning to sell in the next year are planning to ‘trade down’, compared with one in four who plan to ‘trade up’. A survey by property website Rightmove found that moving to a smaller home is the main reason for moving in nine out of the ten regions in the [...]
More people failing to save for retirement
The proportion of people with no pension savings has grown from 20 per cent to 22 per cent over the past year, according to Scottish Widows’ latest survey. The pension provider surveyed 5,200 adults in the UK, aged 30 or over, and earning at least £10,000 a year, for its annual review of pensions. Ian [...]
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