The Capitalist: Labour’s boost for wealth advisors and bane for private schools plus friends like Boris’
SocGen surprises with a more than doubling in profits amid cost-cutting August 1, 2013 French bank Societe Generale has reported a second quarter net income more than double what it was a year ago following growth in fixed income and equities and a return to growth in foreign retail operations. SocGen saids its quarterly net income grew to €955m (£838m) from €436m in the same period one year ago. [...]
Obama gives “full-throated defense” of Fed candidate Summers July 31, 2013 President Barack Obama has given a full defense of Lawrence Summers, according to House Democrats. Summers is tipped as a hot candidate to replace Ben Bernanke as chairman of the Federal Reserve when he departs. Representatives Gerry Connolly and Brad Sherman have said that Obama believed that Summers has been "unfairly criticised". While Obama is [...]
Cameron under pressure to apologise to former treasurer wrongly accused in “cash for access” scandal July 31, 2013 Former Conservative co-treasurer Peter Cruddas has won £180,000 in libel damages over allegations in the Sunday Times that he charged for secret meetings with prime minister David Cameron. The High Court in London also said the newspaper would have to pay £500,000 in costs. It said that it was “dismayed” with the outcome and planned [...]
US data misses out on hat-trick as new orders stumble July 31, 2013 US data has just missed out on going three-for-three as the Chicago purchasing manager's index has missed, rising from 51.6 to just 52.3. That's the fourth miss of the last five prints. The headline number was leaked just before it was expected to be printed at 14.45. New ordesrs are down from 54.6 to 53.9, [...]
Ryanair boss says hand luggage charges “inevitable” and pushes for new runways at existing airports July 31, 2013 Ryanair chief executive Michael O’Leary has said the introduction of charges for hand luggage on planes is “unlikely in the short term but it’s probably inevitable”. Speaking at a news conference in London, the budget airline boss said it’s likely that companies would see the charges as a new revenue stream to be exploited, but [...]
Rumours of Twitter float as Facebook trades close to IPO price July 31, 2013 Despite founder Jack Dorsey's protestations – many don't believe a Twitter float will be avoided for much longer. As Facebook's stock has seen a revival, speculation that we may see an IPO as early as this year is back. Floating at $38, Facebook has been considered a bit of an underperformer, but it's now come [...]
Dell special committee reject founder’s sweetened deal conditional on voting changes July 31, 2013 The special committee of Dell’s board has reportedly said it is not willing to change voting provisions for the $13.75 per share offer made by founder Michael Dell with Silver Lake Management for the company, David Faber of CNBC tweeted today. Michael Dell told the Wall Street Journal the $13.75 offer was his best and [...]
IMF heats up German election by saying Eurozone may need to take losses on Greece July 31, 2013 The International Monetary Fund (IMF) has said that Greece needs the backing of the Eurozone in order for there to be any chance of it paying back the bailout funds it has been given. To meet its 2020 debt target of a fall to 124 per cent of GDP from this years’ peak of 176 [...]
US not seeing slowdown, but acceleration as growth picks up in second quarter July 31, 2013 US GDP has come in at 1.7 per cent in the second quarter, well ahead of economist forecasts, with a consensus prediction of 1.2 per cent growth. That news has driven up the dollar against the pound (note that this is the second spike after good private sector job creation numbers 15 minutes before): GDP [...]
US private sector job creation suggests Friday’s unemployment number could be better than expected July 31, 2013 Private sector job creation totalled 200,000 in July, according to ADP employer services. That's up from 198,000 jobs created last month (revised from 188,000). Analysts had forecast job creation of 182,000 in July. Things are less spectacular for the manufacturing sector, which sees jobs down by 5,000. That's the sector's third drop in the last [...]