More young people are turning to ISAs to invest, but also to have impact April 6, 2021 The impact of the global pandemic, big political changes, and social justice movements on day-to-day life in the past 12 months has been substantial. One of the key areas affected has been people’s personal finances, from loss of income on one hand, to increased savings from less leisure spending on the other. So how have [...]
Putting the ‘great’ back into Great British brands December 3, 2020 UK businesses are failing to realise a return on investment from their biggest asset to help drive sales growth: brands. Unless urgent action is taken, there will be irreversible damage to the ability of British businesses to compete on a global scale. The declining brand values of British companies are reflected in 2020’s BrandZ Top [...]
FTSE 100 spikes as Trump whistleblower complaint sinks Asian and US stocks September 27, 2019 The FTSE 100 opened up again today after surging to an eight-week high yesterday, but later giving back some gains. Read more: FTSE 100 rises as US-China trade talks boost European stocks London’s main market climbed 0.96 per cent to 7,421.65 points as it opened, after the fallout from President Donald Trump’s whistleblower complaint hit [...]
Financial services’ annual reports across the Atlantic chart path to optimistic Covid recovery March 10, 2021 Britain’s economy entered crisis mode in March last year and plotting a course toward recovery dominated the recent budget. But there is reason for optimism, and the conclusion of the annual reporting cycles for the leading financial institutions in the UK and the US can tell us a lot about where we will see growth [...]
UK PMIs: Manufacturing activity slows in January as export orders shrink February 1, 2021 Manufacturing growth slowed its lowest rate in three months in January as Covid-19 and Brexit weighed upon export orders. The IHS Markit/CIPS Purchasing Managers’ Index fell to 54.1 last month, down from 57.5 in December. Any reading above 50 designates growth. However, the score was higher than analyst estimates of a score of 52.9. The [...]
Reverse new rules on hospitality – or businesses will be lost forever October 5, 2020 David Abrahamovitch is founder and CEO of GRIND The very last thing that the hospitality industry needed was a set of new rules, especially ones that undermine consumer confidence and set the entire sector back even further. It’s incredibly difficult to understand the 10pm curfew and the ‘rule of six’ in the context of the [...]
Boots sales slump as shoppers prioritise supermarkets during pandemic January 7, 2021 Boots suffered a sharp drop in sales in the first quarter as consumers shifted towards “one-stop” supermarket shopping during the pandemic, the high street pharmacy’s US owner announced today. Walgreens Boots Alliance (WBA), the parent company of the UK chemist chain, said its retail pharmacy division’s sales fell 6.2 per cent to $2.6bn, driven by [...]
March is over: UK led vaccine battle this quarter but European markets outperformed March 31, 2021 As it is the end of the month, as well as the quarter, it is perhaps worth reflecting on the fact that it’s been a fairly decent period for equity markets, despite the lockdowns across Europe and in the UK. Having said that, there has been mixed progress on the vaccine rollout, with the UK [...]
Weaker economic backdrop presents fresh headaches for Fed July 28, 2021 Today’s Federal Open Market Committee announcements come amid mounting concerns that the rapid rise in Covid cases could dampen the global economic recovery. This backdrop presents a different set of problems for Fed Chair Jerome Powell to when he last spoke in June. Recovery prospects are still good, but have tempered. Investors around the world [...]
Man’s best friend: Brits put a premium on pets even as household spend slips April 29, 2021 Not even lockdown could put an end to the old adage ‘Dogs are a man’s best friend’. In the last three months spending on pets surged as Brits prioritised emotional connections. Nationwide’s latest quarterly spending report reveals the biggest increases in spending between January and March have been on dating sites, gardening and pet-related costs. [...]