Europe back in crisis mode September 26, 2012 THE EUROZONE came crashing back down to reality yesterday, as riots in Greece and worries over Spain saw markets turn red. In Athens a general strike organised by trade unions was splintered by outbursts of violence between police and clusters of troublemakers among the protesters. Molotov cocktails and other missiles were hurled at the police, [...]
Europe back in crisis mode September 26, 2012 THE EUROZONE came crashing back down to reality yesterday, as riots in Greece and worries over Spain saw markets turn red. In Athens a general strike organised by trade unions was splintered by outbursts of violence between police and clusters of troublemakers among the protesters. Molotov cocktails and other missiles were hurled at the police, [...]
Wet weather helps lift sales at Carpetright July 24, 2012 CARPETRIGHT, the troubled floor coverings retailer, showed some signs of recovery yesterday after revamped stores and improvements to its bed range helped boost first quarter sales. The group, which has issued a string of profit warnings over the last two years, said like-for-like sales at its 486 UK stores rose 1.7 per cent in the [...]
Reed Elsevier eyes disposals July 26, 2012 PUBLISHING and events group Reed Elsevier yesterday said it would accelerate plans to dispose of non-core businesses. The FTSE 100 firm, which owns legal database LexisNexis and scientific publishing houses, said sales were up from £2.9bn to £3bn in the first half of the year, with profits increasing seven per cent to £666m. With most of [...]
Coalition must not become complacent on economic growth October 25, 2012 UNLIKE some commentators, I don’t think David Cameron did anything especially wrong yesterday. He hinted at Prime Minister’s Question Time that the economy was improving; he didn’t leak the GDP figures. The statistics will be published this morning; so there is little point speculating about them. But it is worth noting that when the Prime [...]
Coalition must not become complacent on economic growth October 24, 2012 UNLIKE some commentators, I don’t think David Cameron did anything especially wrong yesterday. He hinted at Prime Minister’s Question Time that the economy was improving; he didn’t leak the GDP figures. The statistics will be published this morning; so there is little point speculating about them. But it is worth noting that when the Prime [...]
House prices nudge up in June July 5, 2012 House prices rose unexpectedly in June, though the housing market is likely to hold broadly steady in the remainder of 2012, mortgage lender Halifax said on Thursday. Halifax said house prices rose by one per cent in June, confounding economists’ forecasts for a 0.2 percent decline. House prices in May rose by 0.4 percent, a [...]
Aston Martin strikes the right balance October 9, 2012 “It’s the best car we’ve ever made,” says Dr Ulrich Bez of the new Vanquish. I resist the temptation to ask Aston Martin’s boss whether its new flagship GT is better than the £1.2m-plus One-77 hypercar or the less extreme, but almost as exclusive, V12 Zagato now on sale. To be fair, Bez isn’t referring [...]
Bloomsbury sees ebook sales surge by 70pc in market shift July 11, 2012 EBOOK sales have jumped by 70 per cent at Bloomsbury, the publishing house announced yesterday, as the company heralded a “seismic shift” in publishing. The rapid rise in year-on-year digital sales for the three months to June means that the publisher now sells more ebooks than hardback editions in America. Print sales fell by two [...]
Retailers pick up during light Wall St trading August 14, 2012 US stocks ended little changed yesterday in what investors described as a fatigued market after the S&P 500 rose in seven of the past eight sessions. Retailers were a notable standout after Home Depot raised its profit forecast due to improvement in the housing market and US retail sales data that was stronger than expected, [...]