Exclusive: Online retail sales record five years growth in 12 months due to pandemic February 12, 2021 Online retail sales recorded five years of growth in just 12 months as the coronavirus pandemic accelerated the shift to digital shopping, the latest research showed. E-commerce sales accounted for 19 per cent of retail spending in 2019 compared to 28 per cent 2020 after restrictions and lockdowns forced consumer spending online and away from [...]
FTSE 100 trades flat as banks lead the biggest fallers February 11, 2021 The FTSE 100 is trading flat this afternoon after the excitement of corporate earnings wore off. Investors had initially been boosted by rose by Astrazeneca’s upbeat quarterly results, which is now trading up 0.8 per cent. Banks are proving to be a drag on the FTSE this afternon which slipped to trade down 0.04 per [...]
British banks set to hand out hundreds of millions in staff bonuses February 6, 2021 Britain’s largest banks are finalising plans to hand out hundreds of millions of pounds in staff bonuses next week, at the same time loan losses are expected to catapult during the pandemic. Taxpayer-backed lender Natwest Group has informed the Treasury that it is poised to distribute more than £200m in staff bonuses for 2020. The [...]
Wall Street opens at record high on stimulus progress February 5, 2021 The S&P 500 and the Nasdaq opened at record highs on today on signs of progress towards more economic stimulus, while a closely watched jobs report confirmed the labor market was stabilising. The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 38 points, or 0.12 per cent, at the open to 31093.81. The S&P 500 rose 6.6 points, [...]
Wall Street rises on stimulus talks as FTSE 100 closes flat February 4, 2021 Wall Street pushed higher this afternoon as investors looked to corporate earnings and signs of progress on more pandemic stimulus. The Dow Jones was up 0.91 per cent, while the S&P 500 and Nasdaq rose 0.86 and 0.88 per cent respectively. It came after the FTSE 100 closed four points lower this afternoon as sterling [...]
Millions of NatWest customers to see Visa debit card switch to Mastercard February 4, 2021 Millions of NatWest customers will see their debit cards switch as the British bank plans to start using Mastercard over Visa, despite Mastercard’s plans to hike EU fees. NatWest has become the latest bank to adopt Mastercard, which has prior agreements with Santander UK, HSBC’s First Direct and Monzo. The move will divert around 16m [...]
Why Test cricket is back on Channel 4 and what it means for the future of sport on terrestrial TV February 2, 2021 For the first time since the heady 2005 Ashes series, Test cricket is returning to British terrestrial television. Channel 4 has bought the rights to show England’s tour of India, which begins on Friday in Chennai. But why is cricket back on a free-to-air broadcaster? Who stands to gain? And what does this mean for [...]
Government set to write off estimated £31bn of pandemic loans January 29, 2021 An estimate of £31bn of government loans handed out during the pandemic will have to be written off, according to the UK’s spending watchdog. In its latest Covid-19 Cost Tracker, the National Audit Office (NAO) forecast that the total cost of the pandemic for Britain will balloon to £271bn, of which £116bn has been spent [...]
Banks claw back fraudulent bounce back loans January 24, 2021 High street banks are scrambling to claw back emergency coronavirus loans linked to suspected fraud. Banks including HSBC, Barclays, Natwest and Lloyds are among those that have started to freeze accounts over fears that government-backed bounce back loans have been obtained fraudulently. They have reclaimed up to £50,000 from customers, according to the Mail on [...]
FTSE 100 off to strong start to 2021 but Wall Street slips from record highs January 4, 2021 The FTSE 100 got the year off to a strong start today, bursting through the 6,600 point mark this morning, before closing the day up 1.8 per cent. However, Wall Street slipped back from record highs as the world’s markets got 2021 off to a fast start. In the first session of the new year [...]