Market Buzz
Wednesday newspaper round-up: Car production, RBS, Bitcoin, Carillion,
UK car production went into reverse last year for the first time since the depths of financial crisis in 2009, as Brexit fears took hold and consumers turned their backs on diesel vehicles. A total of 1. 67m cars rolled off UK production lines in 2017, down 3% compared with 2016 as demand for British-made cars dropped both at home and abroad, according to the Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders (SMMT). – Guardian.
Tuesday newspaper round-up: Brexit, Thomson Reuters, Waterstones, stock markets
Brexit would leave the UK worse off under three possible scenarios: a comprehensive free trade deal, single market access and no deal at all, according to a leaked government analysis of the economic impact of leaving the EU. The document was meant to be shown confidentially to cabinet ministers this week but was leaked in an embarrassing development for Theresa May and David Davis, the Brexit secretary. – Guardian.
Monday newspaper round-up: Carillion, economic growth, business rates, Provident Financial
MPs have accused the Pensions Regulator of failing to act while Carillion racked up debts to pay dividends and executive bonuses, as the business built up a pension deficit that reached nearly £1bn by the time it collapsed this month. The House of Commons work and pensions committee, which is investigating Carillion’s collapse into compulsory liquidation two weeks ago, criticised the Pensions Regulator for allowing Carillion’s pension trustee to defer pension deficit contributions in September in a bid to keep it afloat by enabling more borrowing.
Sunday newspaper round-up: Rate hike, Brexit, profit warnings, buybacks, Sky
Stronger than expected growth numbers have fuelled expectations that another rise in interest rates is on the way, with City traders now seeing a May rise from the Bank of England as an even-money bet. The economy expanded by 0. 5% in the final quarter of 2017, according to official figures last week, faster than economists had forecast. - Sunday Times.
Friday newspaper round-up: cryptocurrencies, fracking, Brexit, GKN
The Nobel prize-winning economist Robert Shiller has said bitcoin will not be a “permanent feature” of the financial world, as politicians indicated that a clampdown on cryptocurrencies was coming. Speaking at the World Economic Forum in Davos on Thursday, Shiller hailed bitcoin as a “really clever idea”. But although he was impressed with the technology behind it, he was concerned that it had “gone viral as a currency”. – Guardian.
Thursday newspaper round-up: Google tax, World Bank, Carillion fallout
The chief executive of Google has declared he is happy for his company to pay more tax, and called for the existing system to be reformed. Sundar Pichai told an audience at the World Economic Forum in Davos that the tax system needed to be reformed to address concerns that some companies were not paying their fair share. – Guardian.
Wednesday newspaper round-up: Markets warning, UK defence review, Brexit, Apple
Stock markets are failing to price risks correctly, leading bankers and investors have warned. “Equity markets are at an all-time high. Volatility at an all-time low. That is not a sustainable position,” Jes Staley, chief executive of Barclays, said at the annual meeting of the World Economic Forum in Davos. - The Times.
Tuesday newspaper round-up: Bookies, cyber-attacks, builders' warning, Barclays
Big bookmakers are weighing up the possibility of legal action against the government after suggestions that ministers have decided to cut the maximum stakes on betting machines from £100 to £2. The reports spooked investors, who had been forecasting a cut in the maximum stake to £20. - The Times.
Monday newspaper round-up: Carillion, EI Group, Softbank, Dignity
The development charity Oxfam has called for action to tackle the growing gap between rich and poor as it launched a new report showing that 42 people hold as much wealth as the 3. 7 billion who make up the poorest half of the world’s population. In a report published on Monday to coincide with the gathering of some of the world’s richest people at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Oxfam said billionaires had been created at a record rate of one every two days over the past 12 months, at a time when the bottom 50% of the world’s population had seen no increase in wealth.
Sunday newspaper round-up: Customs union, PFI fallout, GKN, Dixons, banks
Britain's lobbying group for business leaders is on a collision course with the government as its chief prepares to call for the UK to remain in “a customs union” with the European Union after Brexit. In a major speech on Monday, Carolyn Fairbairn, the Confederation of British Industry’s director general, is expected to claim that “remaining in a customs union for as long as it serves us to do so” is “consistent” with the Leave vote in the EU referendum and “would be good for EU firms”.
Friday newspaper round-up: RBS, Ryanair, women in business
Vince Cable has attacked the City watchdog for failing to publish a full report into the mistreatment of small businesses by the Royal Bank of Scotland, as MPs lined up to condemn the bank in parliament. The leader of the Liberal Democrats expressed “disgust” that passages of a damning report by the Financial Conduct Authority had not been released, four-and-a-half years after he first referred the case to the regulator during his time in the coalition government.
Thursday newspaper round-up: Carillion collapse, Bitcoin, Barclays, RBS
Taxpayers will be forced to hand over nearly £200bn to contractors under private finance deals for at least 25 years, according to a report by Whitehall’s spending watchdog. In the wake of the collapse of public service provider Carillion, the National Audit Office found little evidence that government investment in more than 700 existing public-private projects has delivered financial benefits. – Guardian.
Wednesday newspaper round-up: Carillion, pay gap, Heathrow, GKN
The dramatic collapse of Carillion has started to hit thousands of the firm’s suppliers, as the real world impact of the demise starts to emerge. Subcontractors owed money by the construction and services giant are already being pressurised by their banks and have begun laying off workers, as the threat of contagion afflicting the sector was likened to a near re-run of the banking crisis. - Guardian.
Tuesday newspaper round-up: Carillion fall-out, household debt, Brexit blow
One in four of Britain’s poorest households are falling behind with debt payments or spending more than a quarter of their monthly income on repayments, according to a study. The latest evidence of mounting debt problems for some of the most vulnerable in society is shown in a report by the Institute for Fiscal Studies, on behalf of the Joseph Rowntree Foundation, with the poorest tenth of households more likely to be in net debt, owing more on plastic or on overdrafts and loans than they hold in savings.
Monday newspaper round-up: Carillion, GKN, Barclays, diesel cars
Ministers are facing questions about why hundreds of millions of pounds of work was awarded to a public contractor even after it issued a string of profit warnings. Last night the fate of the company, an employer of almost 20,000 people in the UK, lay in government hands after lenders indicated they would not rescue it without ministerial help. - The Times.
Sunday newspaper round-up: Carillion, GKN, Brexit, gas prices
Bosses at Carillion have appealed for a state-backed rescue, telling ministers that its survival rests on a bail-out of the firm’s most troubled contracts. The crisis-hit construction firm has called on the government to step in to reduce the financial burden of a string of failed projects around the country, with the cry for help understood to centre around three UK public private partnership contracts, and asked Whitehall to pledge to dramatically speed up future outstanding payments.
Friday newspaper round-up: Dominic Chappell, Carillion, New Look
The former owner of BHS, Dominic Chappell, has been found guilty of three charges of failing to provide vital documents to the pensions watchdog. Chappell, 51, was charged with neglecting or refusing to respond to three section 72 notices demanding he hand over vital documents and information relating to the purchase of the company. – Guardian.
Thursday newspaper round-up: BHS, Carillion, Deloitte
The former BHS owner Dominic Chappell has told a court that workers were seen shredding bin bags of documents prior to his purchase of Sir Philip Green’s doomed high street chain in 2015. Chappell, 51, said the staff tipped the bags into an “industrial-sized” shredder, which was located in a lorry or a van in the car park of the Arcadia-run BHS offices in London. – Guardian.
Wednesday newspaper round-up: World Bank, Brexit, Shell, Amazon
Financial markets are complacent about the risks of sharply higher interest rates that could be triggered by better than expected growth in the global economy this year, the World Bank has warned. The Washington-based organisation said that much of the rich west was running at full capacity as a result of a broad-based upswing in activity, but were now vulnerable to a period of rising inflation that would prompt action from central banks. – Guardian.
Tuesday newspaper round-up: Retail woe, credit card misselling, AA, Lidl
The number of retailers going into administration has risen for the first time in five years as falling consumer confidence and rising costs take their toll on businesses. Figures compiled by Deloitte show that 118 retailers became insolvent last year, a 28 per cent increase on 2016, when 92 firms filed for administration. - The Times.