The UK Economy

This column generally focuses on company and market news of interest to serious investors.  With apologies to my bosses, I am going to take it in a different direction today, because I believe that the most important story today, although it may not be directly connected to the market, does have serious implications for any […]

Mike van Dulken, Head of Research at Accendo Markets, commented in his Weekly Roundup to clients; A tough week for the FTSE 100 index, giving up 200 points high-to-low to revisit the lower end of its summer trading range. Markets continued to fret over the prospect of less Fed stimulus and have immediately questioned the […]

GBPUSD Daily Analysis for August 09, 2013 Daily chart: The GBPUSD continues to strengthen its bullish trend in this chart, breaking the resistance level at 1.5506. This pair is trying to consolidate above the 200 day moving average and is very possible that this rises to the resistance at the 1.5642 level. By now, one […]

Look for the next few days, if not weeks or months, to be a bumpy ride for world markets.  While Mark Carney’s remarks today (see my ADVFN colleague Tom Frew’s remarks) will have some impact on the London Exchange, the whole world is reacting to signs that the Federal Reserve is on the verge of […]

First major announcement under Mark Carney’s Governorship At its meeting on 1 August, the Bank of England’s Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) voted to provide some explicit guidance regarding the future conduct of monetary policy. The Committee intends at a minimum to maintain the current highly stimulative stance of monetary policy until economic slack has been […]

Total sales grew by 3.4 per cent in the first half driven by Greggs’ new shop opening programme and growth in wholesale volumes. In a statement the company said that trading during “the early part of the year was particularly challenging. Like-for-like sales performance in our estate improved in the second quarter but across the […]

Britain’s banks have provided a bevy of news for the first Monday in August.  And – surprise!- not all of it is bad.  Not that long ago, any story about UK banks could have been written in one word:  “Disaster.”  Actually, it’s been so bad for so long that “bank” and “disaster” in the same […]

Mr McEwan will replace out going CEO Stephen Hester. The Royal Bank of Scotland Group plc (RBS) announces today that Ross McEwan has been appointed as a Director and Group Chief Executive with effect from 1 October 2013. Mr McEwan joined RBS as the UK Retail CEO in September 2012. Philip Hampton, RBS Chairman said […]

Research by part of the Lloyds Banking Group The number of first time buyers in the first six months of 2013 was 19% higher than in the same period last year, according to the half-year Halifax First Time Buyer Review. There were an estimated 120,000 first time buyers (FTBs) during January-June 2013, up from 101,000 […]

Step forward for British Gas owner. Centrica Energy’s Lincs offshore wind farm has been officially opened by the Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg. The last of the wind farm’s 75 wind turbines was connected to the National Grid on Wednesday 24 July, bringing the 270MW project up to full strength for the first time. Lincs […]