The UK Economy

This week was all about GDP growth. With on-going fears about whether China (7.7% YoY) is slowing or not, it was the turn of the UK and US to release Q1 preliminary estimates. The UK’s 0.6% YoY beat expectations (consensus flat), helped by a strong services sector. Good news also that a triple-dip recession was […]

“An extension of the deadline avoids the need for a forced sale or flotation while markets are weak”. Ratings agency Fitch have today argued that Lloyds and RBS are likely to join the ranks of the banks that have had to request from the European Commission an extension of the deadline originally set for the […]

There had been growing concern of a triple-dip recession The UK economy has avoided entering a triple-dip recession following the announcement of a 0.3% GDP increase in the first quarter of 2013. Compiled by the Office for National Statistics the data shows that whilst construction output continues to struggle production, mining, quarrying and the service […]

Barclays have announced a 35% fall in first quarter profits. Citing the cost of transforming the bank to become a “Go-To” bank profits fell by £609m to £1.8bn. An increase in European losses was a further contributing factor to the first quarter losses. In a statement the bank’s chief executive, Antony Jenkins, said  “We set […]

Is it just me or is HSBC (LSE:HSBA) more adept at shooting itself in the foot than most other banks?  Or have they simply understood something that the rest of us have only guessed at? That “little people” are irrelevant. In a span of less than 24 hours, the bank has announced 3,166 workers, i.e., […]

In the session on Monday, the GBPUSD had a slightly bullish day, recovering from the losses that had last Friday, when was published the new Moody’s credit rating for the UK economy. Possibly, the GBPUSD is forming a higher low pattern in this chart but keep in mind that the GBPUSD is not out of […]

Another down week for the UK flagship index  with a revisit to near April lows of 6215 and hand-rubbing by bargain hunters looking for a rebound. Declines driven by more intense fears over global growth (emerging + developed), with weaker Chinese weekend growth data (as suggested last week) seeing the prior Friday’s sell-off in risk […]

Yesterday the Bank of England released the minutes from the early April meeting of the Monetary Policy Committee Meeting.  Although the report indicated that the committee generally sees value in its Funding for Lending Scheme, it didn’t seem too anxious to expand it in the near future. The problem facing the committee is that, so […]

Yesterday’s session was very bearish for the GBPUSD, due to “bad” economic data that were released early and that demonstrate, that the UK economy is not good, for now. The GBPUSD is now trying to make a breakout of support at 1.5225 level, if the cable does that breakout, could fall to next support at […]

If you want to know which way gold is going to move the best thing to do is watch it every day on ADVFN and you should build up a feel for its real value. Gold should be a small part of your investment portfolio and nothing beats keeping tabs on your investments and the […]