UK fiscal watchdog: Government finances “increasingly exposed” to global shocks July 6, 2021 The boss of the Government’s fiscal watchdog has warned the UK’s public finances are “increasingly exposed.” The Office for Budget Responsibility boss boss Richard Hughes said that two major crises – the global financial crisis in 2008 and the Covid-19 pandemic – had added 20 per cent each to the UK’s debt to GDP ratio. [...]
Transforming private equity with data analytics July 5, 2021 | City Talk Krekar Kawani CA, Founder of Touchstone Advisory, examines how private equity firms are leveraging game changing advancements in data analytics to their advantage. Data has been an integral part of human culture since the beginning of time. Humans going back as far as 40,000 years have been recorded using sequential markings by etching notches on [...]
Pound falls below $1.37 as US labour market rebounds sharply July 2, 2021 Pound sterling dipped below $1.37 today as the currency continued to fall against its American counterpart. Despite breaking the threshold, the pound was up slightly against the greenback in afternoon trading. The fall comes as strong US payrolls data published today indicates the American economic rebound from the pandemic is gathering real pace. Businesses hired [...]
City PM TV: A market snapshot (video) July 2, 2021 US markets have continued their grind higher this week with the S&P500 eking out gains on all four trading sessions so far. Across the globe, though, the strength in other equity markets has been less marked: In the Euro zone most equity markets have traded sideways or even lower over the course of June; in [...]
Gym Group eyes £31m of investor funding for 40 new sites July 1, 2021 The UK’s second-largest gym chain, Gym Group, aims to raise £31m from investors to fund an expansion with 40 new branches. The low-cost gym operator said it plans to open the new sites over the next 18 months as it continues its rapid rollout programme. It said the impact of Covid-19 on the commercial property [...]
FTSE 100 climbs as Sunak outlines post-Brexit financial services roadmap July 1, 2021 London’s FTSE 100 surged this afternoon as investors digested the Chancellor’s post-Brexit roadmap for the UK’s financial service industry. The capital’s premier index climbed 1.25 per cent in afternoon trading to reach 7,125. The rally came after Chancellor Rishi Sunak outlined plans to make the UK financial services industry more competitive on the global stage. [...]
Oil prices hit highest levels in three years July 1, 2021 Global oil prices hit their highest levels in three years today as fuel demand continued to pick up amid the reopening of the global economy after the pandemic. Both worldwide standard Brent crude and US benchmark WTI topped $75 today, touching their highest prices since October 2018. The latter’s price picked up a further 2.2 [...]
Legal services company LegalZoom makes $7bn Nasdaq debut June 30, 2021 LegalZoom shares today opened 31 per cent above the company’s offer price in its Nasdaq debut, valuing the online legal services company at $7bn (£5bn). The legal tech giant helps users generate legal documents without lawyers. Shares opened at $36.75 (£26.61), up from the company’s initial public offering (IPO) on Tuesday which saw over 19m shares [...]
Should EM investors be worried about tapering? June 30, 2021 | City Talk In our latest Economic and Strategy Viewpoint we brought forward our expectations for Federal Reserve (Fed) policy tightening. We still think that the current bout of inflation in the US will prove to be largely transitory. However, the strength of the US economic recovery means that we now expect underlying price pressures to build next year such [...]
UK’s debt risks soaring by over £100bn due to post-pandemic inflation June 29, 2021 The Bank for International Settlements (BIS) today published its annual report today, suggesting that the UK’s post-pandemic debt could rise by over £100bn due to inflation. In its report, the Swiss-based bank set out its outlook for global recovery from the Covid pandemic. Its primary scenario was one of solid recovery but at uneven rates, [...]
