US initial jobless claims impress again August 8, 2013 US initial jobless claims increased by less than expected in the week ending 3 August, to 333,000 from an upwardly revised 328,000. Analysts had expected an increase to 336,000 (release). However, continuing jobless claims in the week ending 27 July were higher than expected – at 3.018m rather than the 2.950m expected – and up [...]
What the analysts are saying about Chinese rebalancing and trade data August 8, 2013 What does this morning’s narrowing of China’s trade surplus and boost in imports and exports mean for the economy? This morning, it was revealed that China’s trade balance narrowed much more drastically than expected in July – to $17.818bn from $27.100bn (a fall to $26.200bn had been forecast). At the same time, Chinese imports rose [...]
Cameron accidentally promises millions to those living near fracking sites August 8, 2013 During a speech in Lancashire, prime minister David Cameron accidentally told listeners that local communities would receive £1m every time a new well for extracting shale gas is created. This was ten times the £100,000 agreed last month by ministers, and it would appear that the prime minister simply made a mistake. Cameron was attempting [...]
FCA fines three individuals £205,000 for enabling market abuse in 2010 August 8, 2013 The Financial Conduct Authority has fined a compliance officer and a broker for failing to act with due skill, care and diligence enabling market abuse in October 2010. David Davis, senior partner and compliance officer of Schweder Miller, was fined £70,258 and Vandena Parikh, a broker at the same firm, was fined £45,673 for their [...]
OECD warns of BRIC slowdown as other major economies recover August 8, 2013 The Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) has warned of a slowdown in large emerging economises, but said it expects improvement in most other major countries (release). The OECD’s composite leading indicators (CLIs) for the US and the UK point to economic growth firming, and a pick up in growth in the Eurozone as [...]
Greek unemployment hits fresh highs August 8, 2013 The number of unemployed people between the ages of 15 and 24 in Greece hit 64.9 per cent in May, up from 55.1 per cent the year before. Unemployment for the country at a whole rose to a record high of 27.6 per cent from an upwardly revised 27.0 per cent the month before and [...]
False major earthquake alarm in Japan causes temporary panic August 8, 2013 The Japanese Meteorological Agency has said it is investigating a false alarm it issued via an early warning system this morning regarding a strong earthquake of magnitude 7.8 in the Nara prefecture in western Japan. Echoing an incident in the US last month when iPhones in New York issued simultaneous flash flood warnings to users, [...]
Dependence on cash benefits has increased over the past 50 years August 8, 2013 Over the past fifty years, the proportion of incomes made up from cash benefits by the state has increased as policymakers have struggled to withdraw those introduced in tough times and from the effect of an ageing population. However, the effective tax rate has fallen from its peak in the early 1980s (release). Between 1961 [...]
Employment in London small businesses grew by 15 per cent over the last decade August 8, 2013 The number of people working for small and medium sized businesses (SMEs) in London has grown by around 15 per cent over the period 2001 to 2011, according to a report by the Office for National Statistics (release). This report from the ONS is the second part of a two-part paper on the size of [...]
ECB holds interest rates but cuts growth and inflation forecasts for 2013 and 2014 August 8, 2013 The European Central Bank has decided to keep interest rates unchanged and reiterated its commitment to keeping monetary policy accommodative for as long as necessary and interest rates to remain at present or lower levels for an “extended period of time” (report). The bank said downgraded the Eurozone’s 2013 GDP forecast by 0.2 percentage points [...]