Deutsche Bank falls short of expectations on legal charges July 30, 2013 A €630m increase in litigation reserves and weak revenues from debt trading pushed Deutsche Bank’s second quarter pre tax profits below analyst expectations. The German bank reported a pre-tax profit of €792m (£684m), compared to expectations of €1.3bn. Net income nearly halved, falling to €335m from €666m. Earnings per share for the second quarter was [...]
UBS reports big jump in profits and plans to buy back central bank fund July 30, 2013 Swiss bank UBS has reported a 32 per cent increase in second quarter profits after solid gains in its investment banking division, and has announced plans to buy back equity in a fund set up by the central banks as part of its bailout in 2008 (report). Switzerland’s largest bank reported an adjusted pre-tax profit [...]
CNBC Comment: Ethical vigilance isn’t easy for Church July 29, 2013 MANAGING God’s money would test the patience of Job. The archbishop of Canterbury discovered this last week when his attempt to take on payday lender Wonga exposed the Church of England to accusations of hypocrisy. Justin Welby locked horns with Wonga because the company’s interest charges attract legitimate concerns. But what came next was the [...]
Daily FX: Analyst picks July 29, 2013 CURRENCY STRATEGIST CHRIS VECCHIO My pick: Closed long Aussie-yen. Short Aussie-dollar Expertise: Fundamental and technical analysis Average time frame of trades: A few hours to a few weeks The bearish bias on the Aussie has been revived, and there are two main reasons to look short early this week: Chinese data has worsened since second [...]
Bank of Italy to inspect finances of top lenders as bad loans could exceed £216bn July 29, 2013 The Bank of Italy is said to be inspecting the finances of some of the country's top lenders, according to reports from the Wall Street Journal. As expected, the Bank of Italy is investigating about NPLs ratio in Italian banks’ balance sheets. — Fabrizio Goria (@FGoria) July 29, 2013 According to Linkiesta, non-performing loans could [...]
ECB set to publish rules for Emergency Liquidity Assistance July 29, 2013 The European Central Bank is going to publish details of rules for Emergency Liquidity Assistance (ELA), according to German newspaper Faz. Some rough translation from the Faz piece below: According to information from the FAZ, the Governing Council has decided that the rules for the controversial emergency loans (Emergency Liquidity Assistance ELA) to publish. This [...]
Travelodge warns that abuse of levies threatens London’s hotel sector July 29, 2013 Hotel chain Travelodge has warned that the Community Infrastructure Levy (CIL) is putting the capital's hotel sector under threat (release). CIL was introduced by the previous Government with the intention of ensuring financial clarity for developers in a bid to ensure developments make a fair contribution to infrastructure whilst providing an alternative solution or replacement [...]
Why is Mike Ashley in trouble over zero hour contracts? July 29, 2013 Trade union Unite has called for an urgent meeting with Sports Direct owner Mike Ashley over the treatment of Sports Direct staff after it was found that all of it’s part-time employees – accounting for 90 per cent of its workforce – are employed on zero hour contracts. A zero hour contract requires employees to [...]
US manufacturing expansion sees unexpected decline in pace July 29, 2013 The newest figure from the Dallas Fed manufacturing business index shows a fall from 6.5 to 4.4 in July. Economists had been forecasting a rise to 7.3 (release). Texas factory activity continued to expand in July, according to business executives responding to the Texas Manufacturing Outlook Survey. The production index, a key measure of state [...]
Omnicom shares jump on merger news July 29, 2013 Omnicom shares opened up over seven per cent today on news of its planned $35bn merger with fellow advertising giant Publicis. The Nasdaq-listed company saw its share price surpass $70 and hovered around that point. Following the release of its earnings data on 18 July, a number of analysts upped their predictions for Omnicom, with [...]