Moran News, Studio 62w Thomas Ridge Johnsonburgh SE1P 5NT (2024)

15/02/2023

British lawmakers have accused HSBC (LON:HSBA) of mistreating customers who have fled Hong Kong in the wake of China's anti-democracy crackdown, to protect the bank's profits and curry favour with the Chinese government, a report on Wednesday showed.

The All-Party Parliamentary Group on Hong Kong said the lender had blocked some overseas residents of the former British colony from withdrawing pension contributions made to the island's Mandatory Provident Fund, despite deciding to quit Hong Kong.

"Like all banks, we have to obey the law, and the instructions of the regulators, in every territory in which we operate," a spokesperson for HSBC said.

15/02/2023

LONDON (Reuters) -Shares in German web hosting company IONOS dipped below the price of its initial public offering (IPO) on Wednesday after Europe's first major stock market debut since Porsche (ETR:P911_p) in September.

Shares started trading at 18.40 euros apiece and were changing hands at around 18.00 in morning trading. Books closed on Tuesday with a final IPO price of 18.50 euros, the company said.

The listing of IONOS, whose closest peer is U.S.-based GoDaddy, was seen as a test for market sentiment after IPO activity all but ground to a halt in 2022.

14/02/2023

AMSTERDAM (Reuters) -ABN Amro shares rose to their highest level in three years on Wednesday after the Dutch lender announced a new share buyback helped by stronger-than-expected fourth-quarter earnings.

Largely state-owned ABN, one of three dominant banks in the Netherlands, said it would buy 500 million euros ($538 million) of its shares in the first half, as it reported a net profit of 354 million euros for the last three months of 2022.

14/02/2023

Iceland's central bank raised its key policy interest rate by half a percentage point to 6.5% on Wednesday, its first rate hike in 2023, and warned of further monetary tightening to bring down inflation, which has anchored itself in the economy.

The central bank's Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) estimated economic growth in 2022 of 7.1%, above its November forecast of around 5.6%, but said it expects growth in 2023 to weaken to 2.6%.

13/02/2023

Amsterdam-listed mobile telecoms operator VEON said on Wednesday that it had won approval from Russian regulatory authorities for the proposed sale of its Russian operations.

"We are pleased to have reached this significant milestone in the transaction, which is expected to be accretive to equity, reduce VEON's debt, and improve its credit profile," VEON CEO Kaan Terzioğlu said in a statement.

Last November, VEON had announced plans to sell its Russian business Vimpelcom to senior members of the Vimpelcom management team, led by CEO Aleksander Torbakhov, for 130 billion roubles ($1.83 billion).

13/02/2023

Italian retail sales fell 0.2% in December from the month before, data showed on Wednesday, following a 0.8% rise in November.

Sales rose 3.4% in unadjusted year-on-year terms in December, ISTAT said.

The data are expressed in value terms and are not adjusted for consumer prices, which increased 12.3% in December from the year earlier, based on Italy's EU-harmonised index (HICP).

12/02/2023

European stock markets are expected to open largely higher Wednesday, as investors digested comments from Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell ahead of more major corporate earnings.

At 02:00 ET (07:00 GMT), the DAX futures contract in Germany traded 0.7% higher, the FTSE 100 futures contract in the U.K. rose 0.6%, while CAC 40 futures in France slipped 0.1%.

European stocks are seen taking their lead from Wall Street, which closed firmly higher Tuesday after Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell struck a less hawkish tone than feared during a speech at the Economic Club of Washington D.C.

Italian retail sales fell 0.2% in Decemb...

12/02/2023

Zoom is to make 1,300 layoffs, letting go of around 15pc of its workforce as the Covid-19 pandemic’s work-from-home culture comes to a crashing halt. Eric Yuan, the chief executive, said: “We have made the tough but necessary decision to reduce our team by approximately 15% and say goodbye to around 1,300 hardworking, talented colleagues.” – Telegraph

Lidl and Tesco (LON:TSCO) are facing off in a High Court battle over a yellow circle logo. The two supermarkets are at loggerheads over claims by Lidl that Tesco infringed its copyright by using a yellow circle to promote its clubcard prices. Tesco has filed a counterclaim against Lidl in the dispute which started in April last year. – Telegraph

11/02/2023

The UK will avoid recession – but for up to 7 million Britons it will still feel like the economy is in reverse gear.

That at least is the headline from research by the respected National Institute of Economic and Social Research (Niesr).

Although the country may avoid a technical recession, characterised by two consecutive quarters of contraction, Niesr has warned that the rising cost of living will still make life tough for lower-income households, especially in the North East, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland.

11/02/2023

Powell said on Tuesday that he was expecting to see "significant" declines in inflation this year, but also acknowledged that interest rates may need to rise further amid job market strength.

Victoria Scholar, head of investment at Interactive Investor, said: "The FTSE 100 has hit a fresh record high, surpassing its all-time peak from Friday with BP (LON:BP) and Glencore (LON:GLEN) leading the charge while Smurfit Kappa is dragging on the index.

10/02/2023

Figures out earlier from the Office for National Statistics showed the UK narrowly avoided a technical recession at the end of last year, after the economy stagnated in the last quarter of 2022.

GDP fell 0.5% in December following growth of 0.1% in November and 0.55% in October. December’s print was dragged down by a 0.8% decline in the services sector, which recorded falls in health, education, transport and storage, arts and entertainment.

However, it was not enough to push the quarterly data into negative territory, and GDP was 0.0% in the three months to December, following a decline of 0.3% in November.

The definition of a recession is two consecutive quarters of contraction.

10/02/2023

Tokyo (Reuters) -Japan's government is likely to appoint Kazuo Ueda, an academic and a former member of the central bank's policy board, as the Bank of Japan's next governor, the Nikkei newspaper reported on Friday.

Investors have repeatedly tried to push up Japanese government bond yields in recent months on expectations the BOJ will start to phase out its massive stimulus programme when a new governor takes over after Haruhiko Kuroda's second term ends in April.

The government will also nominate Ryozo Himino, former head of Japan's banking watchdog, and BOJ executive Shinichi Uchida as deputy governors, the Nikkei said.

09/02/2023

LONDON (Reuters) - Bank of England Governor Andrew Bailey and other BoE officials spoke to lawmakers on Thursday, a week after the central bank raised borrowing costs for the 10th time in a row but suggested that its run of interest rate hike might be close to an end.

Below are quotes from Bailey and his colleagues in a question-and-answer session with parliament's Treasury Committee.

BAILEY ON PERSISTENCE OF INFLATION

"We are concerned about persistence (of inflation) and that's why, frankly, we raised interest rates this time... I am very uncertain particularly about price-setting and wage-setting in this country. We have got the largest upside skew in our forecasts that we have ever had on inflation."

09/02/2023

Susannah Streeter, senior investment and markets analyst at Hargreaves Lansdown (LON:HRGV), said: "The FTSE 100 powered up in early trade, gaining more ground back towards the record high, as winds of worry over how far interest rates will go are blown away again. The defensive, international nature of the index has provided the seeds of growth, but an improved forecast for the UK economy this week is also adding fresh nutrients.

"There are hopes the forecasts could see fresh confidence emerge from consumers and limit the expected belt-tightening.

07/02/2023

NEW YORK/LONDON (Reuters) - A gauge of global equities edged lower and the dollar inched up on Tuesday as markets awaited word from the Federal Reserve chief after last week's blockbuster U.S. jobs number made clear interest rates will stay higher for longer to combat inflation.

The Australian dollar earlier bolted higher after its central bank reiterated further increases would be needed, while the yen gained after an unusually strong Japanese wage data.

U.S. and European equity markets were mixed to lower, with the euro and pound lower against the dollar. The broad pan-European STOXX 600 index was up 0.04% and MSCI's gauge of global stock performance shed 0.12%.

07/02/2023

NEW YORK (Reuters) - The dollar fell from one-month highs on Tuesday after U.S. Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell doubled down on statements last week that disinflation has started, as he expects significant declines in inflation this year.

The greenback dropped across the board, led by losses versus the yen, Swiss franc, as well as the Australian and New Zealand dollar.

The Fed chief did say that the return to the U.S. central bank's inflation goal would be a bumpy process, which would need further rate increases.

Moran News

15/02/2023

15/02/2023

14/02/2023

14/02/2023

13/02/2023

13/02/2023

12/02/2023

12/02/2023

11/02/2023

11/02/2023

10/02/2023

10/02/2023

09/02/2023

09/02/2023

07/02/2023

07/02/2023

Address

Website

Alerts

Shortcuts

Share