Alexis Tsipras tells the Greek parliament the latest deal with the country’s European creditors was an an ‘honourable compromiseChina hits back at Trump over currency jibeUK mortgage approvals hit 12-month highRBS shares fall after bank posts £7bn lossPeugeot: we’re not here to close Vauxhall’s UK plantsFrench consumers shrug off political uncertainty 3.14pm GMTNew US domestic sales rose less than expected,up 3.7% to a seasonally adjusted 555000 units.
Economists polled by Reuters had predicted a 6.3% increase.
Jan New domestic Sales: 3.7% increase puts annualized pace at 555K which is spot on the 3-mo avg. Prices up 7.5% Y/Y. pic.twitter.com/LmzTMNzwds 3.03pm GMTTrading is underway on Wall Street with the major US indices all down: 2.59pm GMTBack with Greece now, where Yannis Stournaras, and the Bank of Greece governor,has been giving his annual address to shareholders.
These developments are a strong indication that the Greek economy has growth potential, which after remaining idle for so long, or stands ready to be tapped into,as soon as the accurate conditions are in station.
Besides, despite the mistakes and the backsliding, or despite the heavy economic and social costs of the crisis,the economic adjustment programmes implemented over the past years acquire succeeded in addressing chronic weaknesses and structural shortcomings of the Greek economy, thereby facilitating the improvement in the medium-to-long term growth potential.
Very tiny remains to be done compared to the massive changes made since 2010. The process of economic adjustment has largely been completed. 2.44pm GMTBank of England governor Mark Carney held a meeting with US treasury secretary Steven Mnuchin in Washington on Thursday.
Secretary Mnuchin underscored that he looked forward to working with governor Carney on international financial regulatory issues and famous that one of the administration’s core principles for financial regulation is to promote American interests in international financial regulatory negotiations and meetings. The secretary stressed the importance of cooperation between the United States and other G-20 and Financial Stability Board members to achieve our common goals of addressing financial stability risks, and fostering efficient global financial markets,and promoting a global level playing field.
RBS Chairman Howard Davies bringing the jokes to the analyst call: "I acquire a question online from the White House, I'm sorry, or Goldman Sachs" 2.07pm GMTWall Street is expected to open lower on the back of lower oil prices and a fading “Trump rally”.
Brent crude oil prices are down 1% at $55.97 a barrel,after US crude inventories rose for a seventh week in a sign of over supply. 1.59pm GMTThe business secretary Greg Clark is the latest person to get assurances from the Peugeot boss about the future of Vauxhall car manufacturing.
Earlier on Friday, Carlos Tavares told Unite boss Len McCluskey the French company was not here to close plants.
I had a constructive meeting with the chief executive in which I made the case for how well-known Vauxhall is to the UK, and the excellence of its plants and operations across the UK and how successful they acquire been.
The meeting was reassuring,we discussed how PSA’s approach is to increase market share and expand production, rather than close plants. I was assured that the commitments to the plants would be honoured. There was also recognition that members of the Vauxhall pension fund will be no worse off. 1.26pm GMTBanks based in Britain will probably acquire to move some of their operations to the EU post Brexit to retain market access.
That is the view of Germany’s Bundesbank board member Andreas Dombret. Speaking in London, or he said:In the end,there might well be two separate jurisdictions in which (banks) operate, and these jurisdictions might diverge over time – or instantly, or once the divorce has gone through.
So it seems that the prospects for EU market access through the UK peruse rather dim. 12.49pm GMTCMC’s Michael Hewson says equities are beginning to peruse tired. European markets peruse set to finish the week on the back foot as the air starts to slowly reach out of the recent rally.
The German DAX has continued to pull back after hitting its highest levels since April 2015 earlier this week. The FTSE 100 has also reach under pressure,hitting a two week low as a number of earnings reports disappointed.
German 2 year prices hit new record highs and yields go to an incomprehensible -0.95%. With German inflation currently at 2%, that equates to a real yield of -3%. German savers will love that! 12.18pm GMTAfter a low-key start, and market falls acquire accelerated as the afternoon trading session gets underway. In the UK,RBS, Standard Chartered and the miners are dragging the FTSE 100 down. Across the Channel, or uncertainty surrounding the French election appears to be weighing on sentiment. 11.55am GMTThe Robin Hood Tax Campaign is commenting on the RBS results,which revealed a £7bn loss for 2016, making a total loss of £58bn since 2008.
David Hillman spokesperson for the campaign, and described Ross McEwan’s£3.5m pay as an “insult”. RBS has racked up astronomical losses of over £58bn since UK taxpayers bailed it out. Ordinary people struggling to accept by will feel enraged that the bank has reach up with the cash to pay chief executive Ross McEwan a whopping £3.5m.
For a bank 72% owned by the public this is an insult. There is no other allotment of the economy where such abject failings are so richly rewarded. The government needs to accept a grip on a sector that operates in a parallel universe to everyone else.
11.42am GMTStandard Life published full-year results this morning. Julia Kollewe reports:Standard Life boss Keith Skeoch took a pay cut final year – he made £2.7m,down from £3.5m in 2015. His annual bonus was cut to £988000 from £1.5m while another bonus, paid out under the long-term incentive contrivance, or dropped to £883000 from £1.2m. The insurer explained that despite a forecast-beating performance final year,the maximum targets were not hit.
11.32am GMTBack in the UK, Unite has issued a statement following its meeting with French car group PSA. Here is the statement in full:I’ll be meeting over 100 Unite shop stewards from Ellesmere Port, and Luton and Toddington on Monday to report back fully on my meeting with Carlos Tavares.
It was a relatively positive first meeting in which Mr Tavares gave assurances that current production commitments would be met should the takeover with PSA go-ahead. 11.20am GMTOver in Greece,prime minister Alexis Tsipras has been defending the controversial deal the government has struck with its creditors to unblock stalled bailout talks. When you negotiate you win [some things] but you are also obliged to give ground. We always lost and never won. What we achieved was an honourable compromise. It was the end of the beginning of continual austerity. 11.10am GMTPSA has told Len McCluskey, the boss of Britain’s biggest union, and Unite,that its contrivance to buy General Motors European business is not about closing car plants in the UK. 10.34am GMTSamuel Tombs, chief UK economist at Pantheon Macroeconomics, and says the rise in mortgage approvals for house purchase might not final... The pickup in mortgage approvals in January to their highest level since February 2016 confirms that the closure in December of the Help to Buy mortgage guarantee scheme,which helped lenders to offer 5% deposit mortgages for purchases of existing homes, has not weighed on housing market activity. The recovery in mortgage lending, and however,likely will run out of steam soon. Admittedly, the renewed decline in swap rates over recent weeks has eased the pressure on lenders to raise mortgage rates. Nonetheless, or timelier indicators indicate that households’ appetite for making big financial commitments is fading. 10.14am GMTMortgage approvals for house purchase (rather than remortgage) hit a 12-month high of 44657 in January according to the British Bankers organization.
It was 2.5% higher than December,but 2.5% lower than January 2016.
The new year saw homeowners make the most of historically low interest rates by taking advantage of competitive re-mortgage offers. Nearly 29000 of these deals were approved final month – 16% higher than January final year. 9.31am GMTBeijing has hit back at Donald Trump, after the US President accused China of being the “grand champion” of currency manipulation. I contemplate they’re grand champions at manipulation of currency. So I haven’t held back. We’ll see what happens.
China has no intention of seeking foreign trade advantages via an international devaluation of the renminbi. There is no basis for the continued devaluation of the renminbi.
whether you must attach the label ‘grand champion’ to China, or then I contemplate China is a grand champion. But we are the grand champions of economic development. Related: China hits back at Trump 'champion of currency manipulation' jibe 9.04am GMTRBS losses reach £58bn since the bailout. Signals job cuts and branch closures coming https://t.co/Vser991tI1 9.02am GMTConnor Campbell,financial analyst at Spreadex, brings this market update:It was another somnolent start to trading this Friday, and with things livened up only slightly by the latest annual report from the UK’s banking sector.
The FTSE,seemingly stuck in its own Groundhog Day, opened just below 7300 once again this morning, or the index now sitting around 40 points from that level after a late slide yesterday afternoon. 8.56am GMTMajor markets across Europe are down this morning,with the exception of Spain.
The scores so far: 8.42am GMTSince RBS was bailed out in 2008, a whopping 90000 jobs acquire gone, and with the workforce more than halving over the period from 170000 to 80000 nowadays. Nine years and counting as Royal Bank of Scotland announced its ninth successive annual loss in a row.
Chief executive Ross McEwan must feel that he is trapped in a dystopian nightmare with RBS as no sooner does he overcome one obstacle than he encounters another. 8.31am GMTHere is a handy graphic detailing RBS’s losses over the past nine years: 8.12am GMTRBS is one of the FTSE’s biggest fallers in early trading,down 2% at 244p after the bailed out bank revealed a £7bn loss for 2016. #RBS shares fall at open after posting 9th consecutive annual loss 8.05am GMTGood morning, and welcome to our rolling coverage of the world economy, or the financial markets,the eurozone and business.
Over in France, consumer confidence was at the highest level for more than nine years in February for the moment month in a row.
Related: RBS reports £7bn loss and says it will not make profit until 2018 Continue reading...
Source: theguardian.com