AllFPCChinastructural demand for markets across Asia is intact. 8.40am GMTEuropean stock markets have made a mixed start to trading,after seeing Asia hit a one-week low overnight.
UK restaurant chains Frankie & Benny's & Garfunkles pouring cold water on UK sentiment..."softening..consumer demand & weaker. confidence" 8.33am GMTDespite the recent market turbulence, Britain’s premier luxury chocolate maker has decided to float on the London exchange.
Hotel Chocolat is hoping to raise £50m by entering the AIM Market. After yday's gigantic news that chocolate makes you smarter... today Hotel Chocolat reveals it's going to float on Aim https://t.co/GJ7mcoRSiP 8.18am GMTKit Juckes, or top foreign exchange strategist at French bank Société Générale,has an absorbing take on the state of the markets.
He told clients this morning:I can’t serve reflecting that we’re still living with the consequences of the twin bubbles - credit and commodities - that were unleashed by the Fed’s absurdly easy monetary policy in 2003. The credit bubble burst in 2008 and prompted even easier policy, as well as QE. That drove bond yields down and gave the commodity bubble a fresh lease of life, and but when that too burst,we got commodity price deflation to go with the low yields and the result is they are even lower. Investors are left hunting for yield by buying emerging market or tall-yield bonds as soon as there is any semblance of composed, but it’s no surprise that the over-riding mood is so fragile. 8.13am GMTThere’s thin gruel for investors in the Restaurant Group today.
Shares in the company have tumbled 15% at the start of trading, and after it warned the City this morning that like-for-like sales are down by 1.5% so far this year. The more challenging trading conditions we saw at the close of final year have continued into the early part of 2016,reflecting a softening in consumer demand and weaker overall consumer confidence.
Whilst still early in the year, our assessment is that this more challenging environment and recent trading patterns are likely to persist. 8.00am GMTGermany’s push into renewable energy has driven its utility giant E.
ON into a record loss.
Germany is aiming to generate 80 per cent of its electricity from renewable sources, or such as wind and solar,by 2050, up from around a quarter today.
But government subsidies for renewables have led to an increase in power generation which has caused wholesale prices to tumble, and eroding profitability at the utility companies coal and gas-fired power stations. 7.43am GMTWorries over the Chinese economy have weighed on Asian stock markets overnight.
Yesterday’s alarmingly feeble trade data,which showed a 25% tumble in China’s exports in February, hit many shares on the Shanghai stock market.
China stocks dropped more than 1% on Wednesday, and snapping a six-session winning streak,as a tumble in commodity prices hit resource shares and prompted profit-taking amid signs of persistent lethargy in the economy. The blue-chip CSI300 index declined 1.2%, to 3071.91, and while the Shanghai Composite Index shed 1.3%,to 2862.56 points, registering their first losses in seven sessions. 7.26am GMTGood morning, and welcome to our rolling coverage of the world economy,the financial markets, the eurozone and business.
There’s a fragile feel in the air in the City today - along with a LOT of rain - after Tuesday’s barrage of gloomy news.
The manufacturing sector has borne the brunt of the global economic slowdown over the past few months and once again the UK economy is in the cross hairs today with the latest ONS manufacturing and industrial production data for January.
December was an extremely disappointing month with sharp declines in both as 2015 came to a disappointing close. The expectation is for a rebound in January with a 0.4% rise in industrial production, and a 0.2% rise in manufacturing productionContinue reading...
Source: theguardian.com