Category: News

  • Investors fret over durability of summer rally in US markets

    Investors are raising red flags over a stock market rally that has added more than $7tn in value to US equities since June, with many of the gains being driven by hedge funds unwinding bearish bets rather than newfound conviction that it is time to buy. Traders at Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley and JPMorgan Chase…

  • Erdoğan backs peace talks between Kyiv and Moscow

    Turkish president Recep Tayyip Erdoğan has said he is ready to support peace talks between Kyiv and Moscow after he met President Volodymyr Zelenskyy in Lviv. Erdoğan, who has acted as an intermediary between Moscow and Kyiv, on Thursday made his first trip to Ukraine since Russia’s full-blown invasion on February 24 and said he…

  • Fed officials signal restrictive rates may be needed ‘for some time’

    Federal Reserve officials discussed the need to keep interest rates at levels that restrict the US economy “for some time” in a bid to contain the highest inflation in roughly 40 years, according to an account of their most recent meeting. Minutes from the meeting, at which the US central bank raised its benchmark policy…

  • Gas markets leap on both sides of Atlantic as traders search for supplies

    The global energy crisis deepened on Tuesday as a further surge in natural gas prices in Europe and the US threatened to push some of the world’s largest economies into recession. Gas markets in Europe jumped by as much as 10 per cent to as high as €251 a megawatt hour, equivalent in energy terms…

  • China cuts lending rate as economic data disappoint and Covid cases rise

    China has cut a crucial lending rate in an effort to shore up growth as the world’s second-biggest economy is buffeted by repeated coronaviruslockdowns and a worsening property crisis. The People’s Bank of China on Monday reduced its medium-term lending rate, for one-year loans to the banking system, by 10 basis points to 2.75 per…

  • US lawmakers draw battle lines over search of Trump home

    US lawmakers demanded more information on the potential threat to national security posed by Donald Trump’s hoarding of classified documents, as the fallout from the unprecedented search at the home of the former president reverberated through Washington. The comments by Democrats and Republicans on Sunday were among the first reactions from Congress to the release…

  • UK’s debt and welfare payments bill set to soar by more than £50bn

    The winner of the Conservative party leadership contest will face huge additional costs of servicing the nation’s debt and paying social security benefits as a result of rising inflation and interest rates, according to Financial Times calculations. The estimates, which are an update to the Bank of England’s previous official inflation forecast in March, show…

  • Johnson admits UK’s cost of living support is not enough

    UK prime minister Boris Johnson on Friday admitted that the government’s existing £37bn cost of living package may not be enough to support struggling households, as Liz Truss, the frontrunner to replace him, rejected calls for windfall taxes to limit the pain of rising energy bills. Johnson, who will leave office next month, said in…

  • Western sanctions have had ‘limited impact’ on Russian oil output, says IEA

    Soaring oil use for power generation in Europe and the Middle East will boost crude consumption for the rest of the year, the International Energy Agency said on Thursday, as it increased its global demand forecast despite signs of a wider economic slowdown. Paris-based IEA, which is primarily funded by OECD members, said record European…

  • US inflation eased slightly in July on lower petrol prices

    The US consumer price index rose by 8.5 per cent year-on-year in July, a slower annual increase compared to June, as inflationary pressures eased on the back of lower petrol prices. CPI data released on Wednesday showed no increase between June and July, compared to a 1.3 per cent monthly increase recorded a month ago.…

  • Household energy bills in Britain forecast to top £4,420 a year

    Household energy bills in Britain are projected to peak at more than £4,420 a year on average next spring, posing a “fresh shock” for households already enduring a cost of living crisis. The energy consultancy Cornwall Insight on Tuesday raised its forecasts for Britain’s price cap following an announcement by the energy regulator Ofgem of…

  • Masayoshi Son ‘ashamed’ of focus on profits after SoftBank logs record $23bn loss

    Huge losses at SoftBank’s flagship Vision Funds will force the company to begin “dramatic” cost-cutting after plunging technology valuations and a weak yen drove Masayoshi Son’s embattled conglomerate into a record ¥3.1tn ($23bn) quarterly net loss. In a press conference that Son himself described as “depressing”, he admitted that his famously aggressive global investment strategy…

  • Conservative frontrunner Liz Truss promises immediate National Insurance cut

    Liz Truss has promised an immediate cut to National Insurance rates if she becomes prime minister in September, but faced claims from her Tory leadership rival Rishi Sunak that the change would “not touch the sides” for many poorer households battling a crisis in living costs. Truss, foreign secretary, told the Financial Times on Friday…

  • Alarm mounts in western capitals over Turkey’s deepening ties with Russia

    Western capitals are increasingly alarmed about the deepening economic co-operation between Turkey’s president Recep Tayyip Erdoğan and Vladimir Putin, warning of the mounting risk that the Nato member state could be hit by punitive retaliation if it helps Russia avoid sanctions. Six western officials told the Financial Times that they were concerned about the pledge…

  • US adds 528,000 jobs in surprise gain for labour market

    The US economy unexpectedly added 528,000 jobs last month, as payroll growth soared even in the face of tighter monetary policy and waning fiscal support, easing fears of a recession. The data, which showed the unemployment rate edging down to 3.5 per cent from 3.6 per cent, showed an acceleration in the pace of job…

  • Bank of England raises rates sharply and warns of 13% inflation by end of year

    Britain faces a protracted recession and the worst squeeze on living standards in more than 60 years, the Bank of England warned on Thursday, as it raised interest rates to their highest level since the onset of the global financial crisis. Eight of the Monetary Policy Committee’s nine members voted to raise interest rates by…

  • Solana wallets ‘drained’ in blow to crypto network

    Thousands of crypto accounts linked to the Solana blockchain have been “drained” in a blow to one of the biggest networks in the digital asset market. Solana and several other platforms linked to the blockchain were on Wednesday investigating an apparent hack that affected at least 7,767 digital wallets, the computer programs that store traders’…

  • Pelosi arrives in Taiwan as China ratchets up military activity

    Nancy Pelosi landed in Taiwan on Tuesday night in the highest-level visit by a US official for decades, defying Chinese threats of a military response. The trip by the Speaker of the US House of Representatives has become a test of how far Beijing will go to deter foreign support for Taiwan and of China…

  • Ukraine’s first grain ship sails after Russia relaxes Black Sea blockade

    A grain shipment has left the port of Odesa for the first time in months, in a crucial test of a deal between Russia and Ukraine intended to alleviate soaring global food prices. The Sierra Leone-flagged Razoni, carrying 26,000 tonnes of Ukrainian corn, left the Black Sea Port at 9:48am local time, the ministry of…

  • UK companies face ‘iceberg’ of business rates next year

    Companies in England are heading for an “iceberg” next spring with business rates set to rise by up to £3bn because of soaring inflation, industry groups have warned. They said those businesses that gain from an upcoming revaluation could see those benefits eroded as a result, while those that lose out will see their losses…