May Day dawns on disgruntled world workforce
International Workers’ Day sees attention focus on squeezed living standards. Are working people getting the full benefit from the economic recovery?
The US economy’s seasonal pothole
America’s current economic revival is now the second-longest on record, but recent freezing winters have seen regularly seen growth subdued in the first quarter of the year.
UK Q1 GDP slumps to 0.1%, sterling plummets
UK growth came in at a crawl year-on-year for the first quarter of 2018 – just 0.1% according to the Office of National Statistics (ONS)
Rising dollar threatens currency turmoil
Higher American interest rates are pushing up the dollar as exchange rates enter a new period of volatility. Some who have borrowed in the US currency may default, warns the International Monetary Fund.
ECB holds as growth momentum slows
The Governing Council of the European Central Bank (ECB) has announced that interest rates will remain at their present levels for an extended period of time and well past the horizon of the net asset purchases.
Is it best to temper great expectations for US equities?
Until recently, it felt like the greatest of times as the nine-year long bull run galloped on, but given the Dow’s latest 400-point plummet, a key question becomes is the worse yet to come for US equities?
Euro looks fragile as eurozone sentiment wanes
Widely followed gauges of eurozone business sentiment published on Tuesday provided further evidence that economic momentum in the core eurozone has peaked. Against this backdrop, the euro is starting to look quite fragile.
Sterling future hinges on Brexit negotiations
The sudden collapse in the value of the pound sterling against other major internationally traded currencies in the wake of the Brexit referendum vote of June 2016 attracted vast amounts of column inches at the time.
Cryptos to come in from the cold?
How do you regulate the most hyped, chaotic asset class ever seen?
Oil to stay stuck in $60s as Russia hints at end to production curbs
Splits have started to appear in the agreement between Russia and oil cartel OPEC over production curbs aimed at pushing up the price of crude.
Aluminium and nickel: riding the sanctions rollercoaster
Industrial metals prices have made some solid gains this year, and leading the pack are those that have been affected by the changing geopolitical landscape in recent weeks
UK household spending squeeze: easing or tightening?
So the household spending squeeze is starting to ease at last, but not quite in the way that the experts had predicted.
Waning growth momentum puts eurozone rate hike on back burner
Eurozone inflation has begun to soften while recent data from the bloc suggests that economic activity may have already peaked. Rather than interest rate tightening, expectations are increasing that the ECB will soon unveil a further extension to its quantitative easing programme.
China’s economy fords troubled waters of trade
Little sign that China's booming economy is flagging as growth figures released today shows it is holding steady at 6.8%.
Industrial metals lose their shine
Industrial metals have been on the back foot so far this year, with recent worries over a trade war between the US and China undermining already weakening sentiment.