Financial news

• Mike Ashley makes surprise bid for Patisserie Valerie

  08-02-2019 20:34
  Sports Direct owner seeks to add collapsed cake chain to recent string of acquisitions
  The sportswear tycoon Mike Ashley has made a surprise bid to add collapsed cake chain Patisserie Valerie to his high-street empire.On Friday evening the Sports Direct boss confirmed in a brief statement to the stock exchange that the company had made an offer for the stricken cake group, which plunged into administration last month. Continue reading...
  
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• Swap fuel deals plea as energy price cap rises

  08-02-2019 19:26 via feedproxy.google.com
  AROUND 15 million households were yesterday urged to switch energy provider - after the price cap on bills was raised by more than 10 percent.
  
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• Amazon rethinks plan for New York HQ amid fierce opposition

  08-02-2019 18:07
  Company announced plans for large campus in QueensLocals angered by tax breaks promised to Jeff Bezos firmGuardian series: Big tech, desperate citiesAmazon is reconsidering plans for a new headquarters in New York amid a torrent of public opposition. Related: Is Bezos holding Seattle hostage? The cost of being Amazon's homeContinue reading...
  
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• Finland's 'free cash' experiment fails to boost employment

  08-02-2019 17:39
  But scheme giving unemployed £475 a month did leave participants happier and healthierEurope’s first national government-backed experiment in giving citizens free cash failed to encourage its participants to work more as organisers had hoped – but it did improve their wellbeing.Under Finland’s two-year basic income trial, which ended a month ago, a random sample of 2,000 unemployed people aged 25 to 58 were paid a monthly €560 (£475), with no requirement to see
  
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• Let’s move to Clitheroe, Lancashire: no-nonsense and gorgeous

  08-02-2019 17:30 via theguardian.com
  Lush green countryside, savage moorland, and then there’s the Ribble Valley’s foodWhat’s going for it? The Ribble Valley is my and our very own Grace Dent’s secret. OK, ours and the few thousands who live there. She comes for the valley’s gastropubs (“God’s own”) all flagstones, stoves, pies and “genuinely warm service”. I come for those (who doesn’t like a pie?) but also the valley’s no-nonsense towns, carved from gruff sto
  
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• HMV's new voice is relishing the fight to save all the stores

  08-02-2019 16:38
  ‘Vinyl nut’ Doug Putman takes on the landlords and says he’s hopeful for the Oxford Street flagship The new owner of HMV is hoping to reopen the chain’s flagship store on Oxford Street, and is in talks with landlords on the rest of the 27 outlets which closed down earlier this week.Doug Putman, the 34-year-old boss of Canada’s Sunrise Records, rescued 100 HMV stores from administration, beating off a bid from Sports Direct’s Mike Ashley. But branches such as O
  
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• German finance minister ADMITS budget pressures as recession fears mount

  08-02-2019 15:53 via feedproxy.google.com
  GERMANY’S finance minister has rejected claims the country is heading for recession, despite mounting fears over the stability of its economy and eurozone growth.
  
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• Risk of global recession may be low but we are heading for slowdown

  08-02-2019 15:22
  Although there is a cloud over economy, the silver lining is central banks are more dovishAfter the synchronised global economic expansion of 2017 came the asynchronous growth of 2018, when most countries other than the US started to experience slowdowns. Worries about US inflation, the US Federal Reserve’s policy trajectory, trade wars, Italian budget and debt woes, China’s slowdown and emerging-market fragilities led to a sharp fall in global equity markets toward the end of the ye
  
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• Pound US Dollar exchange rate: GBP/USD drops as Trump delays China meeting

  08-02-2019 13:02 via feedproxy.google.com
  The pound is down very slightly against the US dollar today and is currently trading around $1.293. The US dollar managed to gain on the pound today, despite last night’s talk by the Federal Reserve Bank of St Louis, James Bullard, who said that the Fed’s interest-rate policy had become “a little bit restrictive.”
  
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• How a deluge of money nearly broke the Premier League – podcast

  08-02-2019 13:00
  It’s the world’s most lucrative football league. But a civil war over all that money almost toppled it• Read the text version here Continue reading...
  
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• Italy crisis: Industrial production falls AGAIN - fears over long-term recession

  08-02-2019 12:27 via feedproxy.google.com
  ITALY’S industrial production has fallen for the fourth straight month, raising fears the country’s recession could last longer than expected and heaping further pressure on the eurozone.
  
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• No-fault divorce to become law

  08-02-2019 12:01 via theguardian.com
  Couples will no longer have to allocate blame or mutually agree to end their marriagesNo-fault divorces that could replace the protracted courtroom battles couples often face when separating are to be introduced into law.The justice secretary, David Gauke, confirmed he will bring in legislation enacting the reform in the next session of parliament, removing the need for separating couples to wait for years or allocate blame for the collapse of their relationship. Continue reading...
  
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• Pound Euro exchange rate: GBP/EUR muted as German economy fights back

  08-02-2019 11:23 via feedproxy.google.com
  This morning the pound euro exchange rate has remained steady despite some positive German data, and is trading at a rate of €1.141. German imports and exports both saw an unexpected rise this morning, with the figure showing that in December imports rose by 1.2 percent, and exports by 1.5 percent.
  
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• Pound LIVE: GBP Sterling SURGES against euro as Germany falls into ‘RECESSION’

  08-02-2019 09:54 via feedproxy.google.com
  THE pound has surged against the euro after market confidence grew over a Brexit deal, but the eurozone suffered a damaging blow after Germany fell into “recession”.
  
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• Why was I sent an iPhone when I asked to cancel my order?

  08-02-2019 08:00 via theguardian.com
  The phone was delivered a month after I asked for my money backTwo months ago I ordered a reconditioned iPhone for £598.50 from Quick Mobile Fix. Two weeks later it had not been dispatched so I cancelled and was promised a refund. A month on, the unwanted handset arrived. I returned it but no refund. VT, Liverpool Continue reading...
  
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• Eco homes for sale – in pictures

  08-02-2019 08:00 via theguardian.com
  Cut your energy bills with these environmentally-friendly homes, from Wales to Cambridgeshire Continue reading...
  
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• Why is the tax on a London mansion a tiny fraction of that in New York? | Simon Jenkins

  08-02-2019 07:00 via theguardian.com
  While libraries and parks close and services for the vulnerable crumble, billionaires pay a pittance in council tax
  Three of the most expensive homes in the world have been sold recently, and to one man. He is the American hedge-fund billionaire Ken Griffin. One will overlook Buckingham Palace at Hyde Park Corner and will cost £100m. Another is a new townhouse across the park at Carlton House Terrace, costing £95m. The third is a penthouse atop a “pencil block” at New Yor
  
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