Financial news

• Government's shift to relax shale gas fracking safeguards condemned

  15-08-2019 21:43
  Environment groups fear possibly ‘weakened’ earthquake risk rules after report on Cuadrilla drillingEnvironmental groups have voiced fears that the government is preparing to row back on fracking regulations after officials said they were considering reviewing earthquake safeguard rules.The limits affecting shale gas fracking are strongly contested by the industry because they bring an immediate halt to fracking if even a minor tremor of 0.5 on the Richter scale is recorded. Continue
  
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• General Electric shares tank following accusation of 'bigger fraud than Enron'

  15-08-2019 20:42
  Share price plummets as Madoff whistleblower Harry Markopolos claims company is engaging in $38bn accounting fraudThe whistleblower who exposed Bernard Madoff’s Ponzi scheme has accused General Electric of wide-scale fraud, sending the US conglomerate’s share price into a tailspin. Related: European markets rattled as global recession fears lingerContinue reading...
  
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• European markets rattled as global recession fears linger

  15-08-2019 20:31
  Index of Britain’s top 100 firms at six-month low and oil prices fall 3% to below $58 a barrelStock markets in Europe extended their losing streak on Thursday and oil prices fell 3% to below $58 a barrel as mounting recession concerns continued to hit investor confidence.The index of Britain’s top 100 firms dropped more than 1% to hit a six-month low and and stock markets in continental Europe also dipped in response to investors channelling their funds into financial safe havens. Ho
  
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• Mentors offer budding entrepreneurs best hope of success, Aldermore study finds

  15-08-2019 20:09 via feedproxy.google.com
  MENTORING is the key to success - that’s what the majority of small business owners believe a new study from Aldermore has found. 
  
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• Burford Capital replaces finance chief to appease investors

  15-08-2019 19:40
  UK-listed litigation financier bows to pressure and demotes CFO after hedge fund criticismBurford Capital is replacing its chairman and finance chief in an effort to appease shareholders after a US hedge fund made allegations of poor governance and murky accounting practices.Burford, which specialises in funding lawsuits in exchange for a cut of the settlements, has faced criticism over the fact that its chief financial officer, Elizabeth O’Connell, is married to the chief executive, Chris
  
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• Bosses force female workers making jeans for Levis and Wrangler into sex

  15-08-2019 18:20
  Women at factories in Lesotho owned by Taiwanese firm say jobs and promotions in jeopardy if they refuse advances, claims reportWomen producing jeans for American brands including Levi Strauss, Wrangler and Lee have been forced to sleep with their managers to keep their jobs or gain promotion, an investigation into sexual harassment and coercion at garment factories in Lesotho has found.Brands have responded to the “extensive” allegations by the the US-based Worker Rights Consortium
  
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• Pullet eggs: everything you need to know about the tiny ‘waste’ eggs now on shop shelves

  15-08-2019 17:06
  They can make up 10% of a farmer’s overall stock, but supermarkets have refused to take them up until now. Here’s why it’s worth trying this chef’s favourite
  For the first time, mini eggs are to be sold in supermarkets in a non-chocolate variety. They will, in fact, be egg-flavoured, because they will, in fact, be eggs.Pullets – hens less than a year old – begin laying at about 16 weeks, but their first eggs will be considerably smaller than an ordinary large
  
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• 'When I started selling eyebrow products, people thought I was crazy': how to make a billion in beauty

  15-08-2019 15:01
  At this year’s BeautyCon festival in LA, makeup moguls Huda Kattan and Anastasia Soare reveal what it takes to hit $1bnLast weekend, more than 200 brands and 20,000 beauty fans flocked to the Los Angeles Convention Center for BeautyCon, an annual festival that gives celebrities and brands the chance to celebrate all things beauty with their fans. Among the brands touting the latest lipsticks and foundations were a number of those most covetable of companies: unicorns, a term coined by Sili
  
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• Spend, spend, spend: spirit of Viv Nicholson lives on among shoppers | Larry Elliott

  15-08-2019 14:55
  Consumers are not fretting about Brexit but you can understand why retailers are uneasy over 31 OctoberThose with long enough memories may recall that Viv Nicholson won what was then a small fortune on the football pools in 1961. Asked what she was going to do with the money, she replied: “Spend, spend, spend.” Which she duly did until there was nothing left.The latest official retail sales figures show that the spirit of Viv Nicholson lives on among Britain’s shoppers. Moreove
  
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• Aston Martin shares plummet to record low

  15-08-2019 14:37
  Luxury carmaker worth a fraction of its £19 a share October 2018 listing priceShares in Aston Martin Lagonda tumbled to a new low as pressure continued to mount on the British luxury carmaker amid a broader market rout.The shares fell by 21% at one stage on Thursday, to a record low of 371p. This is more than 80% below the £19 price when the company listed on the London Stock Exchange in October. They later recovered much of the loss to close at 445p, still down 4.9% on the day. Cont
  
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• Brexiteers promised a new dawn for UK farming, not agricultural Armageddon | Polly Toynbee

  15-08-2019 13:33
  A new report sounds the death knell for Britain’s farms in the event of no deal. It’s not the vision our farmers were soldA small flock of sheep is trotting down Whitehall today to join a meeting of farmers who are coming together to mark the launch of a devastating report on the impact of a no-deal Brexit. The report rings the death knell for upland hill farming, but sheep are only the first in the line of fire: it also warns that half of Britain’s farms would go out of busine
  
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• Online shoppers and Amazon Prime Day lift UK retail sales

  15-08-2019 12:40
  Small rise confounds City forecasts as even troubled department stores record increaseOnline spending bolstered UK retail sales last month, while department stores notched up their first increase this year, as consumers shrugged off Brexit fears.The quantity of goods bought rose 0.2% in July, buoyed by the annual Amazon Prime Day, according to the Office for National Statistics. The figures wrong-footed City economists who had expected a 0.2% decline. Continue reading...
  
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• Pound US dollar exchange rate: GBP/USD steady as UK retail sales beat expectations

  15-08-2019 12:19 via feedproxy.google.com
  The GBP/USD exchange rate is currently trading at $1.206, virtually unchanged from today’s opening levels. UK retail sales figures have helped the Pound find its feet this morning. The Office for National Statistics reported a 0.2 percent expansion in sales for July, slowing from sales growth of 0.9 percent the previous month, but confuting expectations for a sales slump.
  
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• American unions have been decimated. No wonder inequality is booming | Steven Greenhouse

  15-08-2019 12:00
  Something urgent needs to be done to give America’s workers more say in our politics so that their voices are not dwarfed by billionaires, writes Steve GreenhouseCongress hasn’t raised the minimum wage in a decade, the longest stretch without such an increase since the federal minimum wage was first enacted in 1938. One state legislature after another has passed right-to-work laws to undermine unions. Donald Trump has taken numerous anti-worker actions: scrapping several worker safet
  
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• Trump foolishly thinks gold standard will usher in a golden age

  15-08-2019 09:47
  The president’s nominee for the Fed believes pegged exchange rates will fix the US trade deficit. Not soThere are now scores of efforts to psychoanalyse the US president Donald Trump’s nomination of Judy Shelton to the Federal Reserve board. Some emphasise Shelton’s fidelity as an early adviser to the Trump campaign. Others point to her conversion into “a low-interest-rate person”. Still others highlight her advocacy of the gold standard as insulating US monetary po
  
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• What will REALLY happen to UK after we quit EU: Top economists give post-Brexit analysis

  15-08-2019 08:27 via feedproxy.google.com
  THE UK economy has shrunk in the second quarter according to data from the Office of National Statistics and one expert says the economy is “stumbling towards an economic abyss.” But will Britain instead THRIVE in the wake of the exit from the Brussels bloc?
  
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• Expedia plays the blame game over wrong dates for our hotel booking

  15-08-2019 08:00
  After only five minutes we tried to rectify a mistake but £689 was taken from my accountWe booked two hotel rooms in Amsterdam on the Expedia website. When the confirmation arrived it showed the wrong dates. We had double checked that we’d submitted them correctly and my partner rang within five minutes of the booking to get it rectified. Customer services said there may have been a computer “glitch”, but concluded the hotel would have taken the payment and there was noth
  
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• Half of UK farms could fail after no-deal Brexit, report warns

  15-08-2019 07:00
  Farmers calling for second EU referendum to herd sheep down Whitehall in protest on ThursdayCampaigners for a second referendum are herding a flock of sheep down Whitehall to protest against the impact a no-deal Brexit could have on the farming community.According to a new report commissioned by the supporters of second poll, more than half of UK farms could go out of business if Britain crashes out of the EU on 31 October. Continue reading...
  
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• Monzo insists new short-term loans won't be at Wonga rates

  15-08-2019 01:01
  Challenger bank offers short-term loans but says it is not targeting customers who use payday lendersDigital bank Monzo is dipping its toes into the short-term loans market a year after Wonga’s collapse, but insists it will not target customers who usually turn to payday lenders.The challenger bank formally launched loans for its 2.5 million customers on Thursday, following a trial with around 4,000 of its users. Those who qualify will be able to borrow as much as £15,000 for up to 6
  
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