Bitcoin bounces back above $1,000 after this new endorsement January 6, 2014 Bitcoin has bounced back across the $1,000 (£610) mark in the wake of the announcement that social game company Zynga would accept the virtual currency for some of its services. Players of games such as FarmVille 2 and CastleVille will now be able to use Bitpay, a Bitcoin payment provider to make in-game purchases. Zynga [...]
2014: The return of the gold bulls January 6, 2014 Gold analysts are at their most bullish for over a year, according to Bloomberg News. Of the 21 analysts surveyed, 15 expected gold to rise this week, two were bearish and four were neutral. This represents the highest number of bulls seen in the survey since December 2012. The survey follows a Capital Economics note [...]
Services slowdown fails to dampen UK optimism January 6, 2014 The UK Markit services PMI fell from 60.4 in November to 58.8 in December. UK services PMI had been expected to rise to 60.5. UK services showed a similar performance to manufacturing in December. While the pace of growth has declined, there was still a strong increase in activity and employment. The major factor contributing [...]
Meet the CEO betting big on his company’s success January 6, 2014 The new chief executive (CEO) of Cable & Wireless Communications (CWC) is investing more than just his time in the company's success. Phil Bentley, who replaced Tony Rice as CEO on 1 January has bought 4.3m shares in the company since his appointment. The value of the shares amounts to three times Mr Bentley's base [...]
Fear of financial risk drives China into new regulatory clampdown January 6, 2014 China has begun clamping down on its shadow banking industry in an attempt to head off a potential financial crisis, sources told Reuters. The new regulations issued by the State Council will strengthen rules governing off-balance sheet lending. The Peoples Bank of China will attempt to develop new methods to oversee the shadow banking sector [...]
Miliband goes to war with gamblers over betting machines December 20, 2013 Labour leader Ed Miliband has promised that a Labour government would give local councils the power to crack down on Fixed Odds Betting Terminals (FOBTs). The betting machines allow players to bet on a variety of games and place a stake of up to £500. Ed Miliband told the Daily Mirror that FOBTs were "dangerously [...]
European Commissioner lashes out after S&P downgrade December 20, 2013 Economic and monetary affairs commissioner, Olli Rehn has slammed Standard & Poor's (S&P) credit downgrade of the European Union branding the decision "inconsistent." He said: The Commission's view is that the EU credit rating should be essentially assessed on its own merits, due to the very strong budget revenues and the treaty obligation from the 28 Member [...]
Forever young – Is this breakthrough the end of the ageing process? December 20, 2013 Scientists from Harvard and the University of NSW seemed to have managed to reverse the ageing process. In studies conducted on mice a chemical was used to rejuvenate muscle and produced the equivalent of transforming a 60-year-old's muscle to that of a 20-year-old. Researchers used the chemical nicotinamide adenine dinucleotide (NAD) which is found in [...]
Japan’s Kuroda confident of hitting inflation target despite tax rise December 20, 2013 Bank of Japan (BoJ) Governor, Haruhiko Kuroda reaffirmed his position on Friday that Japan is successfully heading towards its target inflation rate of two per cent. Kuroda told a press conference: We expect Japan's consumer inflation to slightly exceed one per cent by year end. There have been doubts as to whether the BoJ will [...]
UK holds on to AAA rating while EU suffers downgrade December 20, 2013 The UK economy received an early Christmas present on Friday. Ratings agency Standard & Poor's has maintained the UK's credit rating at AAA. S&P believes the UK will experience higher growth and rising productivity in the coming years. Average annual real GDP growth is expected to reach more than two per cent between 2013 and [...]
