Week Ending  23rd September 2016 The stock market registered its second consecutive weekly gain with the S&P 500 climbing 1.2%. Thanks to the rally, the index is back to little changed for the month of September (-0.3%). The advance in the market was broad-based as most sectors gained at least 0.4% for the week. Rate-sensitive […]

There has been little impact of the Brexit vote on the UK economy so far, says the Office for National Statistics (ONS). “The referendum result appears, so far, not to have had a major effect,” its chief economist Joe Grice said. Official figures have not yet reflected the collapse in confidence predicted by some surveys […]

UK retail sales were stronger than expected in August, suggesting consumer confidence has held up in the wake of the Brexit vote. Sales volumes fell by just 0.2% last month, the Office for National Statistics said, while sales were up 6.2% from August last year The ONS said the underlying pattern for the retail sector […]

The Bank of England has left its main interest rate at 0.25% but says another cut is still a possibility. The decision of the Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) to leave rates at their new, historically low, level was no surprise. Last month the Bank halved its bank rate from 0.5% as it tried to ensure […]

The expanding US economy added another 151,000 jobs in August, according to the US Labor Department, while the unemployment rate stayed at 4.9%. The number of extra jobs was sharply down from an upwardly revised July figure of 275,000. It was also a smaller rise than the average monthly increase of 204,000 seen during the […]

U.K. house prices rose the most in five months in August as a shortage of supply supported values even amid weaker demand. Prices rose 0.6 percent from July and were up 5.6 percent compared with a year earlier, Nationwide Building Society said in London on Wednesday. In the past three months, values have risen 1.1 […]

The Federal Reserve is close to hitting its targets for US employment and 2% inflation, according to the central bank’s vice chairman, Stanley Fischer. In a speech in Colorado, the Fed’s number two policymaker was upbeat about the economy’s recovery and prospects. “We are close to our targets,” he said on Sunday, adding that jobs […]

Fresh economic data from China has added to a raft of indicators suggesting the world’s second largest economy remains in the doldrums. Both industrial output and retail sales fell short of expectations for the month of July. The figures underline China’s difficulty of transforming the economy away from factories and exports. The data come just […]

Following on from Thursdays UK interest rate cut from 0.5% to 0.25% – a record low and the first cut since 2009, the Bank of England says more cuts are possible. On Thursday in addition to the cut the Bank announced additional measures to stimulate the UK economy, including a £100bn scheme to force banks […]

The US economy added a stronger-than-expected 255,000 jobs in July, fuelling speculation that interest rates could rise before the end of the year. The figure was below June’s upwardly revised figure of 292,000 jobs, but was far higher than analysts’ forecasts of between 175,000 and 180,000. The US unemployment rate remained unchanged at 4.9%. Dennis […]