Week Ending 7th May 2021 Stocks climbed to a record after surprisingly weak jobs data eased fears about higher inflation and a cutback in stimulus. The dollar slumped, while Treasuries were little changed. All major groups in the S&P 500 rose, with energy, real-estate and industrial shares leading the charge. Earlier in the day, technology […]

The Bank of England has upgraded its growth forecast for the coronavirus-hit UK economy and signalled it will not raise interest rates in the near term – despite seeing a looming spike in inflation ahead. The latest meeting of the central bank’s interest rate-setting committee left policy unchanged, with rates remaining at their COVID-19 crisis […]

The latest figures show the pace of growth continuing to accelerate as the economy bounces back from its COVID recession in 2020. The US economy grew at its fastest rate since 2003 in the first quarter of the year, according to preliminary figures, as households and businesses lapped up government stimulus. The Commerce Department reported […]

Australia and Britain are heading towards a free trade deal during two days of talks in London. This is despite British trade secretary Liz Truss having to apologise to her Australian counterpart as talks began. Her staff had briefed against Dan Tehan saying he was inexperienced and holding up progress, despite having 20 years experience […]

China’s economic growth slowed at the start of this year as its post-pandemic rebound began to level off, official figures showed. GDP grew by just 0.6% in the first quarter, missing expectations of a 1.5% increase and down from 3.2% in the last three months of 2020. But the figures also showed that the world’s […]

The number of employees at U.S. businesses rose in February by less than expected, underscoring the labor market’s struggle to recover despite a decline in Covid-19 infections in recent weeks. Company payrolls rose by 117,000 during the month, according to ADP Research Institute data released Wednesday. The median projection in a Bloomberg survey of economists […]

The UK pound passed US$1.40 on Friday for the first time in nearly three years. Just after 1.30pm, the pound was up 0.4% on the day but earlier it hit $1.4024 – its highest since 20 April, 2018. The UK’s rapid COVID-19 vaccination programme has sparked hopes that there might be a sharp economic recovery […]

The European Commission says it will start work on allowing police and financial data to continue to flow from the EU to the UK for the next four years. It comes after the commission said the UK’s data protection laws were in line with Europe’s, despite the changes brought about by Brexit. After the UK […]

New streaming service Disney+ has signed up nearly 95 million subscribers in just over a year, the entertainment giant has revealed. Disney’s latest quarterly results showed continued rapid growth for the direct-to-consumer channel, set up in November 2019 to compete with the likes of Netflix. Disney+ had 94.9 million paid subscribers as of 2 January, […]

US jobs growth bounced back less than expected in January while losses the previous month were worse than initially thought, latest figures show. The first set of employment data under President Joe Biden underlines the scale of the economic challenge faced as he seek to push through a $1.9trn COVID-19 recovery package. The Labor Department […]