Jeremy Hunt has announced that the energy price guarantee will remain at £2,500 for the next three months, saving "the average family a further £160". The chancellor also unveils that pre-payment charges will be brought "in line with comparable direct debit charges.".
STORY: The U.S. central bank on Wednesday raised rates by an expected 25 basis points, but its policy statement no longer said "ongoing increases" would likely be appropriate, indicating a clear shift in its stance.The Fed's softer tone relieved markets that have been roiled by liquidity-crisis concerns in the banking sector since the failure of two U.S. regional lenders earlier this month.
Customers withdrew $120 billion from regional banks in one week, while giving $67 billion to industry giants
Property owners were already under pressure from rising rates and empty office space. The last thing they needed was a banking crisis.
Private equity firms that acquired companies since the banking crisis started on March 8 have funded the deals mostly with their own funds, a departure from traditional leveraged buyouts that reflects their struggle to secure cheap debt. Four acquisitions of companies by private equity firms that were announced in the last two weeks were funded by debt that accounted for between 9% and 50% of the deal consideration, according to a Reuters review of regulatory filings. The remainder was equity checks by the private equity firms.
STORY: Turmoil over Credit Suisse and other banks had caused some to doubt it…But on Thursday (March 23) the Bank of England pressed ahead with rate hikes. The central bank lifted its benchmark rate by a quarter of a percentage point. That was its 11th consecutive increase in a sequence going back to December 2021. In a statement, the bank cited inflationary pressures and a tight jobs market. But Governor Andrew Bailey said price rises should now cool off pretty rapidly. That’s despite a surprise jump in the headline rate of inflation to 10.4%. "We've seen signs of inflation really peaking now, but of course it's far too high. Now we think it's going to come down sharply, really from the early summer onwards. But we haven't seen that happen yet. We had some news this week which was, unfortunately, going a bit the other way. We think there's probably some one-off elements in that. But we need to see it starting to come down progressively and get back to target". The BoE move follows a similar hike yesterday by the U.S. Federal Reserve, where Chairman Jerome Powell also has his eye on prices: "We're very focused on getting inflation down, and because we know in the longer run that that is the thing that will most benefit the people we serve.”While both banks had been widely expected to raise rates, doubts had crept in amid the turmoil over global banking. On Thursday, the Bank of England said it noted the volatile moves, but was confident the UK banking system remained resilient. After the Fed indicated it could now pause further increases, the BoE reiterated that it, too, saw less urgency for more hikes.
Bank shares tumbled Friday, jolting stock markets as fears about the health of the financial sector resurfaced with Deutsche Bank now in the eye of the storm.After markets closed on Friday, US President Joe Biden sought to reassure investors, saying banks are "in pretty good shape" following recent financial sector turmoil.
The marriage of UBS and Credit Suisse was hastily arranged to prevent a global financial meltdown -- but the size of the resulting megabank could cause domestic problems in Switzerland, the central bank admitted Thursday.Behind UBS and Credit Suisse in Switzerland, only Raiffeisen and PostFinance -- the financial services unit of Swiss Post -- rank as domestic systemically important banks, along with the cantonal banks of the Zurich and Vaud, which have limited reach beyond those regions.
Stocks closed higher Thursday afternoon as a post-Fed rally was bolstered by hopes from investors interest rate hikes will end sooner than expected as banking pressures end the central bank's aggressive fight against inflation.
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There may be room to maneuver and slim down further now that we're seeing real economic consequence over time.
Alphabet, Meta and Nvidia are part of the Zacks Earnings Trends article.
Ford gave investors and analysts today a peek at how it will reorganize its business units and report financial performance.
Sembcorp Industries Ltd. is considering selling its waste management unit, according to people with knowledge of the matter.
There are still some chip stocks that are trading at reasonable valuations
It's claimed that Qatari banker Sheikh Jassim bin Hamad Al Thani initially made an improved world-record offer of around £5billion on Wednesday evening before a change in the deadline for second offers
Accenture (ACN) is seeing favorable earnings estimate revision activity and has a positive Zacks Earnings ESP heading into earnings season.
Yahoo Finance Live’s Julie Hyman summarizes three key topics to watch for this morning.
Wall Street closed higher on Thursday as market participants were reassured by U.S. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen's reassurances that measures will be taken to keep Americans' deposits safe. All three major U.S. stock indexes reversed an earlier rally, turning red before clawing their way back to positive territory in the final hour as Yellen resumed her congressional testimony. Dropping Treasury yields, particularly an 18 basis point drop in two-year note yields, helped growth shares boost the Nasdaq to the head of the pack.
Stocks made an impressive comeback on Friday amid a flurry of developments.
Wall Street fine tunes its views a day after the Federal Reserve lifted interest rates despite the banking crisis.
