Gold falls to its lowest level in two years, as wider commodity prices and US shares also decline following disappointing Chinese economic data.
Excerpt from: Gold price falls to two-year low
Category : Business
Airbus plans to reduce the size of its window seats to make room for wider ones in the aisles.
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Category : Stocks
Yelp reported a wider loss, spooking investors. But analysts are still encouraged by long-term prospects.
Visit link: Bad review for Yelp. Investors bail
Category : Business, World News
Kia’s design boss Peter Schreyer has been named as the new head designer for the wider Hyundai Motor Group.
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Category : Stocks, World News
Highlights
- New Zeppelin nickel sulphide zone discovered 750m east of Sleeping Giant
- Mineralisation intersected in five drill holes including:
– 7m at 1.17% Ni and 0.26% Cu from a wider 23m zone at 0.69% Ni and 0.14% Cu from 124m
– 15.1m at 0.55% Ni and 0.22% Cu from 113.9m
- Further drilling planned to delineate resources
- Zeppelin zone expected to contribute to next Ntaka Hill mineral resource update
See the rest here: IMX Resources Discovers New Zeppelin Nickel Sulphide Zone at Ntaka Hill
Category : Business
Japan reports a wider-than-expected trade deficit in July, as slowing demand from China and Europe weighs on exports.
Read the rest here: Japan exports fall on weak demand
Regulators, customers, shareholders, and boards need to push for the wider use of electronic confirmations as part of company audits.
Read this article: Preventing a Peregrine repeat for less than a dollar a day
Second-quarter profits increase 45% to more than £500m, largely due to popularity of Range Rover Evoque in China
Jaguar Land Rover (JLR) has reported a 45% increase in second-quarter profits to well over £500m, driven by soaring demand from China for the new Range Rover Evoque.
The British-based company, now under the control of Tata Motors of India, saw a 91% increase in overall sales from the luxury car-hungry Chinese market year-on-year.
The profile of the Range Rover Evoque has been boosted by a special edition designed in collaboration with Victoria Beckham.
Overall, JLR sales rose 34% to 83,452 vehicles, with nearly 72,000 made up of Land Rovers compared to less than 12,000 Jaguar saloon cars in the three months to 30 June.
Sales from China comprised 22.2% of total volumes for the quarter ended 30 June, 2012, as against 15.7% for the corresponding period of 2011.
Revenues for the quarter hit £3.6bn, a growth of 35%, while operating margins stood at 14.5% and an operating profit (EBITDA) of £527m in the quarter, a growth of 45.6% more than £362m was recorded.
“Continued strong revenue and operating profit performance were supported by demand for new products, improved market mix and favourable exchange rate environment,” said the company.
JLR has declared a dividend of £150m, which went to Tata Motors, whose wider business was hit by a slowdown in its home market of India and a depreciation of the rupee. The wider group reported a consolidated profit, before tax, up 34% but net income rose only 12%.
Lib Dem Treasury chief secretary appears to counter George Osborne’s assertions, saying top rating ‘not be-all and end-all’
The Treasury chief secretary, Danny Alexander, one of the most senior Liberal Democrats, has said Britain’s credit rating is not the “be-all and end-all”.
The chancellor, George Osborne, has always put enormous store by the rating, issuing a statement on the eve of the Olympics opening ceremony to highlight how one credit agency had again reasserted Britain’s coveted triple-A status.
Alexander’s remarks probably represent the first time a government minister has downplayed the importance of the credit rating, but they reflect a wider view within his party that it needs to push harder for what it describes as a “Plan A plus” economic policy, in which greater emphasis is put on government investment, especially in housing, to boost demand and spending.
“The credit rating is not the be-all and end-all,” Alexander said. “What matters is have we got the right policy mix for the country to get people back into work, to support economic growth, to deal with the huge problems in our public finances, and the credit agencies reflect on those things and the ratings they give are a reflection of the credibility of that mix.”
It has been pointed out in some Lib Dem circles that the US lost its triple-A rating with some credit agencies before the summer but has not experienced a hike in interest rates.
Typically, a credit rating downgrade is seen as a threat to interest rates as markets take fright that a country will be unable to pay its debt.
Last Friday, Standards & Poor’s said in a statement: “We project that despite recent weakness, the UK economy should begin to recover in the second half of 2012 and steadily strengthen, and we expect economic policy to continue focusing on closing the fiscal gap.
“In our view, monetary flexibility remains a key credit strength owing to the British pound sterling’s role as a global reserve currency.”
S&P said its stable outlook for the rating reflected its “expectation that the UK government will implement the bulk of its fiscal consolidation programme and that the economy should recover in the remainder of 2012 and strengthen thereafter”.
But it added: “We could lower the ratings in particular if the pace and extent of fiscal consolidation slows beyond what we currently expect.”
Dreadful growth figures released at the end of July showed the UK economy sliding deeper into recession, with a 0.7% fall in GDP between April and June.
After Osborne hailed the S&P judgment, David Cameron swung behind his chancellor, rejecting speculation that he may be shifted in a cabinet reshuffle and asserting that Osborne “is going nowhere”. Labour responded by saying that if Osborne is going nowhere, neither is the British economy.
There have been reports that Osborne and Cameron are looking again at what measures can be taken to stimulate growth, including airport expansion. But UK growth prospects remain limited by the state of the eurozone economy. It is expected that growth will recover somewhat in the third quarter, partly off the back of the Olympics and the wider feelgood factor.
Dominic Grieve says quick inquiry could clash with on-going criminal investigations, putting government plan in doubt
Britain’s most senior law officer has appeared to undermine the government’s own argument that any inquiry into the current banking scandal needed to happen as quickly as possible.
The attorney general, Dominic Grieve, made a rare personal intervention in Labour’s parliamentary debate calling for a judge-led public inquiry into the wider banking crisis – an idea rejected by the Treasury as being too long to enable MPs to act to legislate before the end of the parliament.
The shadow chancellor, Ed Balls, said the party was prepared to hold a two-part inquiry, with the first part examining specific allegations about manipulation of the inter-bank lending rate, Libor, to report before Christmas, in line with the government’s own proposal, and a second part looking at the wider banking culture and regulation, to report next summer.
However Grieve intervened to reject Labour’s two-part inquiry, arguing that the first element of the investigation would then clash with on-going criminal investigations, throwing the government’s own timetable into doubt.
The apparent discrepancy was leapt on by Labour. “If it’s too short for one [inquiry] how come is the right length for the other,” said Balls. “And when there’s a complex issue like this, the idea judges would make that fine legal judgement worse than a parliamentary committee is nonsense.”
The attorney general had been very helpful, Balls said.
In a frequently bad-tempered debate in the Commons, Balls challenged George Osborne over an interview the chancellor published on Thursday morning in the Spectator magazine, in which he claimed his opposite number was “clearly” involved in the Libor fixing in 2005-2009, when Balls was city minister in the previous Labour government.
Balls said the allegations were “utterly untrue” and challenged the chancellor: “If he has any evidence, he should produce it now … If he will not provide any evidence he needs to step up at the despatch box now and withdraw this utterly false allegation.”
Osborne refused several invitations to apologise, instead pointing to the admission by Balls’ former colleague at the Treasury, Baroness Vadera, that she had seen a UBS report into the Libor market, and evidence on Wednesday by former Barclay’s chief executive Bob Diamond, to the Treasury select committee of MPs, that he was talking about ministers when he said in an email that “senior figures in Whitehall” had told the Bank of England they were worried about Libor being too high.
“Let him [Balls] explain what Labour’s involvement was, who were the ministers, who had the conversations, who were the senior figures,” added Osborne.
Opening Labour’s debate, Balls said the party rejected the government’s three reasons for opposing a public inquiry similar to the current Leveson inquiry into press behaviour and standards. The problems with the banking industry were “much, much wider” than the Libor problems and so merited a wider inquiry; a part inquiry would enable MPs to have a report on the Libor fixing scandal by Christmas, before the expected banking bill in January; and a public inquiry would have greater powers to force witnesses to give evidence under oath and request documents, said Balls.
“Only a judge-led inquiry can truely persuade the public that the inquiry is truely independent and objective,” added Balls.
Osborne said wider banking issues had been considered by the Vickers commission on banking, which reported in 2011 and is to be the subject of a banking bill early next year, and insisted that the proposed joint committee of MPs and Lords could be given tough powers, using standing orders or legislation if necessary.
The chancellor also challenged Labour to take part in the parliamentary inquiry if MPs voted against the opposition bill and for the government. “If the House [of Commons] votes for a joint public inquiry will the Labour party take part in it?” said Osborne. “If not he’ll be cancelling any inquiry into the banking scandal.”