Bulging Debt May Spell Trouble for Energy, Telecom and Retail

ECONOMYLeave a comment

Bulging Debt May Spell Trouble for Energy, Telecom and Retail While many companies have shrewdly taken advantage of rock-bottom interest rates over the last decade, in industries like retail, energy and telecommunications, bulging debt is a burden that investors may need to worry about.
Many retailers, for example, have been struggling with competition from online giants like Amazon and Walmart. The debt of major companies like Neiman Marcus, PetSmart and Sears is already rated as speculative (also known as high-yeld or junk). And Diane Vazza, head of global fixed-income research at Standard & Poor’s, said many debt-laden retailers have already suffered credit downgrades this year. These include Sears, Payless and Guitar Center Holdings.
Once a company’s debt is downgraded to speculative from investment grade, it may find the footing more slippery. Companies that fall into speculative grade ratings (B- or lower in the S.&P. ratings system) tend to accelerate toward even lower ratings, ..

Brexit: UK faces up to 100,000 job losses under new proposal to strip UK of euro business

ECONOMYLeave a comment

Mr Weber, who heads the European People’s Party, the largest group in the European Parliament, said that it was not conceivable that euro-denominated business could remain in London
Around 100,000 jobs may now be at risk after a top EU lawmaker warned that financial business denominated in euros must move from the UK to the EU after Brexit.
“People expect that we do the euro business and all the business which is linked to the euro on European soil,” said Manfred Weber, a political ally of German Chancellor Angela Merkel and European Commission president Jean-Claude Juncker
Mr Weber, who heads the European People’s Party, the largest group in the European Parliament, said that it was not conceivable that euro-denominated business could remain in London.
Read more European parliament leader demands UK be stripped of all euro business Mr Weber said the EU should support its own financial hubs such as Paris, Frankfurt, Dublin and Amsterdam.
Financial transactions can currently be ..

Jaguar Land Rover to cut 1,000 UK jobs as Brexit hits the motor industry

ECONOMYLeave a comment

Car maker said it remains committed to is UK plants despite the role reductions
Jaguar Land Rover (JLR) is cutting 1,000 of its UK contractor roles, blaming continued difficult trading conditions in the motor market.
The job cuts are due to a fall in sales caused by uncertainty around Brexit and confusion over diesel policy, a source told Reuters.
Read more UK car registrations fall for 12th consecutive month The car maker said it “regularly reviews its production schedules to ensure market demand is balanced globally”.
A spokesperson for Jaguar, which employs more than 40,000 people around the world, said: “In light of the continuing headwinds impacting the car industry, we are making some adjustments to our production schedules and the level of agency staff. We are however continuing to recruit large numbers of highly skilled engineers, graduates and apprentices as we are over-proportionally invest in new products and technologies.
“We also remain committed to our UK plants..

Bits: Kevin’s Week in Tech: Another Facebook-Free Edition

UncategorisedLeave a comment

Kevin’s Week in Tech: Another Facebook-Free Edition Photo Steve Huffman, the chief executive of Reddit, clarified the online forum’s policies by saying, “To be perfectly clear, while racism itself isn’t against the rules, it’s not welcome here.” Credit Jason Henry for The New York Times Each week, Kevin Roose, technology columnist at The New York Times, discusses developments in the tech industry, offering analysis and maybe a joke or two. Want this newsletter in your inbox? Sign up here.
Well, friends, we did it again. We got through another week of wall-to-wall news about Facebook. Mark Zuckerberg’s two-day marathon of congressional testimony is over, and if you had better things to do than spend 10 hours watching a group of lawmakers ask an internet billionaire how computers work, you can catch up on our coverage here. (Or here, here, here, here, here, here, here or here. We’ve been busy.)
But as always, there is more to tech news than Facebook. So here are a few other stories that ..

JPMorgan profits soar 35% thanks to Donald Trump's tax cuts

ECONOMYLeave a comment

US Congress slashed the corporate tax rate from 35% to 21% in December as part of a major overhaul pushed for by president
JPMorgan’s profits jumped 35 percent in the last quarter, compared to a year ago, partly thanks to a huge tax cut.
Congress slashed the corporate tax rate from 35 per cent to 21 per cent in December as part of a major overhaul pushed for by President Donald Trump that also cut taxes for wealthy individuals.
Higher interest rates also helped to boost profits, JPMorgan said.
Read more JPMorgan could cut more than 4,000 UK jobs, says Dimon The bank earned $8.7bn (£6.1bn) in the first quarter, or $2.37 a share, up from $6.45bn, in the same period a year earlier. Analysts had predicted JPMorgan would earn $2.28 a share.
Pre-tax income rose by $2.6bn to $28.52bn in the quarter, the company paid $240 million less in taxes compared to a year earlier.
“2018 is off to a good start with our businesses performing well across the board, driving strong top-line growth..

Meghan Markle wore a pair of jeans made by Hiut, a tiny Welsh denim company. Here's what happened next

ECONOMYLeave a comment

Co-directors David and Clare Hieatt have hired two more makers and have plans to expand into an old jeans factory in Cardigan, Wales
David Hieatt only found out that Meghan Markle had worn a pair of jeans made by his company when a newspaper rang up to check they were his.
Hieatt and his wife Clare are the co-founders of the Hiut Denim Company in Cardigan in Wales. For almost 40 years, Cardigan was home to a factory that made 35,000 pairs of jeans each week for Marks & Spencer. Then in 2002, production was moved offshore to Morocco to save costs, resulting in the loss of 400 jobs.
Read more How East London's traders are joining forces to demand fair rent Small business body calls on Hammond to address late payment 'crisis' How trading and small business has grown inside Rohingya refugee camps When Hieatt started scouting about for a location to start a denim company, he realised that Cardigan, which had hundreds of people with decades of experience, was the perfect ..

How will David Schwimmer's role as boss of the London Stock Exchange go?

ECONOMYLeave a comment

Investors and directors will be pleased to see the opening of a new chapter after the turbulent departure of Xavier Rolet. The question is whether the deal making Mr Schwimmer will a buyer or a seller
After six months of searching, the London Stock Exchange at last has a new chief executive in the form of Goldman Sachs banker David Schwimmer.
No, no, there is no connection to the Friends actor, despite the jokes that everyone’s making.
But the one where the Goldman Sachs exec lands the plumb job is a very familiar script in both financial and government circles.
Read more David Schwimmer joins London Stock Exchange Group as new CEO London Stock Exchange Group sees profit rise as CEO search continues LSE shareholders have lost faith in chairman, says activist investors Mr Schwimmer provides yet another example of how that institution's tentacles spread. Goldman has old friends wherever you look. It really is everywhere.
The bankers it sends out don’t so much build busine..