Economic News

Sylvia Morris, Daily Mail26 May 2006 BANKS and building societies have launched a stream of new fixed-rate bonds, with top deals now paying more than 5%. OTHER STORIES Abbey tops Bad Bank League Barclays extra fraud protection New on the market Bank customer left open to fraud Carpetbaggers welcome at Kent Reliance USEFUL SAVINGS LINKS EMAIL US: Contact the team GUIDES: Saving and banking DEAL FINDER: Best accounts HAVE YOUR SAY What are ING Direct playing at? 'Savi ...

By Ross Finley LONDON (Reuters) - A slight tick higher in some measures of inflation expectations means that central bankers need to be constantly vigilant, Bank of England Monetary Policy Committee member Paul Tucker said on Friday. Policymakers can make rough adjustments to the economy with rates but cannot fine tune it, the Bank's executive director for markets added in a speech to a graduate business school in Chicago, echoing comments often made by Governor Mervyn King. The best test for ...

Long-term Treasury prices closed lower Thursday, sending yields higher, after an auction of 5-year notes received a lackluster response, reviving concerns that foreigners are backing away from U.S. assets. Earlier there was limited response to data showing a milder-than-expected upward revision to first-quarter gross domestic product and a plunge in weekly initial jobless claims linked to a one ...

The volatility and flight from risk in financial markets has led to dramatic rises in the pricing of the riskiest slices of the complex credit derivative deals known as synthetic collateralised debt obligations. // However, the macro-economic concerns that sparked the sell-off in markets have not been accompanied by any particular bad news for credit, which means CDO investors have not suffered a ...

The US economy grew at a blistering 5.3 per cent rate in the first three months of the year, the fastest rate in two and a half years and up from the initial estimate of 4.8 per cent. // Thursday’s figures also showed that corporate profits had climbed by 23.8 per cent compared to last year. Economists had been expecting an upward revision to growth in the first quarter following an unexpected narrowing of the America’s trade deficit. Some had forecast that it might surpass 6 per cent in the ...

By Janet McBride LONDON (Reuters) - Oil climbed more than a dollar on Thursday, drawing strength from news that the U.S. economy grew 5.3 percent year-on-year in the first quarter, its fastest rate for 2-1/2 years, despite high energy costs. Some traders reasoned the U.S. figures could ease pressure for higher interest rates that would brake demand growth in the world's biggest oil consumer. But analysts stressed the numbers were old and the Federal Reserve would look at fresh data. U.S. crud ...

The dollar fell against the yen and was little changed against the euro Thursday, registering little reaction to data showing a smaller-than-expected upward revision in first-quarter U.S. economic growth and roughly in-line sales of existing homes in April. "It's very quiet, range trading," said John McCarthy, director of foreign- exchange trading at ING Capital Markets. "The data was as antici ...

Long-term Treasury prices were flat to lower Thursday afternoon, as investors remained sanguine in the face of data showing a milder-than-expected upward revision to first-quarter gross domestic product and a plunge in weekly initial jobless claims linked to a one-off event. Both reports were distorted by exceptional events, making it difficult to gauge their significance for the economy going  ...

The dollar fell against the yen and was little changed against the euro early Thursday after a revision of U.S. gross domestic product estimates came in short of expectations. The U.S. economy grew at a 5.3% annual rate in the first quarter, faster than the 4.8% estimated a month ago, the Commerce Department said. Economists were predicting a revision to about 5.6%. The inflation picture was un ...

WASHINGTON (Dow Jones) -- First-time claims for unemployment benefits fell to 329,000 in the week ending May 20, the Labor Department said Thursday, a decrease of 40,000 from the prior week. Initial claims for the week ending May 13 were revised slightly upward, to 369,000, from the previously reported 367,000. A partial government shutdown in Puerto Rico was behind the higher claims figure  ...