Economic News

LONDON (Thomson Financial) - Wall Street is looking at a sharply lower open as investors worry about the impact on an already fragile US economy of a tumbling dollar, oil at nearly 100 usd a barrel and surging metal prices. According to spread bettors IG Index, the Dow Jones Industrial Average is expected to open down 135 points at 13,526. Separately, S&P 500 futures were down 16.60 points at ...

(Updating with economic data scheduled for release) LONDON (Thomson Financial) - Wall Street is looking at a sharply lower open as investors worry about the impact on an already fragile US economy of a tumbling dollar, oil at nearly 100 usd a barrel and surging metal prices. According to spread bettors IG Index, the Dow Jones Industrial Average is expected to open down 135 points at 13,526. Sepa ...

LONDON (Thomson Financial) - European government bonds rose following a strengthening in the euro to a fresh all-time high, which raised concerns about the deflationary effect this could have on growth in the single currency area. The euro struck an all-time high of 1.47 usd following comments from Cheng Siwei, vice chairman of China's National People's Congress, that the country might diversify  ...

WARSAW (Thomson Financial) - Waldemar Pawlak, who is expected to become economy minister in the new centre-right government, said he was against the merger of two Polish oil refiners PKN Orlen and Grupa Lotos, daily Dziennik reported him as saying. "There is no need for that (merger) right now", Pawlak was quoted as saying. "Those companies should compete." The outgoing conse ...

By James Regan SYDNEY (Reuters) - Oil and gold prices led a strong rally across commodities markets on Wednesday, hitting record peaks on concerns of a U.S. economy in trouble and heading for higher inflation. Gold topped $835 an ounce for the first time since before Ronald Reagan was elected U.S. President in 1980, as a hobbled greenback made foreign purchases cheaper. "It's crazy. Everybody is  ...

Sean Poulter, Daily Mail7 November 2007 Vote | Calculate Half the country will see house price falls in the next 18 months driven by the knock-on effects of the worldwide squeeze on credit, according to a study out today. WANT TO KNOW MORE? Is there going to be a house price crash? Mortgage fees: How much are you owed? Monday view: Migrant boost for buy-to-let The buy-to-let timebomb P ...

The Bank of England is expected to keep interest rates on hold at 5.75% following the latest monthly meeting of its rate-setting committee. Despite signs of some slowdown in the housing market and weaker consumer confidence, most analysts predict rates will remain unchanged. They point to the Bank's need to keep inflation contained at a time of record oil prices and higher food costs. UK rates have been on hold since July when they rose to 5.75% from 5.5%. The Bank will announce its latest r ...

HONG KONG (Thomson Financial) - The US dollar traded near a record low against the euro in afternoon Asian trade Wednesday on speculation the European Central Bank (ECB) will raise interest rates tomorrow, amid rising expectations the Federal Reserve will reduce rates in December. "There may be a chance that the ECB will increase the interest rate Thursday because of rising inflation,"  ...

BEIJING (XFN-ASIA) - Widespread expectations that the yuan will continue to appreciate are at the root of China's monetary problems and a number of steps need to be taken to dampen them including reforming the current exchange rate regime, according to a report prepared by a department head at the People's Bank of China. Guo Jianwei, the director of the interest rate division of the monetary poli ...

LONDON (Thomson Financial) - The financial turmoil sparked by the recent credit crunch has had little impact on UK consumer confidence, which dipped only slightly in October, a survey by Nationwide showed. In its monthly report on consumer sentiment the building society said its confidence index fell by one point in October to 98 after jumping by five points in September. "Consumers' confid ...