News

Currency speculators have boosted bullish wagers on the pound to the highest level for nine years despite recent signs that sterling’s strong rally this year is flagging. The growing consensus among speculative investors, such as hedge funds, comes after sterling has already rallied strongly this year, driven by the Bank of England’s effort to lift

The world’s largest active bond fund manager says markets are too optimistic about central banks’ ability to dodge a recession as they battle inflation in the US and Europe. Daniel Ivascyn, chief investment officer at Pimco, which manages $1.8tn of assets, said he was preparing for a “harder landing” than other investors while top central

Joe Biden has been rushing to win financial support for his 2024 re-election campaign with a fundraising blitz that is testing the enthusiasm of anxious Democratic donors. The US president has been trying to rake in as much money as possible before the end of the second quarter so he can start amassing a war

Apple’s market valuation is set to surpass the $3tn mark again as shares in the US tech giant hit a fresh record in pre-market trading on Friday. Shares in the company rose about 1 per cent to $191.74 in pre-market trading in New York. Its market value has rebounded 45 per cent this year, adding

Top Russian army general Sergei Surovikin has been detained as the Kremlin cracks down on Wagner sympathisers following the militia’s failed mutiny last week. Surovikin, a senior Russian general known to have a good relationship with Wagner’s leader Yevgeny Prigozhin, has not been heard from for several days and has been detained, according to three

The British government is on standby for the potential collapse of Thames Water and ministers are examining options including the temporary nationalisation of the debt-laden business. Defra, the environment ministry, is holding emergency talks with industry regulator Ofwat to examine contingency plans in case the country’s largest company is unable to raise private finance in

Russia dropped charges against participants in the Wagner paramilitary force’s armed insurrection and said the group had agreed to hand over its weaponry. The announcements on Tuesday came in the wake of the deal between the Kremlin and Wagner founder Yevgeny Prigozhin and appeared to mark progress towards resolving the stand-off. The FSB, Russia’s main

Russia has shown images of defence minister Sergei Shoigu visiting troops, the first time he has been pictured in public since warlord Yevgeny Prigozhin’s weekend insurrection against senior military leadership. The brief video, posted on Monday by the defence ministry, showed Shoigu inspecting a Russian command point and listening to a report from subordinates about

Russian warlord Yevgeny Prigozhin has said his Wagner mercenaries had abandoned their insurrection against the country’s armed forces just hours before a potential assault on Moscow, signalling a possible end to the first coup attempt in Russia for three decades. In a deal brokered by Belarus leader Alexander Lukashenko, Prigozhin said his convoy of troops,

Russian warlord Yevgeny Prigozhin claimed his forces were “blockading” Rostov and marching on Moscow on Saturday morning, as armed, masked men with tanks and armoured vehicles surrounded government buildings in the southern Russian city. In what would mark the first coup attempt in Russia for three decades, Prigozhin appeared to have taken over a military

The eurozone economy has slowed sharply, according to a closely watched business survey which indicated that a period of recent growth in the services sector is stalling and price pressures are cooling. The benchmark purchasing managers’ index, a measure of activity in manufacturing and services, fell to a five-month low of 50.3 on Friday’s data,

The Bank of England has stepped up its fight against persistent inflation with a surprise half-point rise in interest rates to 5 per cent, the highest level since 2008. Voting seven to two in favour of the larger-than-expected increase, the central bank’s Monetary Policy Committee said it was responding to “material news” in recent economic

UK inflation remained stuck at 8.7 per cent in May, higher than expectations of a drop to 8.4 per cent, marking the fourth month in a row that price rises have exceeded forecasts. With the cost of a broad range of goods and services rising sharply, the figures will reinforce expectations of multiple interest rate

UK grocery price inflation eased for a third consecutive month in June, with new data suggesting it might have peaked, according to research company Kantar. The annual pace of supermarket price increases eased to 16.5 per cent for the four weeks to June 11, down from 17.2 per cent the previous month. The figure was

The cost of a two-year fixed-rate mortgage in the UK rose above 6 per cent on Monday and two-year gilt yields rose to their highest level for 15 years, piling more pressure on homeowners and Rishi Sunak’s government. Mortgage costs have been rising sharply over the past week, ahead of an expected increase in interest

Beijing’s bid to persuade investors to value its giant state-owned enterprises according to their socialist credentials, rather than by conventional western capitalist measures, has flopped after a rally in their shares fizzled this month. The stocks rose after officials in November called for the creation of a “valuation system with Chinese characteristics” that departed from

UK households that come to the end of fixed-rate mortgage deals next year face an average £2,900 increase in annual payments, putting Rishi Sunak under pressure to defuse an election-year time bomb. The estimated increase in payments by the Resolution Foundation think-tank reflects concern that the UK has a worse inflation problem than other countries

Job cuts at the largest US banks this year are on course to surpass 11,000 as Wall Street contends with the worst recruitment market since the financial crisis following a pandemic-era hiring binge. Citigroup this week became the latest big US bank to announce significant job cuts, telling investors that it planned to complete 5,000

Boris Johnson, Britain’s former prime minister, has been condemned for lying to parliament over the Covid “partygate” scandal, in a damning report that casts doubt on whether he can ever stage a political comeback. The report by a cross-party committee of MPs published on Thursday is a searing indictment of Johnson’s conduct in high office,

Big asset managers are buying up UK government debt again, tempted by the higher yields on offer after a much faster sell-off than in other major bond markets. Two-year gilts suffered a sharp sell-off on Tuesday, with yields surging 0.25 percentage points to 4.89 per cent, the highest level since 2008. That followed official figures

Gilt yields surged to the highest since 2008, surpassing the level reached during the turmoil following Liz Truss’s mini Budget, after strong UK wage growth data on Tuesday. Wage growth accelerated in the three months to April against a backdrop of rising employment, raising the likelihood of further interest rate rises. Two-year gilt yields rose