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Tuesday newspaper round-up: Eurozone, US savings, pork,IPOs
Tue, 22 May, 2012
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Tuesday newspaper round-up: Eurozone, US savings, pork,IPOs
Tue, 31 Jan 2012, 07:08:00
European leaders agreed on a
permanent rescue fund for the Eurozone
, and 25 out of 27 EU states backed a fiscal pact for stricter budget discipline in the Eurozone, while a deal on Greek debt is expected in "days". Only Britain and the Czech Republic refused to agree to the fiscal compact, due to be signed in March, that will impose quasi-automatic sanctions on countries that breach European Union budget deficit limits and pledge balanced budget rules will go into national law. Prime Minister David Cameron said further reforms were still needed by Eurozone states to end the debt crisis in the region. I don't think this treaty on its own will sort the Eurozone's problems," he said after the leaders' meeting in Brussels. "There is a fiscal problem but there is also a competitiveness issue," according to The Telegraph.
Americans' savings rate
jumped to a four-month high in December, as consumers took advantage of a rare increase in incomes to put more money away. The savings rate rose to 4% from 3.5% in November, according to the Commerce Department. Incomes rose 0.5% during December, as average earnings climbed and inflationary pressures from petrol and food remained subdued. Although most economists agree that the US savings rate does need to ultimately rise to help rebalance the global economy, December's increase suggests that consumers have begun the year cautiously, The Telegraph says. The board of oil explorer
Cairn Energy
will go back to its institutional shareholders with new pay proposals for chairman Sir Bill Gammell after the firm yesterday pulled a vote proposing to give him a £2.5m bonus. Last week, the company backed down from awarding the company's founder the proposed bonus, which was to include a further £1m donation to charity, after a number of large shareholders told the board they would vote against the deal. The firm also met opposition from the Association of British Insurers, which issued a "red top" alert objecting to the granting of the shares, which would vest in three years but had no performance conditions attached, according to The Scotsman.
Britain's banks
slashed $50bn (£32bn) from their exposure to France, Italy and Spain during the summer as financial institutions ran scared from Europe's debt crisis, according to the Bank for International Settlements (BIS). The Basel-based BIS, "the central banker's bank", revealed that UK banks' total exposure to the three European strugglers had fallen to $430.4bn at the end of September, against $479.9bn at the end of June. British banks' stocks of French, Spanish and Italian sovereign bonds were dumped as markets turned on vulnerable European nations, writes The Independent. Britain has swapped beef for pork, causing sales of the white meat to jump, according to
Cranswick
. The company, the largest British-owned pork processor, saw its shares increase 1.45% after it released an upbeat trading statement.Sales in the final three months of 2011 were up 10% on the previous year, marginally stronger than the increase in the overall British pork market, which increased by 9%. Bernard Hoggarth, chief executive, said that pork shoulder and rolled joints had sold particularly well, helped by being championed by celebrity chef Jamie Oliver as an ideal meat for consumers looking to cut down their food bills, The Telegraph says. Three companies aiming to tap into the US shale gas and oil boom are set to make initial public offerings this week, a critical test for the nascent 2012
IPO market
. Conditions for the groups are expected to be difficult, however, amid a sharp fall in natural gas prices that is in part the result of a surge in companies using hydraulic fracking to extract gas and oil from shale rock in the US. The pipeline of companies looking to debut in the US IPO market is the longest since 2000, according to Scott Sweet, senior managing partner at IPO Boutique, a research firm,The Financial Times says. AB
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