ReportWire

Tag: Pound sterling

  • King Charles banknotes enter circulation for the first time

    King Charles banknotes enter circulation for the first time

    [ad_1]

    A press preview held for the ‘The Future of Money’ exhibition at the Bank of England Museum in London, United Kingdom on February 27, 2024.

    Rasid Necati Aslim | Anadolu | Getty Images

    LONOND — Banknotes featuring a portrait of King Charles III entered circulation on Wednesday for the first time, the Bank of England said in a statement.

    Charles will be pictured on the front of the £5, £10, £20, and £50 banknotes, and will be seen through the notes’ see-through security window.

    Otherwise the notes will remain unchanged in their design. As well as monarchs, banknotes in the U.K. feature historical characters including Winston Churchill, Jane Austen, JMW Turner and Alan Turing.

    Images of the notes depicting Charles were first released in December 2022 after Queen Elizabeth II passed away in September of the same year.

    New bank notes that bear a portrait of King Charles III, and which will enter circulation on June 5, 2024, are displayed for a photograph after having been presented to Britain’s King Charles III by Bank of England Governor Andrew Bailey and Bank of England Chief Cashier Sarah John, at Buckingham Palace in London on April 9, 2024.

    Yui Mok | Afp | Getty Images

    Notes featuring Queen Elizabeth II will remain legal tender and will be in circulation alongside those showing Charles, the Bank of England said. The two monarchs are the only ones to be depicted on banknotes, as this tradition only began in 1960.

    “The new banknotes will only be printed to replace those that are worn, and to meet any overall increase in demand for banknotes,” the Bank of England said. “This means the public will begin to see the new King Charles III notes very gradually.”

    “This is a historic moment, as it’s the first time we’ve changed the sovereign on our notes,” Bank of England Governor Andrew Bailey said.

    People would, however, be able to exchange notes they already have for the new ones featuring Charles. A series of auctions of low-serial numbered notes will be held in the coming months, with proceeds going to charity, the Bank of England said.

    Coins showing a portrait of the British king have already entered into circulation. They show him facing the left, in line with a tradition that says the direction of the profile switches for each successive monarch.

    [ad_2]

    Source link

  • Asian stocks fall ahead of US inflation update

    Asian stocks fall ahead of US inflation update

    [ad_1]

    BEIJING — European stocks and Wall Street futures gained Thursday while Asian markets fell ahead of U.S. inflation data that investors worry will reinforce Federal Reserve plans for more aggressive interest rate hikes.

    London and Frankfurt advanced. Shanghai, Tokyo and Hong Kong declined. Oil prices advanced.

    Wall Street’s benchmark S&P 500 ended lower Wednesday after inflation in producer prices edged down but still was near a multi-decade high.

    The more closely watched consumer price index was due out later Thursday.

    “A hawkish reaction to the data could add more pressure to stocks,” Anderson Alves of ActivTrades said in a report.

    The Fed and other central banks in Europe and Asia have raised rates by unusually big margins to cool inflation that is at multi-decade highs, but traders are afraid they might tip the global economy into recession.

    In early trading, the FTSE 100 in London gained 0.2% to 6,840.35. The DAX in Frankfurt rose 0.8% to 12,272.20 and the CAC 40 in Paris added 0.5% to 5,845.55.

    On Wall Street, futures for the benchmark S&P 500 index and the Dow Jones Industrial Average were up 0.5%.

    On Wednesday, the S&P 500 gave up 0.3% for its sixth daily decline and the Dow slide 0.1% after a report showed producer price inflation is very hot.

    Prices rose 8.5% in September, down from March’s peak of 11.7%. But prices gained 0.4% compared with August following two months of declines.

    Consumer inflation on Thursday and retail sales data Friday could give a clearer picture of where prices are hottest and how consumers are reacting.

    Minutes from the Fed’s last meeting, released Wednesday, underscored the central bank’s commitment to taming “unacceptably high” inflation.

    The S&P 500 is down 25% so far this year and close to a two-year low.

    In Asia, the Shanghai Composite Index lost 0.1% to 3,016.35 and the Nikkei 225 in Tokyo sank 0.6% to 26,237.42. Hong Kong’s Hang Seng tumbled 1.9% to 16,389.11, its lowest close in more than 11 years.

    The Kospi in Seoul fell 1.8% to 2,162.87 while Sydney’s S&P-ASX 200 gained less than 0.1% to 6,642.60.

    India’s Sensex lost 0.7% to 57,205.89. New Zealand’s benchmark lost 0.5% and Southeast Asian markets also declined.

    In energy markets, benchmark U.S. crude gained 19 cents to $87.64 per barrel in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange. Brent crude, the price basis for international oil trading, added 31 cents to $92.67 per barrel in London.

    The dollar strengthened to 146.74 after hitting a 24-year high of 145.85 on Wednesday.

    The dollar’s exchange rate has been rising against other currencies due to the Fed’s rate hikes and recession fears. The yen’s weakness has prompted expectations Japan’s central bank might intervene for a second time to prop up the exchange rate following an intervention in September.

    The euro gained to 97.39 cents from 97.06 cents.

    [ad_2]

    Source link

  • Wall Street drifts near 2022 low as dismal week, month close

    Wall Street drifts near 2022 low as dismal week, month close

    [ad_1]

    NEW YORK — Wall Street is drifting around its worst levels in almost two years Friday as the end nears for what’s been a miserable month for markets around the world.

    The S&P 500 was virtually unchanged in midday trading after flipping between small losses and gains through the morning. It’s hovering around its lowest level since November 2020, and it’s on pace to close out its sixth weekly loss in the last seven, one of its worst months since the early 2020 coronavirus crash and its third straight losing quarter.

    The Dow Jones Industrial Average was down 95 points, or 0.3%, at 29,130, as of noon Eastern time, and the Nasdaq composite was 0.4% higher.

    The main reason for this year’s struggles for financial markets has been fear about a possible recession, as interest rates soar in hopes of beating down the high inflation that’s swept the world.

    The Federal Reserve has been at the forefront of the global campaign to slow economic growth and hurt job markets just enough to undercut inflation but not so much that it causes a recession. More data arrived Friday to suggest the Fed will keep its foot firmly on the brakes on the economy, raising the risk of its going too far and causing a downturn.

    The Fed’s preferred measure of inflation showed prices rising even faster than economists expected last month, while spending by consumers rebounded. That should keep the Fed on track to keep raising rates and hold them at high levels a while, as it’s loudly and repeatedly promised to do.

    Vice Chair Lael Brainard was the latest Fed official on Friday to insist it won’t pull back on rates prematurely. That helped to keep snuffed out hopes on Wall Street for a “pivot” toward easier rates as the economy slows.

    “At this point, it’s not a matter of if we’ll have a recession, but what type of recession it will be,” said Sean Sun, portfolio manager at Thornburg Investment Management.

    Higher interest rates knock down one of the main levers that set prices for stocks. The other also looks to be under threat as the slowing economy, high interest rates and other factors weigh on corporate profits.

    Nike slumped 11.8% in what could be its worst day in two decades after it said its profitability weakened during the summer because of discounts needed to clear suddenly overstuffed warehouses. The amount of shoes and gear in Nike’s inventories swelled by 44% from a year earlier. This year’s powerful surge for the U.S. dollar against other currencies also hurt the company. Its worldwide revenue rose only 4%, instead of the 10% it would have if currency values had remained the same.

    Nike isn’t the only company to see its inventories balloon. So have several big-name retailers, and such bad news for businesses could actually mean some relief for shoppers if it leads to more discounts. It echoed some glimmers of encouragement buried within Friday’s report on the Fed’s preferred gauge of inflation. That showed some slowing of inflation for goods, even as price gains kept accelerating for services.

    Another report on Friday also offered a glimmer of hope. A measure of consumer sentiment showed U.S. expectations for future inflation came down in September. That’s key for the Fed because expectations for higher inflation among households can create a debilitiating, self-reinforcing cycle that worsens it.

    Treasury yields eased a bit on Friday, letting off some of the pressure that’s built on markets.

    The yield on the 10-year Treasury fell to 3.73% from 3.79% late Thursday. The two-year yield, which more closely tracks expectations for Fed action, sank to 4.13% from 4.19%.

    Still, a long list of other worries continues to hang over global markets, including increasing tensions between much of Europe and Russia following the invasion of Ukraine. A controversial plan to cut taxes by the U.K. government also sent bond markets spinning on fears it could make inflation even worse. Bond markets calmed a bit after the Bank of England pledged mid-week to buy however many U.K. government bonds are needed to bring yields back down.

    The stunning and swift rise of the U.S. dollar against other currencies, meanwhile, raises the risk of creating so much stress that something cracks somwhere in global markets.

    Stocks around the world were mixed after a report showed that inflation in the 19 countries that use Europe’s euro currency spiked to a record and data from China said that factory activity weakened there.

    ——

    AP Business Writers Joe McDonald and Matt Ott contributed.

    [ad_2]

    Source link

  • Britain’s Liz Truss to hold talks with budget watchdog as the pound stabilizes

    Britain’s Liz Truss to hold talks with budget watchdog as the pound stabilizes

    [ad_1]

    Britain’s Prime Minister Liz Truss and Britain’s Chancellor of the Exchequer Kwasi Kwarteng.

    Dylan Martinez | Afp | Getty Images

    The IMF has since given a damning verdict of the measures laid out in the mini-budget, saying they will “likely increase inequality” and that the U.K. government should “consider ways to provide support that is more targeted and re-evaluate the tax measures, especially those that benefit high income earners.”

    A growing number of economists and investors have also slated the plans, including the founder of Bridgewater, one of the world’s largest hedge funds, Ray Dalio, who said the proposed measures suggest government “incompetence.”

    [ad_2]

    Source link