In a speech at an event to celebrate the 125th anniversary of the Financial Times, Mr Carney said the BoE had a duty to “keep up” with events and provide a backstop to private markets to enable greater dynamism in financial services. Mr Carney said five words described the BoE’s new willingness to provide liquidity if banks need it. “We are open for business,” the governor said.
Icahn wants a second bite of Apple with call for $150bn share buyback
The activist investor Carl Icahn has raised his stake in Apple by 22 per cent and heaped pressure on the company’s board to hand back more cash to shareholders, reports The Independent.
The US billionaire said he now owned 4.7m shares in Apple, worth about $2.5bn (£1.5bn). However, he believes they are undervalued and wants the company to buy back $150bn of shares from investors to boost their price, rather than sitting on its enormous cash mountain.
Twitter cautious ahead of $1.6bn IPO
Twitter struck a cautious stance in setting a price range of between $17 and $20 a share for its initial public offering next month, tempering expectations for the year’s most anticipated technology IPO, reports the Financial Times.
The messaging platform, which has been anxious to avoid the runaway valuations which dogged rival Facebook’s offering, will be valued at up to $13.9bn on a diluted basis, including restricted stock units and options. This is less than the $15bn which had been widely expected.
Fed acts to bolster safety net at banks
The Fed moved to strengthen the ability of the largest banks to withstand periods of market stress, pushing them to hold additional levels of safe assets to fund their operations, reports The Wall Street Journal.
Hope for Grangemouth as unions back down
The Grangemouth petrochemical plant moved closer to being saved yesterday after union bosses capitulated to Ineos’s demand to back its rescue plan, reports The Times.
Len McCluskey, the general secretary of Unite, said that the union was prepared to “embrace” the company’s strategy “warts and all” after an emergency meeting with Ineos’s senior site management yesterday.
Royal Mail was worth £10bn, said JP Morgan. It sold for £6bn less
One of the world’s largest investment banks told ministers ahead of the Royal Mail flotation that they could sell the postal business for £10bn, approximately two-and-a-half times more than the government finally received for it, reports The Guardian.
News of the valuation from JP Morgan re-ignited the huge row over the privatisation with Billy Hayes, the postal workers union leader, claiming a “conspiracy against the taxpayer” and demanding the sacking of Vince Cable as business secretary.
Japanese inflation nears 5-year high
Japanese inflation remained close to its highest level in five years in September, government data showed on Friday, as a weaker yen pushed up the cost of imported oil and gas, reports the Financial Times.
The core consumer price index, which excludes relatively volatile prices for fresh food, rose 0.7 per cent compared with a year earlier. That was only slightly slower than the rate of 0.8 per cent in August, when inflation reached its highest level since late 2008.
