BP Plc maintained at Overweight at JPMorgan, however earnings expected to head lower |
|
|
| Economy | |
| Written by Roberta Murray | |
| Thursday, 26 January 2012 | |
|
Financial News Roundup: BP, Facebook IPO, UK High Street Jobs, Portuguese borrowing, Joint Strike Fighter delays.
BP Plc (LON:BP) shares are maintained at Overweight at JPMorgan, this as earnings forecasts are cut on the FTSE 100 oil major. Earnings estimates for BP are expected to be down by up to 10%. JPMorgan said the integrated oils sector was set for some weak earnings in its fourth-quarter results preview, citing a profit warning from Chevron, financial insolvency at a Petroplus, combined with very cautious pre-results guidance, as reasons for a downbeat assessment. Facebook IPO eminent?Facebook has suspended trading of its shares on the private secondary market until the end of the week, raising expectations that it will shortly file for its long-awaited initial public offering (IPO). Shareholders can still place buy and sell orders, but the transactions will not be approved by the social network's lawyers until January 27, according to US reports. The pause in trading is not the first from Facebook – the company has previously put a stop on transactions in order to assess its shareholder profile. However, the company is expected to make its IPO in the third week of May, so the suspension adds to a growing body of evidence, according to The Telegraph. More jobs on the UK high streetBritain’s struggling retailers still managed to create more jobs in the run-up to Christmas than the previous year despite the consumer squeeze. Stores hired more than 4,000 staff in the final three months of last year, figures today show, but retail experts warn the positive news “won’t last”. The British Retail Consortium (BRC) said employment in the sector was up 0.5% during the fourth quarter of 2011 compared to the same period a year earlier – the equivalent of 4,074 full-time jobs. This growth, however, was driven by supermarkets and other food retailers and the BRC warned against false optimism. The figures were collated before the recent flurry of administrations on the high street, the trade body said, and numbers were boosted by the fact retailers were taking on seasonal staff to cope with the Christmas rush, The Scotsman writes. Portuguese borrowingThe threat posed to the British economy from the Eurozone crisis was underlined on Wednesday when Portugal saw its borrowing costs soar to a record high amid market fears that the bailed-out country will not be able to break free of its financial crisis in the near future. The yield, or interest rate, on three-year bonds reached 19.4%, while the rate on 10-year bonds was 14.6%, figures that compare with British rates of less than 2%. Portugal needed a €78bn (£65bn) rescue package last year as its high debt load and feeble growth pushed it towards bankruptcy. A three-year programme of austerity measures and economic reforms is aimed at restoring investor confidence in the country, but a deepening recession, with a 3.1% contraction forecast for this year, is undermining the faith of the markets in Portugal, according to The Guardian. Joint Strike Fighter delaysThe Royal Navy may have to buy French fighter jets for Britain’s new aircraft carrier amid growing doubts over the American-designed Joint Strike Fighter (JSF), a senior officer has warned. Admiral Sir Trevor Soar, who retires as Commander-in-Chief Fleet in March, told industrialists that there was mounting concern within the Ministry of Defence about the escalating costs and delays to the JSF programme. In a detailed note of his speech to the ADS Maritime Interest Group, seen by The Times, Admiral Soar warned that US defence spending cuts could jeopardise the deal. He was quoted as saying that Britain might do better to invest in what he called an “interim aircraft capability.” The carrier is due to be ready in 2019 but Britain might not acquire the JSF until a decade later, Admiral Soar suggested.
|
|
Digg it! 
del.icio.us 
Newsvine 
Reddit 
Stumble It! 
