Unlock the Editor’s Digest for free Roula Khalaf, Editor of the FT, selects her favourite stories in this weekly newsletter. British retail sales plummeted in December, marking the biggest decline in nearly three years and raising the risk that the UK economy slipped into a technical recession at the end of last year. The quantity
Last week’s launch of the FT’s annual stock picking contest prompted a flurry of emails from readers. The purpose of the competition is educational — we want to encourage more people to get into investing. However, some of you are (quite rightly) concerned that trying to select the best or worst performing shares in 2024
Unlock the Editor’s Digest for free Roula Khalaf, Editor of the FT, selects her favourite stories in this weekly newsletter. When news outlets called Donald Trump’s election defeat in November 2020, my neighbours in Washington DC celebrated by banging pots and pans from their windows. Because nothing says, “This is nearly over” like the clang
“I’m going to tell you the truth,” says Vanya, a Ukrainian soldier serving in a reconnaissance unit fighting alongside marines on the east bank of the Dnipro river in southern Ukraine. “The situation is deplorable.” His damning assessment follows months of daring raids into enemy territory by Ukrainian forces last autumn to establish a tenuous
Stay informed with free updates Simply sign up to the Private equity myFT Digest — delivered directly to your inbox. Private equity executives are predicting a sharp increase in takeover activity as buyout firms that have held on to investments in the hope of higher prices finally begin to capitulate. There has been a marked
The US House of Representatives passed a short-term spending bill on Thursday that will avert a partial government shutdown and free up lawmakers to focus on contentious negotiations over aid to Ukraine. Passage in the House came after the Senate overwhelmingly approved the bill earlier on Thursday. The bill will now go to President Joe
Stay informed with free updates Simply sign up to the US politics & policy myFT Digest — delivered directly to your inbox. The US House of Representatives passed a short-term spending bill on Thursday that will avert a partial government shutdown and free up lawmakers to focus on more contentious negotiations over aid to Ukraine.
HilltopSecurities hired six former UBS professionals as part of a wider plan to expand its public finance footprint. “We remain committed to adding professionals nationwide to our public finance business who offer a full product solution set to their clients,” said Brad Winges, president of HilltopSecurities. “This is the first group of many hires that
Municipals were weaker Thursday amid another busy new-issue day while municipal bond mutual funds reported inflows. U.S. Treasuries yields rose and equities were up near the close. Muni yields rose up to eight basis points, depending on the scale, while UST yields rose up to six basis points at 30 years. The two-year muni-to-Treasury ratio
A proposed bond-financed crude oil-transporting railway project in Utah lost a federal right-of-way permit in the wake of a 2023 court ruling. The U.S. Forest Service announced Wednesday it withdrew a 2022 permit allowing the Uinta Basin Railway’s construction and operation on about 12 miles of land in the Ashley National Forest. The federal agency
Like some other Midwestern states, Ohio faces twin threats to home affordability: climbing property taxes and real estate investment firms that buy up single-family homes only to rent them out at high rates. So on Jan. 11, Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine rolled out the Welcome Home Ohio program. A product of the Ohio legislature’s biennium
The U.S. Supreme Court declined to hear arguments in a case challenging the constitutionality of Washington’s capital gains tax that took effect two years ago. In Quinn v. Washington, plaintiff Chris Quinn asked the high court to review and overturn the Washington State Supreme Court’s 7-2 March ruling that upheld the tax. The high court
Cities and states dreading the implementation of standardized data under the Financial Data Transparency Act may end up enjoying market benefits like lower borrowing costs and elevated profiles among bond buyers who are increasingly looking for choice and customization. That’s the prediction from panelists participating Wednesday in a webinar hosted by XBRL US on how
Unlock the Editor’s Digest for free Roula Khalaf, Editor of the FT, selects her favourite stories in this weekly newsletter. Tata Steel will announce the end of primary steelmaking in Wales on Friday as part of a wider restructuring of its UK operations that will lead to the loss of around 2,800 jobs in a
Unlock the Editor’s Digest for free Roula Khalaf, Editor of the FT, selects her favourite stories in this weekly newsletter. UK chancellor Jeremy Hunt has signalled he wants to cut taxes further in the coming months and left open the possibility of holding two Budgets ahead of this year’s general election. Hunt said on Thursday
Giorgia Meloni’s government has started formal proceedings to put Europe’s largest steelworks under special administration after failing to agree with ArcelorMittal on the plant’s future. Invitalia, Italy’s state investment agency and a stakeholder in the plant’s operations, took the first step in formally requesting the appointment of a special administrator to run the company earlier
Unlock the Editor’s Digest for free Roula Khalaf, Editor of the FT, selects her favourite stories in this weekly newsletter. Britain’s train drivers’ union has called a second set of walkouts on the East Coast mainline after bosses tried to use anti-strike laws to keep trains running during looming industrial action. The Aslef union on
Will.i.am, the Grammy-award winning rapper from the Black Eyed Peas group, has long mesmerised millennials with his music. This week, however, he grabbed the attention of economists, government ministers and corporate leaders with a different tune — a vision for artificial intelligence. As debates about AI dominated this year’s World Economic Forum meeting in Davos, will.i.am
Stay informed with free updates Simply sign up to the UK banks myFT Digest — delivered directly to your inbox. Jeremy Hunt has called in Britain’s largest banks to discuss why they remain so poorly valued compared with global peers, as ministers seek feedback on how to help boost the sector and the competitiveness of
Municipal Securities Rulemaking Board board of directors member Liz Sweeney has joined the Milken Institute as a senior fellow. Sweeney made the announcement on Tuesday and will continue her duties as president of Nutshell Associates while also serving the MSRB. “I’m delighted to be working with the public finance team at MI Finance,” she said.
Jennifer Fredericks, a sales director at market data platform SOLVE, will lead Women in Public Finance’s board of directors in 2024, the organization recently announced. Women in Public Finance, a professional networking group for women working in the public finance sector, is about advancing women in sector, including helping them find jobs, putting together education