Fogwill & Jones

Moody’s downgrade 16 Spanish banks

Kathy — Fri, 18 May 2012 18:02:25 +0000

The Moody’s ratings agency has downgraded the credit rating of 16 Spanish banks, including the debt rating of Santander UK, a subsidiary of Banco Santander. The agency said that the downgrade was due to challenges in the Spanish economy as well as exposure to bad debt. Spanish bank’s bad loans increased to their highest in 18 years in March, confirming the problems the Government faces in the financial sector.

FTSE at six-month low

Kathy — Fri, 18 May 2012 18:01:03 +0000

The FTSE 100 fell to its lowest level since last November today, as fears over the growing Euro zone crisis and the downgrade of 16 Spanish banks hit the financial markets. The index closed below 5,400 yesterday for the first time in 2012 and is set to record its third consecutive week of losses.

Unemployment falls suggests economic resilience

Kathy — Fri, 18 May 2012 17:59:36 +0000

According to the Office for National Statistics (ONS) the number of people out of work in Britain fell at the fastest pace in almost a year, in Quarter 1 of 2012, falling by 45,000 to 2.625 million. The number of people claiming unemployment benefit fell by 13,700, the largest drop since July 2012.

Greek rating cut by Fitch

Kathy — Fri, 18 May 2012 17:57:14 +0000

Due to continued concerns about Greek economic stability, ratings agency Fitch has downgraded the country’s long term foreign and local currency issuer default rating from B- to CCC and its short-term foreign currency IDR have been dropped from B to C.

FTSE drops below 5,500

Kathy — Mon, 14 May 2012 17:47:51 +0000

Amid increasing worries about the state of the Euro zone, the FTSE 100 has fallen below 5,500, down more than 2% today. Other European markets such as the French CAC and the German DAX have shown similar percentage losses.