Money Week

Should Big Tech be broken up?

The question of breaking up Big Tech is back on the agenda following last week’s grilling of Silicon Valley’s top bosses (via video link, appropriately enough) by US politicians. David Cicilline, the Democrat chairman of the House Judiciary ...

yesterday 13:26

The charts that matter: precious metals, longevity and a cure for baldness

Welcome back.

We have a fantastic new podcast this week. Merryn interviews Andrew J Scott about The New Long Life, the new book he has just written with fellow London Business School professor Lynda Gratton. It’s a fascinating discussion of how we have the potential to live much longer ...

yesterday 09:14

8 August 1963: the Great Train Robbery took place

The Great Train Robbery of 1963 was arguably the most famous heist in British history. Five career criminals, led by antiques dealer Bruce Reynolds, learned through a mysterious informant who has never been identified about the schedule of a Post Office mail ...

yesterday 08:11

UK house prices hit a new record high – can it last?

As you might have noticed, we’re still in the grip of a pandemic, and we’re nowhere near seeing the end of the resulting surge in unemployment and business disruption.

So of course, UK house prices have just hit a ...

2020-08-07 18:26

Covid-19 sees a surge in early retirement

Continue reading this article and get instant access to even more investment news by registering your details below.

We will use the details you have shared to manage your registration.You agree to the processing, storage, sharing and use of this information for ...

2020-08-07 16:20

Turkey’s next currency crisis approaches

The Turkish lira is “back in the firing line”, says William Jackson of Capital Economics. The Turkish tourism industry has been hit hard by the pandemic, reducing crucial foreign-currency earnings.

Rising tensions with EU member states have led to talk of economic sanctions. The ...

2020-08-07 15:17

South Africa faces a big economic storm

Recession hit South Africa has been the fifth-worst hit country in the world measured by the number of coronavirus cases. The local stockmarket has so far dodged the worst of the fallout, but worse may be to come for its economy. ...

2020-08-07 14:14

Platinum: the precious metal that looks set to play catch-up with silver and gold

Gold has continued to soar this week. Silver has soared even more.

I imagine that there are now two questions on the mind of the average investor reading this today.

Is gold in a bubble? If not, is there still time to get in on ...

2020-08-07 13:11

The charms of a trip on a canal

Floating down a British waterway in a colourful narrowboat named the Dame Mousey of Middleswick sounds impossibly twee, says Tracey Davies in the Metro. But it makes for one of the most relaxing holidays you can take. After all, “life has no choice but to slow down when you have ...

2020-08-07 11:05

Wine of the week: a staggering Bacchanalian creation

£24, 75cl bottle; £50, 150cl magnum; castlewoodvineyard.co.uk

Castlewood specialises in sparkling wines, but it took the decision to plant some Bacchus in 2016 and this wine is the very first release. The inspiration and the name (a Devon Minnow is a 200-year-old spinning lure) for this ...

2020-08-07 11:05

Eagle Lightweight GT: the reincarnation of the E-type Jag

Price: about £800,000; Engine: 4.7-litre, six-cylinder; Top speed: 170mph plus; 0-60mph: under five seconds; Power: 380bhp; Torque: 375 lb ft

Eagle, a small engineering company in East Sussex, is best known for taking classic Jaguar E-types and giving them a mild ...

2020-08-07 11:05

Collectables: rum comes of age

No longer just the frivolous spirit of pretty cocktails and beach parties, rum has come of age. Sales shot up by 53% over the past 12 weeks, making it the “spirit of the summer”, according to Waitrose. “We’ve been anticipating the year of rum for a while ...

2020-08-07 11:05

The US dollar is ripe for sharp depreciation

Has the greenback reached a turning point? The US dollar index gained more than 10% between March 2018 and April 2020. The index measures the greenback’s value against a basket of six major trading partners’ currencies. Yet that trend has now gone into ...

2020-08-07 11:05

Is the bond market wrong about inflation?

US GDP had its worst fall on record in the second quarter. It shrank by 9.5% from the previous quarter, a 32.9% slump in annualised terms. “That is... the equivalent of the first three years... of the Great Depression accelerated into just three ...

2020-08-07 11:05

Share tips of the week

(The Sunday Telegraph) This distributor often flies under the radar, but its deliveries of medical equipment, cleaning kit and disposable cutlery were vital to keeping the economy going during lockdown. First-half underlying sales grew by 5% Profit margins are expected to expand. Management ...

2020-08-07 11:05

7 August 1978: Love Canal declared a disaster

In the 1890s entrepreneur William Love attempted to build a canal from the Niagara River, initially to power local industries, and then to serve as the backdrop for a new township in New York. Both schemes collapsed, leaving a one-mile mini-canal. The pit ...

2020-08-07 10:02

Properties for sale for around £500,000

Continue reading this article and get instant access to even more investment news by registering your details below.

We will use the details you have shared to manage your registration.You agree to the processing, storage, sharing and use of this information for ...

2020-08-07 10:02

7 August 1946: Turkish Straits crisis reaches its climax

For the Soviet Union, the Turkish Straits could not have been more important. Since ancient times, the narrow bodies of water that make up the Bosphorus and the Dardanelles via the Sea of Marmara held enormous strategic importance both militarily and in terms of ...

2020-08-07 10:02

HSBC finds itself in eye of the storm

An unexpectedly steep plunge in earnings, with first half pre-tax profits falling by 65% to $4.3bn, has prompted HSBC to announce that it will “accelerate” the axing of 35,000 jobs, says the BBC. The bank says bad loans linked to the coronavirus could reach $13bn (£9.8bn) as ...

2020-08-06 21:26

BP halves its dividend

BP engineers ©

BP has announced a record quarterly loss for the three months to the end of June – $17.7bn – and cut its dividend in half, says Graham Ruddick in the Times. BP’s shareholders also have a new strategy to get used to.

This “radical” plan involves ...

2020-08-06 20:23

Profit from the fast growth of the haircare industry

Our society has become much more image-conscious, while new consumers worldwide want to look good too. From shampoos to new potential cures for baldness, here’s how to cash in, says Matthew Partridge. ...

2020-08-06 16:11

Latest News Headlines UK

Money Week