Central bank stimulus pushes up value of shares, taking fund to £923bn – equal to £170,000 for each NorwegianNorway’s sovereign wealth fund earned more than £90bn during 2020 as the wave of central bank stimulus provided to counter the effects of the coronavirus pandemic pushed up the value of shares and other assets.The fund, built with the revenues from its oilfields, gained 10.9% in value during the year, Norway’s central bank said on Thursday. The total gain was worth 1.07tn kroner (£91bn). Related: ‘Historic breakthrough’: Norway’s giant oil fund dives into renewables Continue reading… [Read More...]

Investor group makes net-zero carbon pledge to tackle climate crisis
Managers commit to investing only in companies with net-zero CO2 emissions by 2050Some of the world’s largest investors managing assets worth more than $9tn have committed to investing only in companies with net zero carbon dioxide emissions by 2050 as part of the fight to contain the climate crisis.Legal and General Investment Management, the UK’s largest investor, and UBS Asset Management are among the signatories to a pledge that they will aim for all companies in their portfolios to be decarbonised by 2050 or earlier. Continue reading… [Read More...]
Investors drop Brazil meat giant JBS
Top investment house delists world biggest meat producer over lack of commitment to sustainability issues The investment arm of northern Europe’s largest financial services group has dropped JBS, the world’s biggest meat processer, from its portfolio. The Brazilian company is now excluded from assets sold by Nordea Asset Management, which controls a €230bn (£210bn) fund, according to Eric Pedersen, its head of responsible investments.The decision was taken about a month ago, over the meat giant’s links to farms involved in Amazon deforestation, its response to the Covid-19 outbreak, past corruption scandals, and frustrations over engagement with the company on such issues. “The exclusion of JBS is quite dramatic for us because it is from all of our funds, not just the ones labelled ESG,… [Read More...]
Want to buy shares online? Here’s how to get started
Covid-19 pandemic pushes traditional savers to consider other options but there are golden rulesIt has been a miserable time to be a saver – interest rates, which were already poor, have fallen further since the Bank of England cut its rate to a record low. At the same time, workers lucky enough to have kept their jobs during the coronavirus pandemic have saved thousands of pounds – and now they are looking at where to put it. Total retail bank deposits in the UK have jumped by £78bn since the start of the Covid-19 crisis.Perhaps it is no wonder that online trading in shares by small investors has taken off in recent weeks, with evidence of working-from-home employees dabbling in the markets on … [Read More...]
The Guardian view on a savings scandal: a star has fallen and an industry is in disgrace | Editorial
Neil Woodford was the UK’s most famous fund manager. His fall highlights an industry both lucrative and dysfunctionalIn his classic book A Random Walk Down Wall Street, the Princeton economist Burton Malkiel writes: “A blindfolded monkey throwing darts at a newspaper’s financial pages could select a portfolio that would do just as well as one carefully selected by experts.” Last year, the Wall Street Journal threw darts at a list of shares and pitted the resulting random portfolio against those of the cream of the hedge-fund world. The result? The dartboard beat the professionals by 27 percentage points.The investment world is no place for geniuses; anyone who claims otherwise is a fool or a charlatan. Yet this does not stop money managers touting themselves as … [Read More...]
Fund manager channels fees to tackle coronavirus in developing world
Social investment model stepped up amid rising concern for economically disadvantagedCoronavirus – latest updatesSee all our coronavirus coverageA London investment manager is launching a campaign to encourage investors to support communities in the developing world hit by the Covid-19 pandemic.Alquity’s 40-40 campaign aims to improve the lives of 40,000 people in countries where overcrowded living conditions, chronic ill health and weak public health systems leave the population at risk from coronavirus. Continue reading… [Read More...]
What the coronavirus market fall means for your pension
Someone with £250,000 in scheme at start of year will have seen it shrink to about £225,000Coronavirus – latest updates Savers are nursing losses approaching 10% in their pension schemes since the start of the coronavirus market panic, while holders of share Isas have lost as much as a quarter of all their money in some funds.The stock market rout means someone who had accumulated £250,000 in their pension scheme at the start of this year will have seen it shrivel to about £225,000 on Monday. Related: FTSE on course for biggest fall since financial crisis It is not all bad news. Drivers will at least see the price of petrol fall Continue reading… [Read More...]
Neil Woodford fund investors to share second £142m payout
Payout, which is due in March, represents a fraction of £2.1bn pot distributed in January More than 300,000 investors trapped in Neil Woodford’s failed flagship investment fund will share £142m as part of a second payout, and have been warned they are unlikely to receive extra cash soon.The payout, which is expected by 25 March, is a fraction of the £2.1bn pot that was distributed back in January. It represents 20% of the remaining assets of the Woodford Equity Income Fund (WEIF), worth about £575m. Continue reading… [Read More...]
L&G steps up action against firms with few female board members
Legal & General fund managers voted against more than 100 chairmen in 2018The UK’s biggest fund management group voted against more than 100 chairmen last year, at firms including Barclays, Ted Baker and Sports Direct, for failing to boost the number of women in their boardrooms.Legal & General Investment Management, which manages more than £1tn in assets, more than doubled the number of protest votes cast in 2018 over a lack of gender diversity. A year earlier the asset manager only voted against 37 UK chairmen. Continue reading… [Read More...]
City watchdog told to review London Capital & Finance collapse
Government orders FCA inquiry into £236m scandal surrounding investment firmThe City watchdog has been ordered by the government to launch an independent review of how it handled the collapse of London Capital & Finance, the investment firm at the centre of a growing £236m financial scandal.LC&F sold £236m worth of bonds which promised returns of 6.5% to 8% a year, but the company has collapsed with more than 11,000 investors expected to receive little more than a fifth of their money back. Continue reading… [Read More...]
Budget focus on skills and technology aims to bolster UK productivity
Chancellor’s measures to improve economic growth include training, tax relief and £2.5bn fund for innovatorsThe government’s latest attempt to tackle Britain’s poor productivity record focused on extra funding for artificial intelligence, skills and technology, as the chancellor introduced measures to boost economic growth.Philip Hammond said there would be an expansion in the national productivity investment fund which he launched last year. The fund would rise from £23bn to £31bn to help kickstart improvements in efficiency levels across the UK. Productivity is an economic measure of the efficiency of a workforce. It typically measures the level of output per hour of work, or per worker. Related: Budget 2017: Hammond masks gloomy outlook with stamp duty cut Related: The real budget story is the sharp cut … [Read More...]
Hargreaves Lansdown under fire over Wealth 150 list
Advisers criticised over keeping poor-performing fund in influential buy-list but excluding top performerBritain’s biggest financial adviser, Hargreaves Lansdown, has slashed the fund offerings on its highly influential buy-list, controversially excluding top manager Terry Smith while keeping faith with rival Neil Woodford.The Hargreaves Lansdown Wealth 150 list of funds is regarded as the most powerful buy-list in the asset management industry, driving huge flows in and out of fund firms. Related: Is Terry Smith the best money manager Britain has ever had? | Patrick Collinson Continue reading… [Read More...]
How Microsoft Quietly Became the World’s Most Valuable Company – Wall Street Journal
Wall Street JournalHow Microsoft Quietly Became the World's Most Valuable CompanyWall Street JournalMicrosoft Corp. MSFT 0.64% tried through the years to compete in a range of buzzy consumer businesses, but it was Chief Executive Satya Nadella's focus on selling humdrum yet fast-growing computing services to companies that allowed it to reclaim the …Microsoft is more valuable than Apple again. Why?RecodeIs Microsoft a Buy?Motley Fool5 Lessons Apple Can Learn From Microsoft's ComebackForbesFortune -TheStreet.comall 325 news articles » [Read More...]
‘Ridiculously complex’: Top financier blasts UK’s biggest fund
A Standard Life fund that holds nearly £20bn of Britons’ cash should not have been sold to the public, says Alan MillerIt’s the biggest single stock market fund in Britain, holding nearly £20bn of small investors’ cash. Yet while the FTSE 100 has soared, hitting a record high this week, the fund, managed by Standard Life, has made nothing for investors for five years. Now Alan Miller, husband of anti-Brexit campaigner Gina Miller and a senior figure in the fund management industry, is calling it “potentially one of the greatest mis-selling scandals in the UK”.The fund is called Standard Life Global Absolute Return Strategies (Gars). It was launched in 2006 with a golden promise – a hedge fund for the masses that would make 5… [Read More...]
Old-School Retailers Stumble Into Holiday Spending Weekend – Bloomberg
BloombergOld-School Retailers Stumble Into Holiday Spending WeekendBloombergBlack Friday is increasingly an online shopping event, and that's not necessarily a good thing for legacy retailers, some of which found themselves falling behind during America's annual spending spree. Chains have decades of expertise filling stores …Black Friday pulled in a record $6.22 billion in online sales: Adobe AnalyticsCNBCOn Black Friday, more US shoppers chose the computer over the mallReutersSmall Business Saturday on track to reach $3 billion in online sales for the first timeMarketWatchAdweek -TheStreet.com -Forbes -Business Wire (press release)all 442 news articles » [Read More...]
Check your fridge and garage for all these things recalled this week – CNN
CNNCheck your fridge and garage for all these things recalled this weekCNN(CNN) From the kitchen to the driveway, there were some significant recalls this past week that you may have missed. Read on to see some of the things you may need to throw away or get fixed.Recalls: Check your fridge and garage for all the things that were recalled this weekWCPORecalls | NHTSANHTSAJBS Tolleson, Inc. Recalls Raw Beef Products Due to Possible Salmonella Newport ContaminationUSDA.govUSDA.gov -Toyotaall 78 news articles » [Read More...]
Elon Musk Steps Down as Tesla’s Chairman in Settlement With SEC Over Go-Private Tweet – New York Times
New York TimesElon Musk Steps Down as Tesla's Chairman in Settlement With SEC Over Go-Private TweetNew York TimesElon Musk, under pressure from his lawyers and investors of Tesla, the company he co-founded, reached a deal with the Securities and Exchange Commission on Saturday to resolve securities fraud charges. The settlement will force Mr. Musk to step aside …Musk Settles Fraud Suit With SEC, Steps Down as Tesla ChairmanGreentech MediaMusk to resign as Tesla chairman, remain as CEO in SEC settlementEyewitness NewsElon Musk Steps Down as Tesla Chairman After SEC Fraud ChargesRoadandTrack.comKGO-TV -DailyWealth -Next Big Future -The Daily Heraldall 7,331 news articles » [Read More...]
Tropical Storm Florence: Looters raid Family Dollar and Dollar General in Wilmington – WTVD-TV
WTVD-TVTropical Storm Florence: Looters raid Family Dollar and Dollar General in WilmingtonWTVD-TVAs Tropical Storm Florence continues to trudge through the Carolinas, some people have used the time to ransack several stores in Wilmington–dollar stores to be exact. On Saturday afternoon, dozens of individuals went into the Family Dollar on …Tropical Storm Florence: Looters clean out Family Dollar amid storm damageWPXI PittsburghVIDEO: Looters clean out Family Dollar amid storm damageWSB AtlantaWATCH: Rampant Looting Occurs at a Family Dollar Store in WilmingtonHeavy.comWFMYNews2.com -ABC News -WSOC Charlotteall 50 news articles » [Read More...]
NYC subway station reopens for the first time since 9/11 – CNN International
CNN InternationalNYC subway station reopens for the first time since 9/11CNN InternationalNew York City (CNN) It may not be clean and shiny for long, but the brand new Cortlandt Street subway station is a thing of beauty. In gleaming chrome and white marble, the station reopened Saturday afternoon after being closed since the Twin Towers …8 ???????? 2018 ?. – TwitterTwitterall 228 news articles » [Read More...]
No, Jack Ma Is Not ‘Retiring’—Yet – Fortune
FortuneNo, Jack Ma Is Not 'Retiring'—YetFortuneGood morning. It's Saturday night here in Hong Kong and the big news is a story that popped up about an hour ago on the website of the South China Morning Post. The headline: “Jack Ma to remain Alibaba's chairman in succession plan for younger talent …Chinese billionaire Jack Ma will reportedly detail Alibaba succession plan MondayCNNMoneyAlibaba's Jack Ma To Unveil Succession Plan Next Week, Remain ChairmanInternational Business TimesChina Billionaire Internet Icon Jack Ma Plans To Retire On Monday, NYT SaysForbesThe Australian Financial Review -ecns -New York Times -Bloombergall 566 news articles » [Read More...]