Economics / Markets

US equities finished higher in fairly quiet trading on Monday, with the S&P 500 closing up (+2.2%) for a sixth straight session.

Barclays profits for the first nine months of the year dropped by almost a fifth following a £6.2bn payout of bad debts charges.

The UK life insurance sector has received a negative outlook from Fitch Ratings, following ongoing declines in sales and pressure on earnings.

There is growing fear of inflation in the UK and US markets as shown by increasing demand for government securities offering protection from rising prices, reports the Financial Times.

Gordon Brown appeared to step back from a G20 declaration to introduce a bank tax after Downing Street insisted that he was merely trying to open a debate on raising new money from the City.

The European Central Bank (ECB) today kept interest rates at a record low of 1% for the sixth consecutive month.

Interest rates have been held at 0.5% by the Bank of England for the eighth consecutive month.

The Bank of England today faces the difficult decision of whether to pump more money into the struggling UK economy by expanding its unprecedented £175bn quantitative easing programme.

The FTSE 100 dipped below the 5,000 mark today for the first time since 5 October.

L&G has reported the percentage of UK sales via IFAs fell for the first nine months of the year compared to the same period last year.