The Good (and not so bad) News Thread

RenovationMan

Friday 06/01/2012 - FTSE 100 rises by over 25 points

The FTSE 100 index has risen by 0.75% today as the value rose 25.42 points to 5649.68.

wotsthat

doire wrote: »

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-16438925

UK car registrations fall 4.4% in 2011

Sorry wrong thread

Oi! Clear off!

wotsthat

Graham_Devon wrote: »

I apologise, I forgot to don my rose tinted sunnies before entering this thread!!

It's a bears paradise out there - I'm surprised that with so much gloom to spread you've got the time to deny good (or not so bad) news exists.

I can see things are fairly grim. Why don't you take off your gloom tinted specs, turn down the google gloom settings and you might see that even in this bears paradise good news can be found.

Cheer up. We're getting a £50 rebate from South-West Water.

StevieJ

Nice surprises so far - can they possibly last?

This is not a time when you want to be dragged down further by deepening economic gloom.
Fortunately, despite the best efforts of some new year pundits (DEV is he talking about you ), it is not happening. Pretty well every bit of economic data we have had so far has surprised on the upside.
As regular readers will know, the earliest readings on the economy are provided by surveys, and in particular purchasing managers’ surveys produced by Markit, a data provider. Official figures come a little later.
Before the publication last week of the December UK surveys, analysts were downbeat. Each one, however, was a pleasant surprise. The manufacturing purchasing managers’ index rose from 47.7 to 49.6, construction from 52.3 to 53.2 and the service sector from 52.1 to 54.
Levels above 50 indicate expansion and the weighted average of all three, up from 51.2 to 53.2, was the strongest since July. Were this just a phenomenon restricted to Britain, one might be suspicious. There are, however, plenty of signs of life elsewhere.
Gavyn Davies, formerly of Goldman Sachs and the BBC, now Fulcrum Asset Management, points out that leading indicators for the global economy bottomed out in July last year and are now showing a decent recovery.

China, which is more locked into the global economy than most countries, may be coming through its softer patch, to judge from the latest readings from its manufacturing sector. South Korean exports showed a significant jump. The global purchasing managers’ index, produced for J.P. Morgan rose to an expansionary 50.8 in December, its strongest since June.
In some cases the stronger numbers are a continuation of what ws happening last year. Back in August, without drifting too far into Irwin Stelzer’s territory, Standard & Poor’s downgrade of America’s sovereign debt rating coincided with deep gloom about the economy. A double-dip, it seemed, was certain.
Instead, America has had an “I’ll have what she’s having” tranformation. With few exceptions, the data has come in stronger than expected. Talk of a dive back into recession has faded.
Even in Europe, German unemployment has continued to fall and Spain’s jobless rate did not increase as much as feared. Survey data from the eurozone still points to mild recession but “mild”, rather than falling off a cliff, is the operative word.

http://www.economicsuk.com/blog/001571.html#more

chewmylegoff

RenovationMan wrote: »

Friday 06/01/2012 - FTSE 100 rises by over 25 points

The FTSE 100 index has risen by 0.75% today as the value rose 25.42 points to 5649.68.

strange maths! i make that 0.44%.

chewmylegoff

RenovationMan wrote: »

Friday 06/01/2012 - Pound hits 16-month high against the Euro

Yesterday, the Pound hit a new 16-month high against the Euro. During late morning trade the exchange rate from EUR/GBP was set at 0.8256, which has not been seen since September 2010.

this is good news as i'm off to austria in 2 weeks!

RenovationMan

chewmylegoff wrote: »

strange maths! i make that 0.44%.

I get it to 0.44% too. Looks like the website I got the info off really is optimistic.

wotsthat

Rolls-Royce car sales hit new record

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-16440548

Rolls-Royce said last year's sales were the highest in the marque's 107-year history, beating the previous record set in 1978 when 3,347 Rolls-Royce models were sold.

I had a wry smile when on Radio 4 this morning a RR representative with a distinctively German accent was talking about Rolls-Royce being an iconic British brand. It made me want to hum Land of Hope and Glory.

RenovationMan

Already posted, but worth repeating and with a bit of additional information...

Monday 09/01/2012 - Rolls-Royce sales hit new record as sales rise by 31%


Derby-based luxury car manufacturer Rolls-Royce have announced a staggering 31% rise in sales during 2011, in which the car maker produced 3,538 cars, a new record for the company. The factory has been expanded in order to aid the growth. The news comes just days after rival Bentley announced a 37% rise in its sales over the year.

This once again seems to be coming after a raft of news from the automotive industry in recent weeks and months, with pre-recession level sales at Bentley, new investment from the likes of Jaguar Landrover, Nissan and Toyota, as well as a load of further news from a variety of manufacturers here in the UK.

StevieJ

RenovationMan wrote: »

Already posted, but worth repeating and with a bit of additional information...

Monday 09/01/2012 - Rolls-Royce sales hit new record as sales rise by 31%
Derby-based luxury car manufacturer Rolls-Royce have announced a staggering 31% rise in sales during 2011, in which the car maker produced 3,538 cars, a new record for the company. The factory has been expanded in order to aid the growth. The news comes just days after rival Bentley announced a 37% rise in its sales over the year.

So where is Rolls Royce manufacturing?

Rolls-Royce, which is based at the Goodwood factory in West Sussex, southern England, also said China and the United States were now the "most significant individual markets" for the maker of ultra-luxurious vehicles.

http://uk.finance.yahoo.com/news/rolls-royce-posts-record-car-113740196.html