Compiled by LAURA SLATTERY
Image of the week: Steel cities
These are residential buildings in Wuhan, the largest city in China’s Hubei province, with a population of more than 10 million.
China’s economic growth is expected to pick up in the second half of the year, after the Chinese government said it would invest $23 billion (€18.7 billion) in new steel mills that will stimulate the car and housing sectors.
The world’s biggest steel producer is also exporting at the highest level in two years. Photograph: Reuters
In numbers
$1m Executives at Barclays, the bank at the centre of the Libor-setting furore, have donated more than this sum to US Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney.
$50,000-$75,000 The cost of a ticket to an exclusive fundraising dinner in a secret location somewhere in Mayfair, London, as Romney jetted in to rally British and expat troops for his campaign.
11 The number of MPs who signed a motion demanding that the bank and its directors stop pouring cash into Romneys election kitty and focus on repairing trust in bankers instead.
The lexicon: The single language
Buoyed by Olympic pride, David Cameron was busy trumpeting London as an investment location yesterday. Observing the fact that English is the language of the business world, he risked riling his European prime ministerial colleagues in general, and the French in particular, by adding that English was increasingly the “single language” of Brussels.
This single language was working so much better than the single currency, he felt – which indeed it is, but language won’t save the UK economy if the global investment powers-that-be decide to take their super-yachts out of the City and pour their billions elsewhere.
Getting to know: Sandy Weill
The former chief executive of Citigroup has done an about-turn on his position on the Glass-Steagall Act – the legislation that obliged financial conglomerates to split into Mom-and-Pop consumer banks on the one hand and casino-esque investment banks on the other after the 1929 Wall Street crash. Weill was among those who campaigned successfully for the repeal of the law 13 years ago, and promptly went about building Citigroup’s empire. He now favours a split, telling CNBC it would help avoid that whole “too big to fail” problem that so irks taxpayers.
The list: Expecting too much
Corporate earnings statements have been churned out thick-and-fast this week, but several dared to disappoint the expectations of the investment house analysts who issue buy, sell and hold recommendations to clients and like to get these things right. So which stocks underachieved?
1. Apple: Once seen as invincible, Apple’s figures have now fallen short of analysts’ expectations twice this year, with exposure to the European slowdown not helping.
2. Statoil: You know that somethings up when even oil companies undershoot expectations. The Norwegian firm has had to make do with lower prices for its oil and gas.
3: UPS: United Parcel Service, seen as a bellwether stock, failed to deliver. “We’re not trying to ring the alarm bell,” said its chief financial officer, as it cut its 2012 outlook.
4: BT: Britain’s largest fixed-line telco also disappointed, as corporate clients – many of them in the financial services game – dragged their heels on committing to new contracts.
5: Zynga: The Words With Friends-maker slashed its earnings forecast from 23-29 US cents a share to 4-9c a share – not a good score. Its stock plunged.
