That stock News

In the run-up to Christmas online sales is supposed to ?6. EADS this year.?Photo: CORBIS

As "Super Saturday" marks the last weekend before Christmas, millions of British are supposed to defy snow enter bargains in the high street and pick up the last few items in their shopping lists.

But buyers online, which significantly placed their orders at the beginning of the hope of avoiding the High Street, rush will be concerned that packages may not arrive in time for Christmas.

Goods controlled by an EU based company by phone, internet or mail are covered under the Act on distance selling Regulations 2000.

Shoppers are entitled to a full refund by the cancellation or return items under ""cooling off period"where an order can be cancelled for any reason any." Goods should be delivered within a reasonable time (generally for 30 days unless otherwise agreed).

Uncertainty more lies with who should pay the costs of return of undesirable elements after that until they have been delivered.

Retailer terms and conditions shall indicate clearly which is responsible for paying for postage and packing in the case of an element is returned.

Many large retailers have already ceased taking orders for Christmas for some parts of the country they have struggled to cope with the backlog of the last cold snap.

Online free delivery Amazon Watch Super Goliath is no longer available for Christmas delivery. He says customers should check the estimates delivery to individual elements to see if the class first, or the delivery of "Prime" is always available.

Marks and Spencer, said works hard to fulfill online orders and communicate with customers via e-mail or phone if it provides a problem.

Delivery to the Scottish postal codes is is no longer available because it is still clear a delay of seven days, although he says that clients may still be able to get home and apparel orders on time if they opt for delivery to a Scottish store.

A complete list relevant stores and postcodes is available on its Web site.

As many retailers, Tesco stopped taking orders for delivery in Scotland earlier this week, and the retailer is now no longer taking orders for delivery throughout much of North of England, as well as some parts of the Midlands region.

As marks and Spencer, Tesco customers can still benefit from his service "Click and collect" to collect participation stores.

John Lewis is also unable to ensure arrested in Scotland in time for Christmas, although its "click & Collect" service is available until Christmas Eve (except the Waitrose shops), for orders by 3 pm on December 21, as well as the standard for the rest of the United Kingdom Home delivery.

Dixons just announced: "Unfortunately we cannot commit to offer new orders from Scotland and North East York in time for Christmas." Sorry guys - blame the snow! ?

View the original article here

 By itself, the tax package nearing completion in Washington won't get the U.S. economy back on track. But every little bit helps.

And while the U.S. economy is on the mend, it's got a long way to go to repair the damage from the worst financial collapse since the Great Depression.

That's the view, at least, of a majority of economists surveyed in msnbc.com's annual Economic Roundtable.

In just the past month, many advection have boosted their outlook for next year, based on a series of positive economic reports. Retailers are reporting a better than expected holiday season shopping. Manufacturers are seeing a pickup in production. And private sector job growth - though still very sluggish - has picked up from the first half of the year

"All of this suggests that businesses and consumer are feeling more confident about the recovery and less worried about a double dip," said Nariman Behravesh, chief economist for IHS Global Insight.

Behravesh and other economists on our panel said the outlook also brightened it the news earlier this month that Congress and the White House agreed to keep federal income tax rates steady and cut payroll taxes. Behravesh figures the tax plan will add about sixth tens of a percent to the gross domestic product next year.

Infomercial myths busted purpose wait - there's more! TV-related shopping will hit a record $200 trillion.? At work, the walls are closing in Wealth gap becomes chasm at Christmas really

And there are early signs that companies that have been sitting on large piles of cash are beginning to spend more freely, according to Diane Swonk, chief economist at Mesirow Financial.

"We're starting to see pensions and institutional investors go after corporate hoarding cash and say, ' give it back Either or redeploy it,'" she said. "Either way you get some better economic feedback."

But sadly it all adds up to another year of relatively paleoflood growth, not nearly enough to make much of a dent in the painfully high 9.8 percent unemployment rate.

The consensus of msnbc.com's Economic Roundtable calls for the gross domestic product to grow just 2.6 percent next year, even a bit slower than the estimated 2.8 percent growth seen in 2010. The unemployment rate is expected to drop only slightly to 9.2 percent by the end of next year, with the most optimistic of our dozen panelists calling for a drop to 8.5 percent.

"There is some momentum in the job market, but in terms of real healing it's just an incredibly slow, painful process," said Ethan Harris, head of developed markets economics at BofA Merrill Lynch.

After a financial meltdown and the longest recession since before World War II, the economy has grown only modestly, at about half the rate that usually would be expected after a downturn.

A huge hangover from the housing bust is one of the major factors holding back the economy, with millions of homes still facing foreclosure likely. And high unemployment is holding down consumer spending and creating a cascade of unpleasant consequences, including huge budget shortfalls at every level of government.

"I think there is just a tremendous http://www.UN.org/esa/analysis/devplan/index.html and lack of confidence in the economy from the business sector," said Harris. "They just don't really believe journal recovery." "They don't want to risk overhiring, and that has a self fulfilling effect."

Our panelists had mixed views on the Federal Reserve's latest plan to boost the economy by buying $600 billion in Treasury securities. Those who saw a positive impact said it would be paleoflood.

The group expects interest rates to remain low by historical standards next year, with about half expected the overnight federal funds rate to remain at its current unprecedented low level of zero to 0.25 percent through the end of next year.

Inflation is also expected to remain low; the consensus estimate sees consumer prices, excluding food and energy, rising just 1 percent next year, about the same as 2010.

Despite the improved outlook, many Americans probably won't feel like the good times are rolling again. For one thing, even as the overall rate of growth improves, the economy is still digging out of the deepest slide since World War II.

"This was indeed the Great Recession," said Joel Naroff, president of Naroff Economic Advisors. "This was a catastrophic collapse of two critical sectors of the economy - housing and finance - two sectors that in the past were needed and usually showed up early in the recovery."

Despite a pickup in growth next year and in 2012, our advection expect the unemployment rate to remain stubbornly high for years to come. The consensus pegs the jobless rate at 9.2 percent by the end of next year and not falling back to pre-recession levels of 5 percent for five to seven years - or longer.

The improved outlook will also be unevenly felt: A lot will depend on where you live and where you are on the income ladder. Unemployment levels for college-educated workers have fallen more quickly than the jobless rate for those with less education, for example. And while stock market gains have helped bolster confidence among wealthier households, those on the bottom rungs of the economic ladder are getting squeezed hard by falling home prices.

"Most middle-class families have more wealth tied to their housing than to the stock market while the upper crust of society that where the financial market wealth is concentrated," said Lawrence Yun, chief economist for the National Association of Realtors. "For most middle-class families, they still see some drag in terms of their home values, which many people have looked forward to as part of their retirement savings."

Regions of the country that saw the biggest run - up in the housing boom will take longest to recover as high foreclosure rates continue to bring to market "distressed" prices at houses. That means the housing market won't recover until the pace of new foreclosures returns to pre-boom levels and that backlog of homes is sold, Yun said.

"It's going to take at least a couple of years to fully clear out the distressed properties that need to go through the system," he said.

With the housing market still in a deep hole and consumers tightening their belts, the recovery from the Great Recession EST aussi reshaping the structure of the U.S. economy.

"We've had two decades of debt-financed consumption, and that's coming to an end," said Behravesh. "Consumer spending will be OK." "But it will not be the engine of U.S. Gold global growth."

Part of the slack in growth from consumer spending is already being taken up by gains in exports.

"The export sector is almost 13 percent of our economy, and that's growing at a double digit clip," said Michael Englund, chief economist for Action Economics. "That's largely because our trade with Asia is disproportionately, and trend growth in Asia is just much higher than the elsewhere in the world." "So trade is a huge."

Despite competition from low-cost manufacturing overseas Englund notes that U.S. companies still dominate industries like oil drilling and agricultural products and equipment. With emerging economies spurring global demand for food and energy, the U.S. will get a boost from American companies that supply the equipment, technology and supplies needed to feed that growth, he said.

That structural shift - and the need to retrain millions of workers for new careers - also helps explain why the unemployment rate is expected to remain stubbornly high for years to come.

"It's going to take five to seven years." Yes, that's a lot longer than past recessions. "But this was a much steeper recession."

Following is the detailed forecast of our 12 panelists. For more information on the panelists, including how they did last year, click here.

? 2010 msnbc.com reprints

View the original article here

Alistair Buchanan, regulator, pattern is puzzled how mean profit margins in six Great Britain suppliers to have propelled from ?65 ?90 during the last quarter photo: Heathcliff O'Malley

What are these wags at the Met Office.You may have noticed that it is a little parky today .the kind of starter central heating, uncorking a day another bottle and settle in front of the rugby.

Then fool you. According to meteorologists, you really enjoy the warmest year since 1850. Or perhaps the second warmer.In both cases, it is then sauna.Pourquoi, street, wasting your money on heating bills? Not less when they go so fast.

Alistair Buchanan has identified the tendance.Et there is not even a man of the weather. It is the energy regulator regulator, pattern that has troubled medium profit margins to power six Great Britain suppliers have propelled from ￡ 65 to 90 pounds in the last quarter.He asked his readers counter to see if "companies play it straight with consumers.

The suspicion is that they're not – for various reasons.In recent weeks, three of them - Scottish and Southern Energy (SSE), British Gas & Scottish Power raised double-fuel bills by 7pc and 9.4pc.Appartenant German RWE Npower and Eon kept shtum pricing plans - while at the moment, EDF Energy the France promised a gel consumer print.

Explanation of routine for the higher bills is that they reflect an increase in prices for gasoline in bulk - 25pc himself dials since the overabundance of world gas. But corporations cannot claim there is a direct correlation between prices of wholesale and consumer pays. Bills are lower than in the mid 2008 - 7pc only when wholesale gas prices was higher than 50pc.

Something seems to go - and the index can be newly available retail Buchanan wants to examine accounts. Deconstructing the and he can get, for example, how SES lost 630 m ￡ due to "movement of derivatives" in his last semester.Or 127 million pounds of "portfolio optimization" - vaguely defined as "profits how ESS runs its activities that are not directly attributable to the production or supply".the consumers, you ask, pay were famine for loss of provider before purchasing gas derivatives?Or is there some clever regulatory game passes, whose profits of supply being off squirrelled elsewhere?Accounts are so complex, you can only request.

Ask you too if suppliers are coverage not their Paris for this winter.Storage of gas in Europe are currently filled.If the big chill, gas will be dumped on the market – with the trio reservation invoices have already raised a healthy windfall benefit of lower input prices.

Brings back us to EDF.vider lining a better than expected 5 ￡ 8bn to sell its UK electricity grid can reinvest in holding of prizes to be won with clients.Qui does not stop it raise invoices in the future.

Buchanan is already installing that four of the big six do not have to implement new rules for concession to stop put selling to consumers today, its last review could lead to an investigation of the Commission on a possible break up with six grandes.écorce Buchanan competition may be worse that its morsure.Mais is certainly turn chaleur.Demandez Met Office.

Alistair.Osborne@Telegraph.co.UK

View the original article here

Whatever happened to Richard Bernstein, Wall Street's favorite pessimist? He's an optimist now.

The former chief investment strategist at Merrill Lynch built a reputation as a contrarian throughout the 2000s, the era of cheap credit. As home prices soared, Bernstein saw a bubble and told investors to abandon homebuilding stocks. When subprime mortgages started to sour, he warned of the danger to banks. His skepticism earned him the ire of stock boosters. Bernstein was thought of as the guy ready to rain on any parade.

The financial crisis changed all that. With investors now wary of stocks and market pundits looking for daily signs the sky is falling, Bernstein believes the conventional wisdom is wrong, again. The economy is stronger than you realize, he says. And the man who shunned stock markets is out telling people it's a great time to buy small-company stocks.

"The common theme today is that the U.S. stinks," he says. "But the economy is already in better shape than people think."

If you agree with Bernstein, you'll want to follow him into small companies that look cheap compared with their peers, a group investors call "small-cap value." They're the most likely to trounce other investments if the economy recovers its footing, and also the most likely to fail in a downturn. If you think the economy stinks, you'd be in the company of his old friend David Rosenberg, the former chief U.S. economist at Merrill Lynch.

It's only very recently that these two prominent investment analysts parted ways in their views about the economy. During their many years together at Merrill Lynch, both Rosenberg and Bernstein were steadfastly skeptical of the housing and stock booms.

"We were joined at the hip," says Rosenberg, who's now the chief economist at Gluskin Sheff in Toronto. Both left Merrill Lynch soon after Bank of America Corp. took it over in 2009.

Rosenberg, who remains reliably gloomy, says he's ready to turn positive on the economy whenever the time is right. With his friend and former colleague Bernstein now bullish on the U.S. economy, "I'm Wall Street's real perma-bear," he deadpans.

Unlike when he was the chief strategist at Merrill, Bernstein has money to put behind his contrarian views. The Richard Bernstein Multi-Market Equity Strategy Fund launched Oct. 12 with the backing of asset management company Eaton Vance. It's considered a "macro" fund. That means all investment decisions spring from Bernstein's overarching view of the world. Stocks are collected based on how well they fit into the big picture.

The fund's billing says it will target "overlooked areas across the global equity markets." That's no easy task as investors spent the past two years pulling cash out of the U.S. stock market and plowing it into areas long considered dicey, like emerging markets and junk bonds.

At a recent conference, a financial planner asked Bernstein: What's overlooked these days? The answer, he said, is right under your nose: small-company U.S. stocks, specifically the undervalued ones.

Bernstein says investors have shied away from them because their fate is so closely tied to the economic cycle. Most people aren't convinced the economy has regained its footing, which is why small companies have found it harder to get a loan from banks or raise capital from investors.

Bernstein tells people they should learn a lesson from organized crime, which found success by providing cash to those who couldn't get it from banks.

"They lend to where capital is scarce," he says. "As an investor, that's the way you should think. Obviously, when it comes to collecting your money it's a different story."

Bernstein's fund has yet to detail its holdings with regulators, so he can't name the companies he owns. However, you can see how it compares with his benchmark MSCI All Country World Index, which tracks global stock markets.

That index has 14 percent of its holdings in emerging markets, but Bernstein's fund has just 1 percent. Small stocks make up 1 percent of the index, but 26 percent of Bernstein's fund at the end of October.

If Bernstein's view of the economy prevails, academic studies and performance data suggest he's making the right bets. Katie Rushkewicz, a fund analyst at Morningstar, says smaller companies tend to beat other companies over the long term.

Mutual funds that target undervalued small companies have returned an average of 10 percent each year since 1995 and 8.96 percent since 2000, beating all other categories of stock funds, according to Morningstar's data.

Rosenberg, Bernstein's former colleague at Merrill, believes the economy is in for a long slog. During the depth of the financial crisis, he wrote a report arguing that Americans would spend the next few years repairing their personal finances, saving and paring their debts.

The report proved to be a remarkably clear-sighted preview of what was to come. Almost two years later, he still sees plenty of problems. The only reason the unemployment rate isn't higher than the current 9.6 percent, he says, is because many people have given up trying to find a job.

Homeowners in the U.S. haven't recovered from the housing bubble either. In the past, Americans owned a larger stake in their homes than they owed on their mortgages. That relationship reversed in 2007 and remains that way, Rosenberg says. Homeowners now have $10.5 trillion in residential mortgages and only $7 trillion in equity.

Asked what he thought of Bernstein's optimistic turn, Rosenberg says: "I love him like a brother, and if I was starting a fund I'd be saying the same thing."

View the original article here

Investors reeling from a flight reports Qantas return to Sydney.

Earlier this month, there was an explosion in a Rolls on an Airbus A380 by Qantas, engine

However, the aircraft returned to Sydney on Monday was a Boeing 747 powered by engines made by General .the United States Electric' aircraft u-turn after the pilot saw smoke in the cabin.

Qantas said smoke probably came from an instrument landing and was not related to the engine.

Rolls is to replace all or part of its Trent 900 engines on command driven by Lufthansa, Qantas, Singapore Airlines, caused after having identified the faulty component, he believes part .the explosion caused a leak of oil which then leads to a disintegration of the turbine disk.

Roller has reduced its forecast of earnings due to the cost of repairing the engine failure.

View the original article here

Price of the room have been under increasing pressure for months that potential buyers have adopted a "wait and see" approach. Photo: AP

The average cost of a house in the United Kingdom has dropped nearly 2,400 ￡ to ￡ 164,381 for months, as seen since the beginning of the summer prices downward trend has continued, Nationwide said.

Price of the room have decreased or remained static in each month since the end of may, with drops during 2010 nearly wiping out the gains made at the beginning of the year.

Quarter-on-quarter change in real estate, which is generally considered a smoother tendencies of the market indicator price also showed that rate values fall property which has accelerated.

Price houses immersed by 1. three months at the end of October, compared to a slide in the quarter to end September 1pc 5pc.

Nationwide said it is the largest fall since April 2009, although it remains well down on the drops 5mC quarterly and 6pc recorded during the second half of 2008.

The annual rate of house price growth also decreased for the sixth month consecutive, falling to just 1. 4pc - less than half of the 3. 4pc recorded during the previous month.

Martin Gahbauer, Nationwide, Chief Economist said: "' if the recent trend in real estate prices continue in November and December, the annual rate of house price inflation would fall in between 0pc and less 1pc 2010.Cela late compared to a rate of 5 9pc at the end of 2009.".

Price of the room have been under increasing pressure for months that potential buyers have adopted a "wait and see" approach that the prospects for the market of housing and the wider economy becomes more clear.

But vendors have continued to return to the market, creating a gap between the supply and demand and by giving buyers the upper hand in price negotiations.

Mortgages remain as tight, preventing many people who want to press ahead with a move to do so.

It remains to be seen what impact spending reductions announced in the comprehensive spending review will be on the real estate market, but public job cuts could do more pressure on prices in some regions of the country.

Halifax reported that real estate prices fell by a record 3 6pc in September, although the Group had reported increases in price during the two months when Nationwide registered a decline.

Figures from the British Bankers' Association has released earlier this week showed that net mortgages, redemptions and refunds, bands was spending its lowest for a decade, as the housing market activity has remained silent.

Move you House?legal services Telegraph is provided by leading UK law firm Irwin Mitchell.Pour a 10% discount on your travel costs, call 0800 085 0749 or visit telegraph.co.uk/legalservices.Services legal Telegraph is available 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.

View the original article here

Financial markets Great Britain have been insensitive when George Osborne supplied details of the toughest Government spending cuts in recent decades.

Gilts, currencies and shares were all the flat as Chancellor spoke with traders say that with all leaks in advance it will ware some surprises.

"At a stage when he spoke it was as if the market has been closed," said David Jones of GI.

Investors also have unabashed and trade volumes is passed by 46pc in the run-up to the speech of Mr. Osborne.Darren Hepworth TD Waterhouse said: "Trading of stocks of resources has led to the wave counting for 52pc and top 10 68pc buys and sells respectively.

Thursday, the FTSE 100 had reached a maximum of six months to 5,774, thanks to strong gains by the miners and the banks.

Other winners this week included rail and bus operators who will be able to raise rates by 1pc more detail for four years - until more than 1pc détail.Diligence and approved two benefited.

Andy Brough, Schroders, Fund Manager said: "investors have been nerve to impact on outsourcing and infrastructure companies spending review given risk spending slip strike new spending capital and, in turn, gains.En fact reductions were not as bad as the market had expected, which should be good news for businesses in these regions."

Peter Lees, head of UK F & c Asset Management, actions said equity and bond markets and get little to excite or shock in the expenditure review.This was corroborated by FTSE 100 finished the speech from Mr. Osborne to much of the same level as everything began (although he did and then fall again in the middle), he said.

However, Mr. Lees pointed out a few areas of UK market prospects could be increased accordingly.

"Investment in transportation is largely protected and in some regions have increased, which will be positive for some stocks connected to the transport sector", he said. "In addition, if the Government expects to be able to recover billions fraudulently claimed benefits at the same time that cut the budget to the departments which are responsible for the benefits, it may be funding opportunities service as a degree of outsourcing companies will be inevitable.?

According to Mr. Lees, of most major surprises in speech by the Chancellor was acceleration in the increase in the age of retirement at 66, and now enters into force for the men and women by the year 2020.

He added that more than half of the proposed job cuts public sector could probably be explained by natural wastage during the four years, but could still serve up to 300 000 redundancies in public sector.

"The level of the national debt is always"horrible", according to Mr. Lees, but should be stabilized by 2016, as long as inflation does step cueillir.Cependant, inflation is the critical factor here, and it is important that we not lose sight,", he added.

Telegraph knowledge briefings offers readers a monthly newsletter providing a topical overview of how to manage your heritage in these times email difficiles.Pour subscribe to receive your session of knowledge, to attend a seminar or to obtain a free copy of our guide for the management of heritage, call 0800 953 5050 or visit www.telegraph.co.uk/wealth

View the original article here