Dirty laundry aired
In an 11th hour deal, Standard Chartered agreed to pay a $340m (£220m) "civil penalty" to the New York Department of Financial Services, in settlement of claims made by the previously obscure US regulator that the UK bank had laundered as much as $250m in concealed transactions with Iranian interests. Standard Chartered was faced with the revocation of its banking licence in the US, so the 'out-of-court' deal was obviously welcomed by the market, driving up the bank's shares by 4 per cent, although it isn't out of the woods just yet as it faces questions on the source of the disputed transactions from US Federal authorities.Lonely at the top
Lonely at the top
It's emerged that Anglo American's chief executive, Cynthia Carroll, is facing a crisis of confidence from institutional shareholders who are demanding an immediate change at the helm of the mining giant. A letter from shareholders to Anglo's chairman, John Parker, said that the release of indifferent half-year figures was tantamount to a 'coup de grace' for Carroll. The chairman loyally straight-batted the co-ordinated attack, but shareholders have subsequently taken their demands to Anglo's senior independent director, David Challen, calling for Parker to be overruled.
El Greco
Spain's bonds were in the ascendancy after speculation mounted that Madrid was moving closer to offloading more of its debt to the European Central Bank (ECB). Bond traders think it's a given, despite the fact that Spain's Prime Minister, Mariano Rajoy, remains non-committal – at least publicly – on whether his government was planning to approach the ECB again. Meanwhile, it's emerged that Greece wants another two years to implement its new austerity program, and will formally ask European commissars for the extension next week, allowing beleaguered Hellas to spread out budget cuts over a longer period.
Off the rails
Bad news for commuters, as the UK's retail prices index hit 3.2 per cent in July, up from 2.8 per cent in the previous month, according to the Office for National Statistics (ONS). Economic analysts dismissed the rise as a statistical 'blip', but that will no consolation for rail commuters as the July rate is used to determine the extent to which regulated rail fares, including season and saver tickets, are allowed to increase in 2013. Presumably everyone at the ONS cycles into work, or owns shares in FirstGroup…see Lee Wild's piece.
Everything must go
BP's post-Macondo fire sale gathered momentum, on news that it has offloaded its Carson refinery in California to America's Tesoro for $2.5bn (£1.6bn). The sale, which includes infrastructure assets, storage terminals and Arco-branded retail outlets in southern California, Arizona and Nevada, brings BP's fighting fund from its remedial sale programme to $26.5bn since the Deepwater Horizon rig spewed oil over half the Gulf of Mexico in 2010. It could be argued that BP was looking to hive off the bulk of its US downstream assets prior to the disaster, so ever spill has a silver lining.
Olympic boost
A warm weather spell and the build-up to the London Olympics provided a boost for grocery retailers at the end of July, after an indifferent start to the month. According to data published by information provider Nielsen, aggregate sales growth in the four weeks to 21 July increased by just 1.8 per cent, while unit sales actually contracted by 0.2 per cent from a year ago. However, aggregate sales growth in the week ending 21 July actually improved by 2.3 per cent, while the following week recorded a 4.1 hike. While Asda's rate of growth has tailed off, Tesco's sales growth improved to 3.7 per cent on the back of successful price initiatives.
