Rates | Common News Update

Dec172020 by adminNo Comments

Even without a stimulus deal, the Fed, which held interest rates near zero, can help everyday Americans. Here’s how

Although a second stimulus plan is still up in the air, the Federal Reserve is determined to push consumer borrowing costs even lower as the economic recovery takes hold — giving everyday Americans a reason to be optimistic.In addition to holding interest rates near zero, Fed Chairman Jerome Powell said Wednesday the central bank will continue to increase its bond holdings to preserve the flow of credit until the economy gets back to full employment."Vaccines do increase the likelihood for a rapid snapback in economic activity, but we have to get from here to there first," said Greg McBride, chief financial analyst at Bankrate.com.For now, the Treasury has clipped the Fed's wings by declining to extend some of its emergency programs and instead diverting the funds to fiscal stimu

Dec32020 by adminNo Comments

Sainsbury’s and Aldi to hand back £540m of business rates relief

Business

.css-94m6rd-HeadingWrapper{border-bottom:solid 1px #BABABA;padding-bottom:1.5rem;}.css-94m6rd-HeadingWrapper > *:not([hidden]):not(style) ~ *:not([hidden]):not(style){margin-top:1rem;}.css-vk3nhx-ComponentWrapper{margin:1.5rem 0;}.css-1759m9z-StyledFigure{font-family:ReithSans,Helvetica,Arial,freesans,sans-serif;font-weight:400;font-size:0.875rem;line-height:1.125rem;}.css-kwaqyc-StyledFigureContainer{position:relative;}.css-1xtcmof-Placeholder{position:relative;display:block;padding-bottom:56.25%;background-color:#EEEEEE;}.css-1xtcmof-Placeholder img{overflow:hidden;position:absolute;top:0;right:0;bottom:0;left:0;display:-webkit-box;display:-webkit-flex;display:-ms-flexbox;display:flex;-webkit-box-pack:center;-webkit-justify-content:center;-ms-flex-pack:center;justify-content:center;-webk...

Oct282020 by adminNo Comments

FTSE 100 hits six-month low as investors react to surging infection rates

Business

The FTSE 100 has fallen to its lowest level in six months as financial markets react to surging coronavirus infections around the world.There was a sea of red for stocks across Europe and the US in Wednesday trading over fears COVID-19 will deliver a deeper-than-expected hit to the global economy in the months ahead. The FTSE 100 was more than 3% down in afternoon trading at one stage with all of its constituent companies, bar Rolls-Royce, losing ground. The index closed 2.6% lower at 5,582. That left it 26% down in the year to date. The domestically focused FTSE 250 lost almost 2% in the session.The situation was worse across the Channel as the CAC in Paris and Germany's DAX also fell sharply - the latter almost 5% lower at one stage - in reaction to looming lock...

Oct252020 by adminNo Comments

Falling rates of COVID in university areas could be hiding a wider outbreak in cities

Technology

Falling rates of COVID-19 among students could be masking an underlying epidemic, research by Sky News has revealed.The Greater Manchester mayor Andy Burnham said this week that Tier 3 restrictions were unnecessary because cases in the city were falling. Our analysis suggests that's true when looking at city-wide data. But in fact, the downward trend appears to be because of a sharp fall in cases in areas with a higher density of students. In other parts of the city, which are likely to have a greater proportion of elderly people at risk of more serious disease, cases are still rising.That will be a serious concern for hospitals that are increasingly stretched by the combination of COVID-19 and other winter illnesses. ...

Oct192020 by adminNo Comments

Plague transmission rates increased from the Black Death to the Great Plague

Science

Oct. 19 (UPI) -- From the 14th to the 19th centuries, Europe and Asia were struck by successive waves of the plague. New research -- published Monday in the journal PNAS -- suggests that over the course of the pandemic, from the Black Death of 1348 to the Great Plague of 1665, transmission rates increased four-fold. In recent years, genomic analysis has offered scientists a variety of insights into the nature of bubonic plagues that decimated much of Europe and Asia during the Late Middle Ages, but details related to disease transmission mode and dynamics have been hard to come by. Advertisement Plague is caused by the bacterium Yersinia pestis, which can be transmitted via flea bites, the typical route for bubonic plague, or directly from human to human, called pneumonic plague. "Both ty...