The stories in the press over the last week and weekend remain balanced for the most part with some positive stories, however there does seem to be an increasing tone of realism/pessimism as there are an ever growing number of mixed signals coming through.
Broadsheet newspapers carry some specifically negative news on certain UK companies. Firstly the struggling global car sector is highlighted with Jaguar expected to make a decision on whether it will be undertaking an extended summer break this year and the spectre of further job cuts. Meanwhile British Airways AGM on Tuesday is expected to have similar tales of woe after a record loss in 2008. Lloyds TSB is expected to write down a further ÂŁ13bn as despite a raft of stories heralding the bounce back in the UK property market it seems that the major players are still making large provisions for losses. These losses are stemming not only from commercial property portfolios, but are allowing for bad debts associated with both secured lending in the residential market as well as unsecured lending as the fear of increasing job losses mount.
The latter point is covered in a variety of general news and financial sources as despite the IMF predicting the global economy beginning to pick up, this is certainly not being led by the West. UK jobless figures currently at 2.26m are still widely predicted to hit the 3m mark next year.
The financial press commentators remain bi-polar with stories ranging from “the manufacturing sector is well positioned for this recovery” to “we are expecting a quadruple bottom” and “the recovery will be more tortoise than hare”. Nonetheless caution on what were previously deemed to be the green shoots seems to be the current watchword.
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