A Sudanese man has been granted asylum in the UK after he was arrested walking the length of the Channel Tunnel from France to England last August. The Guardian reports: Abdul Haroun, who was arrested at the English end of the tunnel in August and charged with obstructing a railway under an obscure 19th-century law, has been held in prison since then. He was to face trial this month.
A high flying female executive of the British multinational retailer, Marks & Spencer, has been dismissed from her job for allegedly using racist language at work. The Daily Mail reports: Suzanna Broer, 33, was said to have been fired for ‘gross misconduct’ in November, less than a month after she oversaw the launch of the new reward card. It comes after a tough festive period for M&S, with some forecasters predicting the retail giant will report up to a 5.5 per cent drop in like-for-like sales.
The British prime minister has been urged to clarify the role the UK Government played in voting Saudi Arabia on to the UN Human Rights Council. The leaders of the Green Party and the Liberal Democrats are calling on David Cameron to come clean on the issue. The calls follow the kingdom’s execution of 47 people in a single day which sparked outrage across the Middle East.
Dispppointing drops in China and US Manufacturing PMIs, combined with a record glut, appears to have trumped Mid-East tensions and sent WTI plunging back into the red. This has triggered another round of selling in US equities, sending The Dow down 450 points and back to a "16" handle...
"Un-Growth" trumps "War Premium"
and sends The Dow crashing...
There is a saying that as January goes, so goes the full year market. But what about just the first day of January?
Courtesy of Reuters' Jamie McGeever, here is a quick snapshot of the worst opening days for the US stock market in the past century.
As of this moment, the S&P is down just about 2.4%. If the market closes here, that would make it a worse first day of trading than in such "dramatic" years as 2008 and 1933.