RBA Lowers Interest Rates to 2%, Lufthansa Announces Profits But Warns of More Cuts
May 5, 2015 7:06 am
The FTSE100 is currently up by 0.82%, as stocks resume trading after the Bank Holiday weekend and before the markets begin to brace for the UK General Election. As the political campaigning draws to a close, current polling suggests that no party will win a majority, leaving the possibility of protracted negotiations in order to form a government.
Meanwhile, Down Under the Reserve Bank of Australia lowered interest rates to 2%, its lowest ever and its second cut since the beginning of the year. AUD is currently up at around 0.79 against USD, surging up from the 0.7845 level in the aftermath of the announcement.
Moving back towards Europe, there was mixed news from Lufthansa as it released its earnings figures for the quarter; the airline did record a net profit of €425 million for Q1, a far cry from a year ago when it made a €252 million loss in the same period. However, much of this profit can be put down to the significant drop in fuel prices, and the airline has warned that further cost-cutting measures will be needed. It’s unclear at this point how that might affect the airline’s pilots; Lufthansa has recently suffered from a series of pilot’s strikes, which as well as being widely publicised, also appear to have cost the airline somewhere in the region of €40 million. The company’s share price is currently up by 0.24%.
The FTSE100 is currently up by 0.82%, as stocks resume trading after the Bank Holiday weekend and before the markets begin to brace for the UK General Election. As the political campaigning draws to a close, current polling suggests that no party will win a majority, leaving the possibility of protracted negotiations in order to form a government.
Meanwhile, Down Under the Reserve Bank of Australia lowered interest rates to 2%, its lowest ever and its second cut since the beginning of the year. AUD is currently up at around 0.79 against USD, surging up from the 0.7845 level in the aftermath of the announcement.
Moving back towards Europe, there was mixed news from Lufthansa as it released its earnings figures for the quarter; the airline did record a net profit of €425 million for Q1, a far cry from a year ago when it made a €252 million loss in the same period. However, much of this profit can be put down to the significant drop in fuel prices, and the airline has warned that further cost-cutting measures will be needed. It’s unclear at this point how that might affect the airline’s pilots; Lufthansa has recently suffered from a series of pilot’s strikes, which as well as being widely publicised, also appear to have cost the airline somewhere in the region of €40 million. The company’s share price is currently up by 0.24%.
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