Royal Mail goes electric Trials of fully electric vans and trucks will soon begin in London as Royal Mail goes electric.  The new electric vehicles, manufactured by arrival in the UK, will operate from Royal Mails central London depot. This is a great achievement for the quiet electric vehicle revolution. Congratulations …

Wall Street slides. At the bell yesterday (23/08/17) the DOW Jones Industrial Average, The S&P 500 and NASDAQ where all down. Much of the uncertainty stems from Donald Trump’s threat to ‘shut down government’ if funds are not secured to build the Mexico/US wall! Doesn’t inspire much confidence does it …

Identity theft – protect yourself. There are a number of very simple measures we can all take to protect ourselves online. Here is a generalised list of measures we can all follow:- Create strong passwords. Keep your passwords safe. Change your passwords. Install anti-virus protection. Install internet security software. Update …

Sterling stumbles The pound fell both against the Euro and dollar yesterday (23/08/17) and continues to struggle. The pound fell to an eight low yesterday at $1.2782 Will the pound come under more pressure from ECB president Mario Draghi when he makes his speech at Jackson Hole on Friday? Fed …

Central bankers head to Jackson Hole. Federal Reserve chair, Janet Yellen and European Central Bank President, Mario Draghi et al, will be meeting this Friday to make their eagerly anticipated speeches at Jackson Hole. Debate about QE roll back, interest rates and inflation will presumably take centre stage. The US …

Google and Walmart go shopping. Walmart and Google are joining forces using voice enabled shopping technology to take on Amazon’s dominance in voice activated shopping. From next month US shoppers will be able to buy Walmart goods using Google Assistant. Amazon dominate online retail and now use their voice technology …

Artificial intelligence based voice shopping. Voice activated and voice recognition software has moved on at a remarkable speed. I remember my first introduction to this technology when I used a product called, ‘Dragon NaturallySpeaking’. Back then it consisted of a headset, microphone, training CD and software.  It was designed to …

Hong Kong stock markets closed As a powerful Typhoon category 10 storm Hato hit Hong Kong on Wednesday.

Stock market movements – today 22/08/17 The DOW Jones Industrial Average closed at 21899 after gaining nearly 200 points today. S&P 500 closed up at 2452 gaining 24 points. The NASAQ closed at 6297. The DAX index was up 1.4% to 12229 – adding 163 points The FTSE 100 closed …

German business confidence falls. A survey taken of German investors suggests confidence has fallen –  from a score of 17.5 to 10 in July. Looking at the performance of the DAX today you wouldn’t have thought so. The DAX closed up today at 12229 a 1.4% increase.