Thursday newspaper round-up: FCA spoofing ruling, BoE rate rise, China intervention

LONDON (ShareCast) - (ShareCast News) - Rising unemployment and slower UK pay growth weighed on the pound yesterday as domestic concerns and a slowdown in China pushed back expectations of an interest rate rise well into next year. Sterling slipped against the dollar and the euro after official data showed average weekly earnings, including bonus payments, grew by 2.4% in the three months to the end of June compared with the same period a year ago, a marked slowdown from the 3.2% growth seen in the three months to May and well below economists' forecasts of 2.8% growth. - The Daily Telegraph Three foreign traders have been ordered to hand over millions of pounds after the City watchdog won its first lifetime ban against a company for a market abuse technique called 'spoofing'. The Hungary-based gang, along with Da Vinci Invest, a Swiss fund manager, were told by the High Court yesterday to pay £7.6 million in fines and frozen trading profits to the Financial Conduct Authority four years after they were accused of using sophisticated computer trading programmes to move prices on the London Stock Exchange (Other OTC: LDNXF - news) . - The Times A slump in eurozone industrial production has raised fears that the region's economic recovery is already running out of steam amid a sharp slowdown in Chinese growth. Industrial production fell by a worse than expected 0.4 per cent month on month in June, following a 0.2 per cent decline in May and no growth in April, according to Eurostat data. - The Financial Times The People's Bank of China (HKSE: 3988-OL.HK - news) sought to dispel fears yesterday of a prolonged fall in the renminbi, intervening to prop up the currency after a shock devaluation spread alarm through globalmarkets. The Chinese currency had fallen by as much as 2 per cent earlier yesterday to a low of 6.45 per dollar, before the authorities stepped in to buttress the renminbi, which rallied 1 per cent in the final 15 minutes of the trading day to 6.38 versus the dollar. - The Financial Times Germany criticised an outline deal between Athens and its bailout monitors as insufficient, upsetting eurozone attempts to smooth the way to a new €85bn rescue for Greece. Germany's finance ministry outlined its objections in a paper circulated to its eurozone counterparts just hours before the Greek parliament was due to debate on Wednesday the painful austerity and reform package that had been reluctantly accepted by the radical left government of prime minister Alexis Tsipras. - The Financial Times The company behind plush London restaurants Coq d'Argent and Skylon is being readied for a stock market listing by its private equity owner. LDC has reportedly approached Zeus Capital to manage a float of D&D London, the restaurants business founded by Sir Terence Conran. - The Telegraph It's the death of the sandwich as you know it: Britons are turning away from store-bought packaged bread as health-conscious consumers cut down on carbs and popular television shows such as The Great British Bake Off boost interest in home-made and artisanal varieties. Bread sales in the UK fell by 5% in 2014 and are projected to drop by a further 4% this year, according to data from Euromonitor International. Sales of packaged bread, the kind bought in plastic bags in supermarkets and better known as "sliced bread", slid by 8% last year, its largest drop in a decade. - The Telegraph Apple (NasdaqGS: AAPL - news) , grappling with swooning sales of the once-blockbuster iPad and sensing an opening in the changing ways of work, is making its broadest assault to date on business computing. - The Wall Street Journal Investors are pushing commercial real-estate prices to record levels in cities around the world, fueling concerns that the global property market is overheating. - The Wall Street Journal