Tuesday, 19th September: It’s that time of the year again; Starbucks’ pumpkin spice latte is back, Costco have started selling Christmas trees, you’re getting spam email from restaurants to book your festive meals months in advance, and… wait what… Toys R Us has filed for bankruptcy protection. Apparently, this is the second largest retail bankruptcy after the filing of the colossal department store Kmart in 2002. However, this isn’t spread across Toys R Us’ global operations, as it has been made public that operations outside of the US & Canada are not included in the bankruptcy proceedings. The group received a commitment of over $3 billion in debtor-in-possession financing from the likes of JPMorgan and others. The helping hand from lenders has been put in place to assist the group climb out of the $5 billion (£3.6 billion) pile of debt it has so far struggled to unravel itself from.
Oil is making gains close to the highs of $56.00 a barrel it was trading for earlier this year in April. The recent raise stems from the news last week regarding the International Energy Agency’s decision to increase demand outlook for 2017, combined with a drop in Saudi Arabian exports to a three-year low. By mid-day it was trading at around $55.70 a barrel.
The markets spent most of the day continuing to wait for news from the Federal Reserve on when they will tighten the reins on their balance sheet and start the gradual process of pushing rates back up. After opening slightly lower, by mid-day the FTSE 100 was 0.31% higher at 7275.64 after the BoE governor, Carney, expressed a less aggressive approach to rate hikes.
The day ended with the FTSE holding onto its mid-day gains despite the worrying warnings Trump sent out at the U.N General Assembly Hall today, and closed 0.30% higher at 7275.25.