BOE's Bailey Raises Doubts Over Digital Pound for Consumers

Bank of England Governor Andrew Bailey cast doubt on the need for a digital pound for consumers, calling into question whether the UK will push ahead with its plans.
Bailey said on Friday he is not yet 'convinced that we need to create new forms of money' to benefit from technological advances in payments, such as smart contracts and fraud-fighting measures.

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Bloomberg

27 minutes ago

• Bloomberg

UK to Invest £275 Million to Train Skilled British Workers

The UK will invest £275 million ($371 million) to grow the country's skilled workforce as Prime Minister Keir Starmer seeks to accelerate economic growth and reduce reliance on foreign labor. The funding, announced on Sunday, will be used to overhaul technical training and apprenticeships, aiming to plug skills shortages in sectors like engineering and defence. It's part of a new industrial strategy that includes a 10-year plan for national renewal the government plans to outline this week.

Yahoo

31 minutes ago

• Yahoo

Starmer puts skills training at heart of industrial strategy plan

Sir Keir Starmer will set out his industrial strategy on Monday as he seeks to kickstart the stuttering economy and reduce the UK's reliance on foreign workers. The decade-long plan for 'national renewal' will include £275 million in skills investment to train Britons to do jobs in growth industries which might otherwise require imported labour. The strategy will include specific funding to train people for work in defence, engineering, digital and construction roles. Business Secretary Jonathan Reynolds said the strategy 'will help transform our skills system to end the overreliance on foreign labour and ensure British workers can secure good, well-paid jobs in the industries of tomorrow and drive growth and investment right across the country'. Monday's industrial strategy will be followed later in the week by a new trade plan intended to make the UK the best-connected country in the world to do business. The Prime Minister will launch the industrial strategy hoping it will help in his mission of delivering economic growth. The economy shrank by 0.3% in April, the biggest monthly contraction in gross domestic product for a year-and-a-half, as businesses felt the impact of global uncertainty caused by Donald Trump's tariffs and domestic pressure as a result of hikes to firms' national insurance contributions. Around one-in-seven young people are not in education or employment, and the number of people taking an apprenticeship has fallen by almost a fifth between 2016/17 and 2023/24. The Government hopes the growth sectors identified in the industrial strategy will create 1.1 million new jobs by 2035. The skills package includes capital investment from a £200 million fund which will support new facilities including 'technical excellence colleges' providing specialised training for local industries. The total funding is expected to train thousands more workers by 2029 including computer programmers, IT technicians, electrical and civil engineers. Education Secretary Bridget Phillipson said: 'Skills rightly run right through the heart of this industrial strategy because they are key to breaking the link between background and success for young people and delivering prosperity for our country.' Stephen Phipson, the boss of manufacturers' organisation Make UK, welcomed the skills announcement. 'We look forward to working with the Government to fix the skills gap in manufacturing, which has been the sector's Achilles' heel for decades,' he said. Other elements of the plan are expected to include measures to help cut energy costs for industries which have complained they are being forced to compete with rivals overseas who face lower bills. Meanwhile some £380 million will be spent on a range of projects intended to double private investment in the creative industries. Shadow business secretary Andrew Griffith welcomed the investment in skills but said 'the Government are stepping on the accelerator and the brake at the same time' by hiking national insurance for firms and introducing extra employment rights which could increase costs. 'This inherent contradiction cannot make for a feasible or serious strategy, and will hold the Government to account for it,' he said. Error in retrieving data Sign in to access your portfolio Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data

Yahoo

an hour ago

• Yahoo

Dan Ives Says Market Is 'Massively Underestimating' This AI Play, Urges Investors To Look Beyong Mag 7

Benzinga and Yahoo Finance LLC may earn commission or revenue on some items through the links below. Dan Ives' new artificial intelligence exchange-traded fund (ETF) holds securities beyond the Magnificent 7 stocks, as he believes in looking past valuations for investments in the technology sector. What Happened: The Dan IVES Wedbush AI Revolution ETF (NYSE:IVES), managed by the Wedbush analyst, started trading on June 4, earlier this month. Ives boasts of the fund by saying that it just doesn't have the top four, five Magnificent 7 names, but stocks which investors wouldn't even thematically consider as an AI name today. "I believe the market is still massively underestimating what the growth is going to look like for the AI revolution in tech," he told CNBC. Trending: Maker of the $60,000 foldable home has 3 factory buildings, 600+ houses built, and big plans to solve housing — According to him, tech trade remains significant even for the investors who missed out on its growth in the past few years. "If you focus just on valuation, you miss every transformational tech stock of the last 20 years," Ives said. Ives says Oracle Corp. (NYSE:ORCL) will be the 'epicenter' of the AI theme, while highlighting other 'AI 30' stocks which are part of his fund. Palantir Technologies Inc. (NASDAQ:PLTR), International Business Machines Corp. (NYSE:IBM), Salesforce Inc. (NYSE:CRM), SoundHound AI Inc. (NASDAQ:SOUN), and Innodata Inc. (NASDAQ:INOD) are a few notable names that are a part of his ETF's 'AI 30' basket. Microsoft Corp. (NASDAQ:MSFT), Nvidia Corp. (NASDAQ:NVDA), and Broadcom Inc. (NASDAQ:AVGO) are the top three holdings of the IVES It Matters: The 'AI 30' stocks, which are a part of the IVES ETF, hold the AI plays from multiple industries. They include hyperscalers, cybersecurity, consumer platforms, and robotics. According to Ives, the list was compiled from his deep dives into major AI players. The ETF has $183 million in assets under management as of June 17 close. Ives said that the AI space was experiencing a "golden age." The Dan IVES Wedbush AI Revolution ETF has risen by 2.76% since its inception. A comparable index, S&P Kensho Global Artificial Intelligence Enablers, rose 6.08% on a month-to-date basis. Meanwhile, the SPDR S&P 500 ETF Trust (NYSE:SPY) and Invesco QQQ Trust ETF (NASDAQ:QQQ), which track the S&P 500 index and Nasdaq 100 index, respectively, declined slightly on Wednesday. The SPY was down 0.015% at $597.44, while the QQQ was 0.017% lower at $528.99, according to Benzinga Pro data. Read Next: Invest early in CancerVax's breakthrough tech aiming to disrupt a $231B market. Back a bold new approach to cancer treatment with high-growth potential. If there was a new fund backed by Jeff Bezos offering a 7-9% target yield with monthly dividends would you invest in it? Photo courtesy: Shutterstock This article Dan Ives Says Market Is 'Massively Underestimating' This AI Play, Urges Investors To Look Beyong Mag 7 originally appeared on