A measure of job vacancies in Britain showed an improvement in late February but around one in five workers remained on the government's job furlough scheme, data published on Thursday showed.
Euro zone periphery govt bond yields tmsnrt.rs/2ii2Bqr (Updates prices)
AMSTERDAM, March 4 (Reuters) - Euro zone bond yields dipped on Thursday after a global bond sell-off a day earlier that spooked markets, as market attention turned to a speech from Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell due later in the day.
Bets that U.S. stimulus would boost inflation and growth pushed government bonds worldwide to their worst performance in years in February. Central banks so far have appeared relatively sanguine about the rise in bond yields.
Yields are down from their highs this week, but pressure remains. U.S. Treasury yields rose on Wednesday, alongside euro area government bond yields and UK gilts, pushing stock markets and other low-yielding safe assets lower on Thursday.
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DUBLIN, March 4 (Reuters) - Ireland’s CRH, the world’s second-biggest building materials supplier, is resuming share buybacks and on the prowl for bigger acquisitions, buoyed by a 5% rise in full year earnings and record cash generation.
CRH launched its first buyback programme in a decade in 2018 and had bought 1.8 billion euros ($2.2 billion) worth of stock before pausing it when the COVID-19 pandemic struck last year.
Senan Murphy, CRH’s chief financial officer, told Reuters on Thursday that the world’s largest buyer of cement would look at further buybacks each quarter, but that would also depend on how much cash it decides to spend on acquisitions.
The European Commission on Thursday announced goals for the 27-nation bloc to reduce poverty, inequality and boost training and jobs by 2030 as part of a post-pandemic economic overhaul financed by jointly borrowed funds.
The U.S. Senate could hold a vote on whether to begin debating President Joe Biden's $1.9 trillion coronavirus aid bill at 1 p.m. ET (1800 GMT) on Thursday with Vice President Kamala Harris on hand to break a possible 50-50 tie, a Senate Democratic aide said.