RBS faces $13bn bill in US
London open
City sources predict the FTSE 100 will open four points lower than Thursday’s close of 6,630.47.
Stocks to watch
Royal Bank of Scotland faces a $13bn claim over allegations regarding its actions before the 2008 crisis, reports said. The bank was involved in a long running case in a US court over how it packaged mortgage bonds and sold them to government lenders overseen by the Federal Housing Finance Agency.
UK regulator Ofcom said on Friday that it has fined EE £1m for failing to comply with its rules on handling customer complaints. The investigation into Britain’s largest mobile phone company, which is currently in the process of being taken over by BT, was part of the regulator’s wider monitoring and enforcement programme to ensure communications providers deal with customer complaints appropriately and fairly.
Online payments group Optimal Payments said trading remained strong in recent weeks and that it planned, once its acquisition of rival Skrill is complete, to move from AIM to the main market, where it expects to be eligible for inclusion in the FTSE 250 index. The company expects regulatory approval for the £800m deal to be granted before the end of July.
In the press
US health insurer Aetna is close to buying Humana in a deal worth $34bn with an announcement possible before the weekend, according to The Wall Street Journal. Aetna is expected to pay $230 a share, a 23% premium on Thursday’s close.
Greek banks are down to €500m in cash reserves as the daily allowance of cash from ATMs drops from €60 to €50, The Telegraph reports.
German discount grocer Lidl and its sister chain Kaufland have benefited from nearly $900m in public development funding over the past 10 years, according to The Guardian. They received loan funding from the World Bank and European Bank for Reconstruction and Development.
US close
US stocks ended a touch lower on Thursday after a mildly positive open, as investors digested a slightly softer-than-expected jobs report, amid continued uncertainty over Greece.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average ended down 0.16%, the S&P 500 closed off 0.03% and the Nasdaq Composite finished 0.08% lower.
The eagerly-awaited non-farm payrolls report, which was released a day early due to the public holiday on Friday, showed a gain of 223,000 in June, below economists’ expectations for a rise of 233,000. Meanwhile, readings for April and May were revised lower by a combined 60,000.