Market Buzz
Wednesday newspaper round-up: Brexit border outages, Boeing, Stellantis
Lorries carrying perishable food and plants from the EU are being held for up to 20 hours at the UK’s busiest Brexit border post as failures with the government’s IT systems delay imports entering Britain. Businesses have described the government’s new border control checks as a “disaster” after IT outages led to lorries carrying meat, cheese and cut flowers being held for long periods, reducing the shelf life of their goods and prompting retailers to reject some orders.
Tuesday newspaper round-up: Tesco, OpenAI, housebuilding
Tesco is facing criticism from “shocked” charities who say they are struggling to distribute unwanted food to homeless and hungry people after they claim the retailer brought in rules that mean unwanted food can only be collected in the evening. The supermarket group has switched to a new system which asks charities to pick up unwanted food, such as items reaching their best before date, only in the evening when a store is closing rather than the following morning, the charities have claimed.
Monday newspaper round-up: BT, ultra-long mortgages, Fever-Tree
BT has said it is increasingly using artificial intelligence to help it detect and neutralise threats from hackers targeting business customers amid repeated attacks on companies. The £10. 5bn group is aiming to build up its business protecting customers from online criminals and has patented technology that uses AI to analyse attack data to allow companies to protect their tech infrastructure. British businesses are routinely facing hacking attempts, and some recent high-profile victims have included including the outsourcer Capita, Royal Mail and British Airways.
Friday newspaper round-up: Tata, Post Office, John Lewis, KPMG
Members of a steelworkers’ union have voted to take industrial action in protest at planned job losses at Tata. The company last month rejected a plan by unions to keep open a blast furnace at the Port Talbot steelworks, ending hopes of avoiding as many as 2,800 job losses. – Guardian.
Thursday newspaper round-up: Tax rises, smart meters, Selfridges
The next government will be forced to hit voters with post-election tax rises and delay net zero investment unless it is prepared to rip up Treasury rules for managing the state finances, a leading thinktank has said. The National Institute for Economic and Social Research (Niesr) called for a radical overhaul of the self-imposed constraints imposed on government borrowing and debt as it warned that persistently weak growth and lower inflation would make hitting the rules more difficult.
Wednesday newspaper round-up: E-gates, Mike Ashley, Brexit
More than 800,000 people in Europe and the US appear to have been duped into sharing card details and other sensitive personal data with a vast network of fake online designer shops apparently operated from China. An international investigation by the Guardian, Die Zeit and Le Monde gives a rare inside look at the mechanics of what the UK’s Chartered Trading Standards Institute has described as one of the largest scams of its kind, with 76,000 fake websites created.
Tuesday newspaper round-up: House prices, employers, Wayve
Universal Music Group could become the latest company to face an embarrassing shareholder revolt this AGM season, after an influential advisory firm urged investors to reject an “excessive” €139m (£119m) payout for its chief executive, Lucian Grainge. Glass Lewis said it had “severe reservations” about supporting the Dutch-American music company’s pay decisions, which included a €92m share-based bonus for its British-born CEO that easily made up for a 51% cut in his salary, to €7.
Sunday newspaper round-up: Darktrace, National Insurance, Royal Mail
An aura of mystery continues to linger over whether the biggest of Darktrace's shareholders are prepared to support Thoma Bravo's £4. 2bn takeover. Among those is Mike Lynch, who is currently facing trial in the US over fraud claims linked to executive search software outfit Autonomy. Also unclear is the position of the Darktrace Employee Benefit Trust, which owned just under 8% of the company's shares. The trust is managed by Equiniti, which has nothing to do with the decision.
Friday newspaper round-up: Paramount Global, Apple, Coutts
Paramount Global’s share price soared on Thursday following a report that Sony Pictures and Apollo Global Management had made a $26bn offer for the troubled media giant. According to the Wall Street Journal, the offer was made on Wednesday by Sony’s chief executive, Tony Vinciquerra, and Aaron Sobel, a partner at Apollo. Paramount’s shares rose 12% on the news. – Guardian.
Thursday newspaper round-up: Online gamblers, PwC, London taxi drivers
Online gamblers who lose £500 or more a month are to face extra checks from August, the regulator has confirmed, as part of a large package of measures aimed at protecting the most vulnerable customers. The extra checks come in from 30 August, and the threshold for qualifying will fall to £150 of online betting losses a month from 28 February next year, the Gambling Commission said. – Guardian.
Wednesday newspaper round-up: Amazon, dividends, Weardale Lithium
Amazon profits soared once again in the first quarter of 2024, the company announced on Tuesday – the latest in a series of robust earnings reports for the retail giant. The company attributed the boost to artificial intelligence and advertising sales. Amazon reported overall revenue of $143. 3bn in the first three months of the year – up 13% from the same period in 2023 and surpassing Wall Street expectations of $142. 65bn. The e-commerce giant reported an increase of more than 200% to $15bn, with net income more than tripling to $10.