Vistry inks two deals with Homes England, Energean completes farm-in with Chariot

Stocks to watch

Affordable homes developer Vistry has signed two new deals with Homes England to deliver 1,000 mixed-tenure homes in the Midlands. The first deal involves the regeneration of City Hospital in Birmingham, which has outline planning permission for 750 homes, of which more than 50% will be affordable or private rent tenures. The second deal will see Vistry build 250 mixed-tenure homes in Hardingstone, Northamptonshire, which already has more than 50% of sites presold.

Energean announced the completion of a farm-in agreement with Chariot for offshore Morocco on Wednesday, securing participation in the Lixus and Rissana licences. With Energean as operator, the partnership would drill an appraisal well on the Anchois field in the third quarter of this year, using the Stena Forth drill ship under a signed contract. It said the move included a $10m cash consideration, and targeted further exploration of gas resources, aiming for an additional 11 billion cubic metres of gross unrisked prospective resource.

Newspaper round-up

The government is investing more than £55m in expanding facial recognition systems – including vans that will scan crowded high streets – as part of a renewed crackdown on shoplifting. The scheme was announced alongside plans for tougher punishments for serial or abusive shoplifters in England and Wales, including being forced to wear a tag to ensure they do not revisit the scene of their crime, under a new standalone criminal offence of assaulting a retail worker. – Guardian

More than 7.4 million people in the UK struggled to pay a bill or a credit repayment in January, according to a financial regulator. The figure is less than last year but is still significantly higher than before the cost of living crisis began. According to the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA), which tracks the number of households in financial difficulties, 5.8 million people reported that they were struggling to pay a large bill in February 2020. – Guardian

A UK energy company is to start drilling at the biggest oil field discovered in the North Sea in at least 20 years in spite of a net zero crackdown on the industry. EnQuest plans to bring two fields onstream which have the potential to produce 500 million barrels of crude oil over coming decades. The sites, which neighbour Kraken oil and gas field, 80 miles east of Shetland, will reignite the political battle over the North Sea’s future in which Labour has threatened to block new production citing environmental concerns. – Telegraph

Klarna intends to grow its business by deploying generative artificial intelligence instead of hiring new staff. The “buy now, pay later” credit business believes that it will continue to expand its operations and revenue despite a hiring freeze that was announced in December, because AI is making work more efficient. – The Times

Elon Musk is wrong to say that artificial intelligence will overtake human intelligence next year, according to one of the world’s leading AI scientists. Yann LeCun, Meta’s chief AI scientist and one of the so-called godfathers of the technology, said that while artificial general intelligence was achievable, it could take decades to arrive. – The Times

US close

US stocks finished in mixed fashion on Tuesday with investors choosing to keep their powder dry ahead of Wednesday's consumer-price index release and a key publication from the Federal Reserve.

All three of Wall Street's equity benchmarks pared earlier losses, with the Nasdaq and S&P 500 finishing up 0.32% and 0.14%, respectively, while the Dow closed down just 0.02%.

Looking ahead to Wednesday's session, the US consumer price index for March is due out at 0830 ET and is expected to have risen to 3.4% from 3.2% the month before, though core inflation should have dipped to 3.7% from 3.8%.

Wednesday will also see the release of the minutes of the Federal Reserve's latest monetary policy meeting in March, due out at 1400 ET, along with scheduled speeches from Chicago Fed president Austan Goolsbee and Fed board governor Michelle Bowman.