anking stocks slipped further today, as shares in Deutsche Bank plunged in Frankfurt. Elsewhere,
UK economy’s robust start to the year continued today as retail sales beat expectations and consumer confidence hit a one-year high. The Office for National Statistics said sales volumes rose by 1.2% in February as it also revised its January growth estimate to 0.9% from 0.5% previously. Meanwhile, GfK’s measure of consumer confidence showed a reading of minus 36, up from minus 38 previously as expectations for the UK
economy continue to improve. The FTSE 100 closed at 7405.45 today, down by 1.3%, after a small late-day rally saved it from greater losses. The index of blue-chip
London companies fell as low as 7336.2, and was at 7372 just over an hour before markets closed. However, a minor improvement in share prices late in the day Banking stocks led today’s slide, with Standard Chartered down almost 6% and Barclays down 4.7%. Bucking the trend, Reckitt Benckiser and
British American Tobacco were both up. Despite the tough finish, the FTSE finishes the week up 1% from last Friday, when chaos in the banking sector caused the index to plunge to four-month lows. Business campaigners have warned over business failures and
Job losses if companies follow the Bank of
England chief’s suggestion not to raise prices above inflation. Governor Andrew Bailey asked retailers to think twice before setting prices above the rate of inflation because it risks embedding higher prices into the economy. In an interview with
BBC Radio 4’s Today programme, Mr Bailey said higher inflation “hurts people and it particularly hurts the least well-off in society”. Discounts in department stores around Valentine’s Day meant bargain-conscious sweethearts helped retail sales rise by more than expected in February. The month-on-month increase of 1.2% from January was notably stronger than the 0.2% forecast, in another sign of the resilience of the UK economy, which came alongside separate numbers showing growth in the service sector. The retail figures, out this morning from the Office for National Statistics, will give heart to the hawkish interest-rate setters at the Bank of England, who plumped for a quarter-point rise in the cost of borrowing to a 14-year high of 4.25% yesterday. Shares in US companies have fallen since trading opened in Wall Street, but they have done far better than their UK counterparts. The S&P 500 slipped 0.2% to 3941, while the Dow Jones is down 0.3% to 32020. The Nasdaq composite is also down by 0.3%, to 11755. Those declines are much less sharp than the drops in London and elsewhere in Europe. The FTSE 100 is currently down 1.4% to 7394.77, while the Euro Stoxx 50 is down by 2% to 4123.10. Susannah Streeter, head of money and markets, Hargreaves Lansdown says new worries about banking sector contagion have emergedm as Deutsche bank shares plunged today. “Just as hopes had risen that contagion would be contained, banking stocks in Europe have been battered again by fears that fresh problems could be lurking,” she said. “Worries about contagion are again rearing up.” She added that the latest round of interest rate rises “could make a precarious situation worse for some smaller banks”. Shares in US businesses are set to fall after a tough start to trading in Europe today. Futures in all the major US indices are down, after fears about Deutsche Bank’s credit default swaps - which reflect investors’ level of concern that it could fail to pay its debts - led to banking shares across Europe falling. Dow Jones futures are down 0.8%, while S&P 500 futures are down 0.7% and Nasdaq futures lost 0.4%. Volatility continued for First Republic Bank, which was again the biggest premarket faller. The Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) is set to drop many of its concerns about Microsoft’s takeover of Call of Duty and World of Warcraft publisher Activision Blizzard, as it no longer believes the $68.7 billion (£57 billion) deal would hurt the UK console gaming market. The monopolies watchdog now says that the deal “will not result in a substantial lessening of competition in relation to console gaming in the UK”. Initially, the CMA warned that the mega-merger could substantially reduce the competition between Xbox and PlayStation in the UK, as
Microsoft may choose to make popular Activision games like Call of Duty exclusive to its own Xbox consoles. President Biden’s Inflation Reduction Act has triggered a wave of new green investment in the US. The EU is responding, and now UK ministers must decide how we can keep up. We may be unable to provide the scale of subsidies and tax cuts on offer in the US, but we do have other strengths, Sam Laidlaw writes. “With some simple streamlining of regulation and policy, we can accelerate delivery of the secure, clean and affordable energy supplies needed to spur new business investment,” he says. The $2.2 million sale of a
Game of Thrones Fabergé egg helped the owner of the world-famous jewellery brand to report record annual revenue today and extend its run of payouts to investors. Gemfields, the London-listed precious stone producer, is also working on a Fabergé tie-in with another world-famous screen franchise:
James Bond. IF Tim Davie has the worst job in
Britain, who has the second? It must be Dame Sharon White, boss of John Lewis, Chris Blackhurst writes. “In a way they’re linked, the BBC and the department store and Waitrose group,” he says. “They both hark back to a bygone age of honest toil and solid values. “The BBC had its Reithian mission to inform, educate and entertain which it delivered over tea to countless wireless sets on sideboards behind lace curtains, all from John Lewis, tea set included.”