Wall Street rises as investors cling to hope of stimulus package October 22, 2020 US stocks edged higher after the open today as Wall Street held out for a deal on fiscal stimulus, while the FTSE 100 dipped amid concerns over increasing coronavirus cases in Europe. The benchmark S&P 500 rose as much as 0.26 per cent in the first half an hour of trading, while the Dow gained [...]
Businesses welcome Sunak’s change of tack but say many still ‘left behind’ October 22, 2020 Business groups have praised Rishi Sunak’s change of course on his winter economic support package, which the chancellor has made more generous to employers hit by Tier 2 restrictions. Yet organisations said there was a lack of support for companies further down supply chains, for freelancers and for many self-employed people. Addressing Parliament today, Sunak [...]
Rishi Sunak extends support to businesses facing Tier 2 restrictions October 22, 2020 The government has expanded its job support scheme for businesses facing Tier 2 restrictions, with Rishi Sunak announcing that the government will pay significantly more of companies’ wage bills under the new post-furlough scheme. Businesses will only need to pay five per cent of workers’ unworked hours under the new part-time Jobs Support Scheme instead [...]
CBI: Decline in UK manufacturing slowed in October but activity still weak October 22, 2020 UK manufacturing activity continued to decline in the three months October but fell at their slowest pace since March despite a resurgence in coronavirus cases, a new survey showed. Output dropped in 10 of the 17 manufacturing sub-sectors monitored by the CBI’s industrial trends survey, with the aerospace sector leading the drop as the pandemic [...]
Daily Mail owner raises profit outlook following spike in advertising revenue October 22, 2020 The Daily Mail and General Trust (DMGT) has raised its full-year profit outlook following a strong hike in advertising revenue, after formally suspending guidance in the initial outbreak of the pandemic. DMGT today said it expects group adjusted revenue for the year to be in the region of £1.205bn to £1.215bn, with adjusted operating profit [...]
Government scraps three-year spending review amid Covid-19 chaos October 21, 2020 The Treasury today confirmed that a comprehensive three-year review of government spending had been ditched in favour of a one-year review because of the economic disruption caused by the coronavirus pandemic. “While the government would have liked to outline plans for the rest of this parliament, the right thing today is to focus entirely on [...]
London jobs market shows signs of recovery after 50 per cent hike in listings October 21, 2020 London has begun to recover from a swathe of redundancies handed out during the pandemic, with job listings in the capital hiking more than 50 per cent over the last three months, according to new research. Adverts for jobs based in London jumped 52 per cent between July and September, data from independent job board [...]
UK public borrowing unexpectedly picks up to hit record £209bn this year October 21, 2020 UK government borrowing rose unexpectedly in September, pushing the budget deficit to a new record high of just under £210bn and the total debt pile to its biggest level as a proportion of GDP since 1960. The government borrowed £36.1bn last month, according to the Office for National Statistics’s (ONS) best estimate. That comfortably beat [...]
UK airports losing £83m a week due to coronavirus October 20, 2020 The UK’s airports are losing £83m a week as a result of the coronavirus crisis, the Airport Operators Association (AOA) revealed this evening. Air travel has been decimated by the pandemic, with the collapse of passenger revenues on course to set the sector back £4.3bn this year. However, the trade body said that the real [...]
Rishi Sunak: Circuit breaker would be ‘enormously damaging’ to economy October 20, 2020 A new circuit breaker lockdown would be “enormously damaging” for the economy and the government will continue to pursue a localised Covid approach, according to chancellor Rishi Sunak. Sunak told MPs this morning that a two to three week lockdown, which Labour is recommending, would cause “unnecessary pain and suffering on those in parts of [...]