Revenue falls for Travis Perkins, Barclays pushes up net interest income guidance

Stocks to watch

Travis Perkins reported a 5.7% decline in third-quarter group revenue in an update on Thursday, mainly driven by a weak performance in its merchanting segment, which saw an 8.2% like-for-like revenue drop. The FTSE 250 company said Toolstation performed strongly, with UK and Benelux sales rising by 2.9% and 9.6% respectively, while loss-making operations in France were on track for full closure by the end of the year. It said it expected full-year adjusted operating profit to be around £135m, with management cautiously optimistic about market recovery in 2025.

Barclays has nudged up its net interest income guidance for the full year and said it is on track to deliver against its short and medium-term targets. The bank said it expects 2024 net interest income excluding investment bank and head office activities to be “greater than £11bn”, compared with earlier expectations of “c£11bn”.

Newspaper round-up

Boeing workers have rejected the latest offer to end the more than a month-long strike that has crippled the already struggling manufacturing giant. In a blow to Boeing and the Biden administration, which has fought for a resolution to the dispute, 64% of the 33,000 members of the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers union voted to reject the contract, the union said late on Wednesday. – Guardian

Vladimir Putin has opened the expanded Brics summit by issuing a call for an alternative international payments system that could prevent the US using the dollar as a political weapon. But the summit communique indicated that little progress had been made on an alternative payment system. Speaking at the summit in the Russian city of Kazan, Putin said: “The dollar is being used as a weapon. We really see that this is so. I think that this is a big mistake by those who do this.” He said that nearly 95% of trade between Russia and China is now conducted in rubles and yuan. – Guardian

Property landlords are braced for record stamp duty bills next year as Rachel Reeves prepares to launch a Budget tax crackdown. The threat to buy-to-let investors has emerged as part of the Chancellor’s plans to unwind stamp duty tax breaks that were introduced by the Conservatives in 2022. This expected policy change means landlords will soon have to pay up to £14,766 in stamp duty on an average home sale, which amounts to the largest bill on record, according to analysis by Hamptons estate agents. – Telegraph

Rachel Reeves should launch a £10bn tax raid on motorists by charging them a fee for every mile they drive, Sir Tony Blair’s think tank has urged. Cars and vans should pay 1p per mile and heavy goods vehicles charged between 2.5p and 4p per mile, according to proposals published by the Tony Blair Institute (TBI). – Telegraph

A plan by the new boss of HSBC to split the bank’s operations internally between East and West has led to fresh calls for the sprawling lender to pursue a full break-up. Georges Elhedery, who became HSBC’s chief executive last month, is aiming to simplify the group through an overhaul he unveiled on Tuesday that includes creating standalone divisions for its Hong Kong business and the bulk of its UK operations and the partition of other businesses into Eastern and Western market regions. – The Times

US close

US stocks fell for the third day on Wednesday, dropping sharply as investors continued to take profits following recent highs, with shares of Tesla falling ahead of the carmaker's results due out after the closing bell.

Fast food giant and economic bellwether McDonald's saw heavy losses on news of a deadly e.coli outbreak, heavyweight aerospace group Boeing slumped after its worst quarterly loss in years, while a number of tech blue chips were also out of favour.

With just four of its 30 constituents trading in positive territory, the Dow Jones Industrial Average closed 1% lower at 42,514.95.

Meanwhile, the S&P 500 fell 0.9% to 5,797.42, finishing below the 5,800 mark for the first time in two weeks, while the Nasdaq dropped 1.6% to 18,276.65.

The only major economic data of the day were US existing home sales figures for September, which showed a 1% fall from the previous month to 3.84m.