Anglo American restarts operations at Minas-Rio, RPC pushes back offer deadline for Apollo

Stocks to watch

Anglo American said it had restarted operations at its Minas-Rio iron ore operation in Brazil after the discovery of two leaks in a slurry pipeline earlier in the year led to a shutdown. The company said it expected the operation to ramp up to 1.2m tonnes (wet basis) per month and to produce approximately 16m-19m tonnes (wet basis) of iron ore in 2019. Minas-Rio is expected to report an underlying EBITDA loss of $320m for 2018, compared to guidance of a loss of $300m-$400m.

Plastic packaging specialist RPC Group has again pushed back the deadline for private equity firm Apollo Global Management to make a takeover offer. Apollo had been due to announce a firm intention to make an offer for the company on Friday, but RPC said that the Panel on Takeovers and Mergers had extend the deadline to 18 January in order for discussions to continue.

Vodafone confirmed rumours it was sacking PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) as its auditor on Friday, reporting that it was launching a tender process for its audit for the year ending 31 March 2020. The FTSE 100 company had been the subject of rumours that it would make such a move in recent days, given the threat of litigation from PwC in its role as administrator to the collapsed mobile retail group Phones 4U. It said that PwC was still assessed as independent, however, and would remain Vodafone’s statutory auditors for the current financial year ending 31 March 2019.

Newspaper round-up

Officials are planning to tell Britons to change what they eat in the event of a chaotic Brexit because Whitehall predicts that some sources of fresh food from European Union countries would be cut off. The government has begun detailed planning on food supplies if Britain leaves without a deal and has identified a number of sites for massive hangars to stockpile food, including one near Carlisle and others in Scotland and on the south coast. - The Times

England’s chief medical officer has called on the government to consider imposing taxes on foods high in sugar and salt, as it has done with sugary drinks, and accused the food industry of failing to help deliver healthier diets. In her annual report, Dame Sally Davies said tougher action was needed. Obesity and diseases such as type 2 diabetes were taking a huge toll of health and the economy, she said, and a voluntary agreement with the industry to lower sugar and salt content had not worked. - Guardian

Police are considering shooting down the drone causing chaos at Gatwick Airport as passengers face disruption for a third day. On Friday morning, the airport re-opened its runway after 36 hours to "a limited number of flights" due to "additional mitigating measures" from the Government and the military, according to Gatwick's chief executive. - Telegraph

US close

US stocks closed sharply lower on Thursday, following on from losses seen in the previous session on the back of a less dovish than expected rate announcement by the Federal Reserve.

At the close, the Dow Jones Industrial Average was down 1.99% to 22,859.60, while the S&P 500 lost 1.58% to 2,467.41 and the Nasdaq Composite moved 1.63% weaker to 6,528.41.

The Dow ended more than 400 points lower on Thursday, following on from the 15-month low seen at the end of the previous session after the Fed hiked interest rates by 25 basis points for the fourth time this year, but lowered projections for future rate hikes and economic growth and downplayed the recent turmoil in financial markets.

The US central bank said it now expects two more rate hikes next year, down from a previous projection of three, but disappointing market participants who were pricing in just one. The Fed also cut its GDP growth estimate for this year by 0.1 percentage points to 3%, while 2019 growth outlook was reduced by 0.2 percentage points to 2.3%.

Deutsche Bank said: "The post-meeting statement, the dots and the press conference, combined, came across as a relatively balanced step in a more dovish direction for the Fed, but less so than the market was expecting."