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Budget carrier Wizz Air reported a fall in operated capacity and passenger numbers in July due to engine-related groundings of some of its Airbus 321neo fleet of aircraft. Capacity fell 0.3% year on year to 6.334 million seats, while passenger numbers were down 1.4% to 5.9 million. The load factor was 93.8% vs 94.9% last year.

IAG described its performance during the first half of 2024 as "strong" and announced the restart of dividend payments. Commenting on the results, IAG boss Luis Gallego, said: "We see continuing strong demand for travel in the attractive core markets in which we operate: North Atlantic, Latin America and intra-Europe."

GSK said the US Food and Drug Administration has approved its Jemperli treatment in combination with chemotherapy and then use on its own for adult patients with primary advanced or recurrent endometrial cancer. The approval broadens the previous indication for Jemperli plus chemotherapy to include patients with mismatch repair proficient (MMRp)/microsatellite stable (MSS) tumours who represent 70-75% of patients diagnosed with endometrial cancer and who have limited treatment options, GSK said on Friday.

Virgin Money reported a dip in third-quarter customer lending and mortgages on Friday ahead of its takeover by Nationwide. Customer loans declined 0.9% to £72bn, reflecting lower mortgage balances and broadly stable lending balances across target segments of business and unsecured lending combined.

Oil giant Shell reported better-than-expected earnings for the second quarter on Thursday as it announced a $3.5bn share buyback. In the three months to the end of June, adjusted earnings came in at $6.3bn. Although this was a 19% decline on the first three months of the year, it was comfortably ahead of consensus expectations of $5.9bn.

Defence and aerospace firm BAE Systems lifted its full-year guidance on Thursday as it posted a jump in underlying sales and earnings for the first half. In the six months to 30 June, underlying earnings before interest and tax rose 13% to £1.4bn, while sales were 13% higher at £13.4bn. However, order intake fell to £15.1bn from £21.1bn in the same period a year earlier.

Barclays reported a return on tangible equity (RoTE) of 11.1% for its first half on Thursday, down from 13.2% in the same period last year, with profit before tax slipping to £4.2b from £4.6bn, although it raised its full-year net interest income guidance. The FTSE 100 bank said the decline in RoTE included the impact of inorganic activities, with the figure rising to 12% when those were excluded.

Medical equipment manufacturer Smith & Nephew said on Thursday that interim profits had come in ahead of market expectations, thanks in no small part to the company's 12-point turnaround plan. Smith & Nephew said first-half revenues were up 4.3% at $2.8m, while operating profits rallied 19.5% to $328.0m and trading profits were almost 13% higher at $471.0m.

UK housebuilder Taylor Wimpey saw profits fall by more than a fifth in the first half as residual build cost inflation and weaker pricing hit margins, but said it now expects full-year completions to be at the top end of guidance after a solid operational performance. Adjusted pre-tax profit slumped 21% year-on-year to £187.7m, with the operating profit margin falling 2.4 percentage points to 12.0%.

Precious metals producer Fresnillo has revealed that it was hit by a cyber attack that resulted in unauthorised access to certain IT systems and data. The announcement, which came just hours after the Mexico-based miner delivered its interim results, was made late on Tuesday evening after markets closed, with the company assuring that it took "response measures" immediately.

Wickes posted a drop in first-half group revenue on Wednesday as it was hit by "challenging" conditions in its design and installation division. In the six months to 29 June, group revenue fell 3.4% to £799m. Revenue in the design and installation segment was down 17% to £166.7m, with like-for-like sales 18.3% lower.

Rio Tinto reported underlying EBITDA of $12.1bn for its first half on Wednesday, making for a modest 3% increase from the same period in 2023. The FTSE 100 mining giant said net cash generated from operating activities for the six months ended 30 June rose slightly to $7.1bn, while profit after tax attributable to shareholders increased 14% to $5.8bn.

Asia-focused bank Standard Chartered on Tuesday unveiled its biggest-ever share buyback and lifted guidance as interim earnings beat estimates. The company said it would buy back $1.5bn in shares starting immediately. Pre-tax profit for the first six months of the year rose 5% to $3.5bn, compared with average forecasts of $3.46bn.

BP swung into the red on a reported basis in the second quarter as a result of $2.77bn of so-called "adjusting items", but that didn't stop the energy giant from beating market forecasts on an underlying basis and unveiling another $1.75bn share buyback programme. The company booked a replacement cost loss – which reflects the replacement cost of inventories sold, adjusted for inventory holding gains and losses – of $16m for the three months to 30 June, compared with a profit of $2.34bn a year earlier.

Diageo reported a drop in full-year organic operating profit on Tuesday as it pointed to a weaker performance in Latin America and the Caribbean (LAC). In its preliminary results for 2024, the drinks company said organic operating profit fell by 4.8% to $304m, of which $302m was attributable to LAC.

Australian Mining giant BHP rebounded from its failure to buy rival Anglo American and announced it would expand its copper interests in South America via a joint venture with Canada’s Lundin Mining which in turn would offer $3.25bn to acquire Filo Corp. The joint venture will hold the Filo del Sol and Josemaria projects around the Argentine-Chile border, BHP said on Tuesday.

UK food producer Cranswick held annual guidance after first quarter revenue rose 6.7% on the back of strong volume growth. Premium product ranges performed “particularly well” in the 13 weeks to June 29, while easing input costs were reflected in selling prices, Cranswick said on Monday. On a like-for-like basis, revenue growth was 6.4%.

Educational publisher and virtual learning company Pearson said it delivered a "solid" performance in the first half, with underlying sales and profits ahead of last year, as it reiterated its outlook for the next two years. Sales totalled £1.75bn in the six months to 30 June, down from £1.88bn the year before but up 2% on an underlying basis when excluding results from its online learning arm sold last year and non-core operations that have been wound down.

Workspace Group on Monday said it had sold a residential development in Woking, south of London, called 'The Planets' for £13m. The company, which provides flexible workspace, said the redevelopment site formed part of the McKay portfolio acquired in May 2022 and received planning consent for 366 residential units in November 2022. It has been sold at an 18%, or £2m, premium to a March 2024 valuation.

Entain's BetMGM, the gambling company's sports betting and iGaming operator in the US, surpassed the $1bn mark for revenues in the first half, but still made a loss as a result of heavy investments during the period. The division lost $123m on an EBITDA basis over the first six months of 2024, and is expected to record a similar result for the second half. Entain said this was "consistent with expectations of 2024 being an investment year, supporting customer acquisition and enhanced player experience initiatives".

Economic news

Retail footfall fell across the UK in July, according to fresh data released on Friday, with overall numbers dropping by 3.3% compared to the same period last year. The data from the British Retail Consortium marked a further decline from June's 2.3% decrease, as the country faced ongoing economic uncertainty during the election period.

The Bank of England cut interest rates on Thursday for the first time in four years. The Bank cut rates by 25 basis points to 5%, as widely expected. They had been at a 16-year high of 5.25% since August 2023. The Monetary Policy Committee voted five to four for the rate cut. The BoE said the four members who opted to keep rates on hold - Megan Greene, Jonathan Haskel, Catherine L Mann and Huw Pill- thought that there was a greater risk of more enduring structural shifts, such as a rise in the medium-term equilibrium rate of employment, a fall in potential growth and a rise in the long-run neutral interest rate, contributing to domestic inflationary persistence.

Production in the UK manufacturing sector grew in July at its fastest pace since February 2022, according to a survey released on Thursday. The S&P Global manufacturing purchasing managers’ index rose to a two-year high of 52.1 in July from 50.9 in June, up from an earlier flash estimate of 51.8. The PMI has remained above the 50.0 mark that separates contraction from expansion for the last three months, which is the longest sequence signalling growth since mid-2022.

UK house prices rose in July at the fastest annual rate since December 2022, according to data released by Nationwide on Thursday. Annual growth picked up to 2.1% from 1.5% in June. On a monthly basis, house prices increased 0.3% in July following 0.2% growth the month before. The average price of a home stood at £266,334 last month, versus £266,064 in June.

UK shop inflation was unchanged in July, but cost pressures were "lurking over the horizon" as commodity prices remained at risk from climate change and geopolitical tensions, according to the British Retail Consortium. Shop price annual inflation was unchanged at 0.2%, below the three-month average rate of 0.3%, while annual growth remained at its lowest rate since October 2021, the BRC/NielsenIQ survey found.

The UK government has abandoned a plan to sell its remaining stake in NatWest to the public, said Finance Minister Rachel Reeves, who added that she would deliver a Budget statement on October 30. In her first statement to parliament since the Labour Party's crushing General Election win, Reeves told the House of Commons that a share sale would not be value for money.

Parcel delivery firm Evri announced plans to hire 9,000 new workers on Monday, in response to surging online shopping demand. The announcement came after it inked a £2.7bn acquisition agreement with US private equity company Apollo last week. According to the Telegraph, the expansion would include 8,000 additional delivery drivers and 1,000 support staff, enhancing its capacity to handle the growing volume of online orders.

Mortgage approvals in the UK fell marginally in June as the upwards momentum seen earlier this year continues to tail off, though there are signs that the housing market is beginning to stabilise. Net mortgage approvals for house purchases slipped to 59,976 last month, down slightly from the 60,134 recorded in May, according to data released on Monday by the Bank of England.

The UK job market saw a downturn in June, with job vacancies plummeting by almost a fifth - 19.49% - according to fresh data on Monday, suggesting that recent economic growth had not yet translated into hiring. According to the latest UK job market report from job database operator Adzuna, vacancies decreased despite a bump in economic performance recorded in May. The number of jobseekers continued to rise, with 1.95 people vying for every job vacancy, up from 1.91 in May - the highest ratio in three years.

International events

Hiring in the US slowed abruptly last month, prompting talk in markets of 'policy mistakes' by the Fed and of a 'growth scare'. According to the Department of Labor, non-farm payrolls rose by 114,000 in July. Economists had forecast an increase of 175,000. Hiring for the prior two months combined was revised down by 29,000.

A downturn in US factory sector activity accelerated a bit last month, the results of a closely followed survey showed. The Institute for Supply Management's manufacturing sector Purchasing Managers' Index declined from a reading of 48.5 for June to 46.8 in July (consensus: 48.8). Managers from a broad swathe of sectors reported weaker demand, particularly in Machinery and Fabricated Metal Products.

Tightness in the US jobs market eased a bit further during the preceding week. According to the Department of Labor, in seasonally adjusted terms, initial unemployment claims for the week ending on 27 July increased by 14,000 to reach 249,000. Economists had pencilled in a smaller increase to 236,000 from an unrevised 235,000 for the week before.

US labour productivity outpaced economists' forecasts during the second quarter, reducing unit costs. According to the Department of Labor, in seasonally adjusted terms, labour productivity grew at a quarterly annualised pace of 2.3% over the three months to June (consensus: 1.2%). That kept the rate of increase in unit labour costs at 0.9% (consensus: 1.8%).

The eurozone manufacturing sector remained in contraction territory in July, according to a survey released on Thursday. HCOB’s final manufacturing purchasing managers’ index for the sector was unchanged from June at 45.8, coming in a touch higher than the preliminary estimate of 45.6. The manufacturing PMI output index, meanwhile, printed at 45.6 in July compared to 46.1 the month before, which was a seven-month low but just above the preliminary reading of 45.3.

Activity in China’s manufacturing sector deteriorated more than expected in July, according to data released on Thursday. The Caixin purchasing managers’ index fell to 49.8 from 51.8 in June, versus expectations for a reading of 51.5. A reading above 50 indicates expansion, while a reading below signals contraction.

US pending home sales rose in June for the first time in the last three months, according to the National Association of Realtors, driven by an improvement in supply and a slight moderation in mortgage rates. The pending home sales index surged 4.8% month-on-month in June to 74.3, ahead of expectations for a 1.5% increase. On an annualised basis, pending home sales were down 2.6%.

Boeing reported a wider-than-expected loss for its second quarter on Wednesday, as ongoing challenges in both its commercial and defence divisions led to weaker-than-anticipated financial results. The aerospace giant posted a net loss of $1.44bn, or $2.33 per share, with an adjusted loss per share of $2.90, significantly missing analyst expectations. Revenue for the quarter also fell short, declining 15% year-over-year to $16.9bn, compared to the $17.46bn analysts had predicted.

Private sector employment in the US rose less than expected in July, according to figures released on Wednesday by ADP. Employment increased by 122,000 from June, versus expectations for a 150,000 jump. June’s gain was revised from 150,000 to 155,000. Small businesses with fewer than 50 employees shed 7,000 jobs, while medium businesses with between 50 and 499 employees added 70,000 jobs. Large businesses with more than 500 employees created an additional 62,000 jobs.

German unemployment rose more than expected in July, according to the Bundesagentur für Arbeit, as Germany's economy continues to struggle to recover from heightened energy costs, weak global orders and all-time high interest rates. Germany's seasonally adjusted jobless rate stood at 6% in July, the highest reading seen since May 2021, in line with market estimates, while the number of unemployed people rose by 18,000 to 2.8m in July, marking the 19th month of rising unemployment in a row. Economists were expecting a month-on-month increase of 15,000.

Japan's central bank increased the cost of borrowing for only the second time in 17 years as it tried to tighten monetary policy in the world's fourth-largest economy. The Bank of Japan (BoJ) lifted its key interest rate to 0.25%" from the previous range of 0% to 0.1%. It also announced a plan to phase out its extensive bond-buying program as it retreats from a decade of stimulus measures. In March, the BoJ raised borrowing costs for the first time since 2007, and was the last country to have negative interest rates.